I think every cyclist has a yearning to go to Europe, to see what bike-friendly cities look like first-hand.

The Amsterdam Central Train Station Bike Garage (Architecture Week article) is probably the most photographed parking garage in the world. It was designed specifically for parking 2500 bikes.

But what happens when you can't find your ONE bike in that 2500? The Star has re-printed a Washington Post article about that.

Mary Frances Cullen – Irish, 63, with dyed auburn hair and quick green eyes – sees the lost-bike frenzy dozens of times a day.

Unlike automobile drivers, cyclists don't have keys with panic buttons. At Amsterdam Central, they have Cullen and her crew of bike attendants.

Cullen, who wears a neon lime-green vest, works out of a yellow box on the first floor to help bicyclists in distress. Before this job, she spent eight years causing bikers distress: She was on the city squad that rounded up illegally parked bikes from bridges, lampposts and sidewalks and hauled them to the bicycle pound outside town.

Anyone else thinking that Union Station needs something like this? All those commuters coming in on GO Trains can hop on a bike to get to their downtown office jobs.

[photo credit]

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