Why is Japan burying bikes?

But you'd never guess it.

That's because the Japanese capital is burying thousands of bikes in underground parking vaults, in a bid to keep its sidewalks tidy, CNN reports.

From street level, an Eco Cycle looks like a small kiosk --a 560-square-foot hub with a door that seemingly leads to nowhere.

In reality, these stations are gateways to futuristic subterranean parking lots, which each plummet nearly 40 feet into the ground and are home to hundreds of tightly stacked bikes.

Storage solution

In Japan, 78% of households own a bike, compared with 50% of those in Britain, according to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center.

"It's a blessing and a curse," says Chad Feyen, of The Cycling Embassy of Japan, which is devoted to promoting cycling and improving bike infrastructure.

"You have a lot of cyclists, but you also have a lot of bikes clustered around Metro stations. It can be dangerous, or at the very least take up space."

Eco Cycle aims to encourage cycling, but free-up space on Tokyo's crowded streets.

"In Japan, there are many illegally parked bicycles in city centers," says Tsunenobu Nozaki, manager of construction design and planning at Giken, the Japanese company which invented Eco Cycle.

"If a bicycle park is far away from the cyclists' destination, no one will use it. "

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