24.05.2026
Seipark Oy is a parking services company owned by the City of Seinäjoki, and its CEO is Mika Mäntykoski. The company's primary purpose is to operate parking facilities and build car parks in Seinäjoki — for cars. The City of Seinäjoki also considers it important to develop bicycle parking as part of the city's mobility solutions. When a new railway station and station district were built in the city, a bicycle parking facility was planned alongside the car park.
The city felt that its own parking company was a natural choice to take responsibility for bicycle parking as well, even though Seipark had previously found that there are significant differences in managing parking and access control for bicycles compared to cars. Cars are large, easily monitored vehicles that can readily be identified by their authority-issued registration numbers using camera-based licence plate recognition. With cars, it is the vehicle itself that is monitored, rather than its user. "A bicycle has no such identifier, which makes it technically more challenging to sell short-term parking — for example, in intervals of minutes or a few hours. In large bicycle parking facilities, the only product on offer is often a monthly contract," says Mika Mäntykoski.
"We wanted to try to achieve something better, and we chose Biketti as our partner because they have the drive to develop innovative solutions for bicycle parking," Mäntykoski continues. As a result of their joint development work, Seinäjoki now offers cyclists not only monthly/contract parking but also single-use parking products for various durations. "In Seipark's station bicycle parking facilities, customers pay €2.50 per day, €6 per week, and €9 per two weeks for single-use parking. The price for a continuous parking contract is €15 per month," states Mika Mäntykoski.
There is still room for improvement, however. Seipark's goal is to develop a post-payment system for bicycle parking — similar to how car parking works — where the fee is charged after the fact based on time used, but according to Mika Mäntykoski, achieving this would appear to require additional investment and joint planning with Biketti Oy. "Instead of monitoring the cyclist, we would need to be able to monitor the movement of the bicycle in and out of the facility, just as we do with cars."
700-bicycle parking facilities in Seinäjoki
The Seinäjoki station district has two bicycle parking facilities. One, accommodating 400 bicycles, is located within Seipark's P-Asema car park, with a direct connection to railway platform 1. The other — a covered, heated facility for 300 bicycles — is situated on Station Square at the entrance to the station tunnel, providing convenient access to all platforms as well as the station building itself.
"For a city the size of Seinäjoki, the number of bicycle spaces feels quite large. We wanted to look far into the future. The bicycle parking was implemented as part of the overall investment in the station car park, financed through operating income, investment from our owner, and traditional debt financing. It was particularly pleasing that the state — through the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, Väylävirasto — also contributed to the implementation of the bicycle parking, as it also serves as cycle-and-ride parking for rail passengers, given its location in the station area," says Mika Mäntykoski.
Mika Mäntykoski notes that efforts have been made to invest in the parking facilities beyond simply providing good bicycle racks. "Our bicycle parking facilities include bicycle maintenance stations. The necessary tools and pumps are available for basic maintenance work. We also offer lockable equipment lockers, which are also accessed via the Biketti app. A bicycle rental service is now being planned, and we have also explored whether it would be possible to offer customers the option of purchasing a more comprehensive bicycle service, which would be carried out during a longer parking stay — for example, while the customer is travelling by train. What could be better than returning from a trip and collecting a well-serviced bicycle from the parking facility?"
Feedback from users has also been taken into account in developing the facility and its services. According to Mäntykoski, general customer feedback has been predominantly positive: "Bicycles are often quite valuable these days, and their owners are appreciative. It is easy to travel by train knowing that your bicycle is in a safe place, even at the railway station of a fairly large city." "People often wish that bicycle parking were free of charge, but that is a difficult request to fulfil when significant investments have been made in the facilities and equipment, and when the management and monitoring of the space and access is organised around the clock," adds Mika Mäntykoski.
Seipark Oy and Biketti Oy continuously receive development ideas from cyclists, which they endeavour to implement as far as possible, keeping cost-effectiveness in mind. "What still nags at us most is the question of organising short-term parking in the same way as for cars — where the customer parks their bicycle for as long as needed, whether that is a matter of minutes or a few hours, and payment is made afterwards based on the time used," dreams Mika Mäntykoski. His vision is to implement short-term bicycle parking using only access control at the entry gates and for the bicycles themselves, rather than through rack-level locking, which could entail considerable investment costs. "I dream of a bicycle gate solution where access control could be targeted at the bicycle itself, rather than at its user," concludes Mika Mäntykoski.
The locking systems for both the actual parking space and the equipment lockers in Seipark Oy's bicycle parking facilities have been implemented by Bitwards Oy, a technology company that provides a digital access control platform along with virtual keys and credentials, enabling customers to open doors with their own smartphones. The company does not manufacture its own locks or hardware; instead, numerous lock and device manufacturers in various countries use Bitwards' technology, making their products compatible with the platform. This allows the platform to operate globally and adapt to the needs and standards of different markets.
Bitwards is led by CEO Eljas Saastamoinen, a commercially oriented Master of Science in Technology and alumnus of Aalto University, who is one of the company's founding shareholders and has led the company throughout its nearly ten-year history. "I have worked in international roles in technology throughout my entire career. I lived abroad for seven years when I was young, which trained me to think internationally. Bitwards is now growing strongly on the international stage, and today more than half of our revenue already comes from outside Finland," says Eljas Saastamoinen.
The locking platform developed by Bitwards works by being integrated into customers' own solutions — including cloud services, mobile applications, and embedded software used by various device manufacturers. "We originally designed our products to be as efficiently usable and integrable as possible. Customers can of course also use Bitwards' own applications directly, but many customers wish to offer their own service solutions into which access control and system management can be easily incorporated," says Saastamoinen. "From our perspective, each integration is a small deployment project that can be easily replicated. Despite that replicability, maintaining information security is essential. We also aim to develop new features for the system so that we can continuously respond to our customers' wishes and development needs," continues Eljas Saastamoinen.
Saastamoinen notes that Biketti Oy is Bitwards' only customer operating in the field of developing and implementing bicycle parking solutions. "The collaboration has gotten off to an excellent start, and I am impressed by Biketti's new client acquisitions and sales expertise. I see that Biketti has a great opportunity to expand its offering beyond new Biketti facilities and to make use of existing spaces in various properties," says Saastamoinen, adding: "The service can also incorporate, for example, storage lockers for personal belongings such as helmets and maintenance supplies, as well as bicycle locks that could be rented from various locations, eliminating the need to always carry your own lock."
The bicycle parking facilities at the railway station in Seinäjoki — created through the collaboration of Seipark, Bitwards, and Biketti — undoubtedly represent the cutting edge of the industry. All parties to the collaboration acknowledge, however, that development must not stop at what has been achieved so far; the goal is to further strengthen the conditions for cycling. "There is plenty of work ahead, but we are committed to continuing it," say Mika Mäntykoski, Eljas Saastamoinen, and Biketti Oy CEO Janne Kalliomäki in unison.
