NINE.. Cycle parking

Cycle parking... ... is an essential tool in encouraging cycle use, reducing pavement obstructions and fighting the scourge of cycle theft. Cambridge is currently the worst UK city for bike theft outside London, according to a Halifax Insurance survey.

Whether it’s the city centre or the suburbs, there is still the assumption that when it comes to parking, the car is king in Cambridge and precious little thought is given to providing cycle racks.

In one car parking space, you can supply sufficient bike parking to solve the needs of ten people, as ten cycles can be parked in the space required to park one car. This has to be a better use of our limited parking areas. Cycle parking is easy to use and if people know they will have a secure, easily accessible place to lock a bicycle wherever they go then it will provide them with an incentive to give their car a miss and use a bike instead.

There seems to be a mindset amongst some City Councillors that cyclists have a much lower status when it comes to the provision of parking spaces than motorists, despite the positive role cycling plays in the city’s transport system. The planning authorities seem to think it is inconceivable even occasionally to take away car parking space and create cycle parking space in its place, but this is exactly what needs to be done in Cambridge.

Increasing cycle parking provision is not an expensive proposal. A stand for two bicycles costs around £100. The key barrier instead is the need to change the mindset that cycles can just be left against a wall.

We’ve taken Romsey as a good example of the problems that cyclists face and offered some possible solutions.

• Romsey [Case study]
• Cycle theft
• New developments
• Conclusion