This time you're looking closely at the cycle parking in one specific area of your city. Can you see any patterns in the way the facilities are used?
The existing bike rack located adjacent the train station is well used but due to the lack of bike racks people are choosing the most varied places to lock their bikes. The logical reason for their choice is that, sadly, the local administration apart from several bike paths has not genuinely shown an active and political interest in promoting the use of bicycle.
The “simple” racks in use are of a type that support the bikes properly and allow both the frame and the wheel to be locked if done properly and the correct length of cable/chain is used. Education of users is needed ast to the correct ways to properly secure their bike. In the photo below it's difficult to tell which owner was more stupid. The one who chained his bike wheel (but not the bike) with a motorcycle chain and lock or the owner who locked his/her bike much in the same way only with a low-cost cable itself easily breakable!!
Although bikes are not generally parked in the way of people walking, often bikes are left longer than period of time the bike rack was intended for, a cause of theft in itself, The above rack only permits the parking of bikes for a short term period (e.g.: 2 days or a weekend) and only if the owner has a chain/cable longer than 1,5 mtrs can the bike be truly secured to the rack. This type of bike rack doesn't permit bikes to rest easily side by side as the handlebars touch one another and doesn't allow the rear wheel to fit between the bars.
People seem to be using the racks in the way they were intended but once I saw a bike placed actually on top of a rack instead of parked properly. One problem is in the case of a poorly placed rack and cars entering the car park have hit and damaged if not destroyed bikes. To prevent being hit by cars, bike owners have placed their bikes to further end of the bike rack and “over-parked” causing congestion.
Another is, as stated before in task 3, where market vendors use the bike parking area to display their goods, thus blocking the use of the bike rack.
All said and done city administrators and public employees lack the know-how to adequately support the needs of the end users and subsequently end up spending public funds wastefully due to lack of time or knowledge in the area. At times employees are placed in this field without any training and, if provided, attendance is not mandatory and is usually after normal work hours. A drawback for those unwilling to do the job they weren't hired nor paid to do.
Another downfall is the need for translation or lack of a foreign language skills needed to participate in educational programs such as TIDE. Although an uphill climb at times, things are improving and "shift is happening".
Hi Kevin,
You make a number of useful points in your post. People don't use the racks properly because they're poorly placed or of poor quality and money is wasted this way. In reference to my comments to Jelena and to Bert, I wonder if FIAB could be helpful in providing standards to municipalities. Do you know if they have developed a set of guidelines for cycle parking (or translated guidelines from other places into Italian)? It seems to me that, as a national organisation, they could provide guidelines to cities across the country - creating better quality cycle parking and preventing municipalities from wasting money. Do you know if this is something they do? Just an idea.
Bonnie
Bonnie,
This past November 2013, FIAB did a seminar regarding bike theft. However intensive it was, the outcome was favorable even if there was not enough if anything mentioned in regards to adequate cycle parking systems. Emphaisis was placed on the marking of bikes and their registration in a national database simliar to that of a Department of Motor Vehicle for bikes.
I would however, like to assist course-mate Cristina Pellegrini, in establishing a rapport with FIAB's Theft Detterent Group manager, Paolo Fabrì, so that your suggestion can be addressed.
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
I think that would be a great step if you and Cristina can take it forward. While marking bikes is useful to get them back after they've been stolen, it unfortunately doesn't prevent theft in the first place, whereas good cycle parking could. I would love to hear how your efforts move forward.
There are a couple of other creative anti-theft ideas I've heard recently, such as this one at Newcastle University in the UK or this campaign in Tartu, Estonia.
Bonnie
Cycle parking in Elst
The village of Elst is very well adapted to the use of bicycles. Distances are rather short, the country is flat and everyone owns at least 1 bicycle. As this course is about cycle parking, I will give you some examples of cycle parking places in our village.
Picture 1 shows a part of the centre of the village, where you can see three types of cycle parking instruments close to each other:
- on the left the Westmalle-parking
- in the middle the bicycles hide the parking instruments
- on the right the white sign with the P is an older cycle parking instrument like the Westmalle instrument.
So you see: cycling is part of our nature and much facilities are dedicated to the use of bicycles.
Picture 1: cycle parking in the centre of Elst
On picture 2 you see the cycle parking installation on the west side of our railway station, with different (new) cycle parking possibilities. The boxes in the front show cases that can be hired to park your bicycle in your own locked place. It is also used for bicycles of public transport, that you can rent if you are member of the organisation (membership: € 10 yearly, bicycle rent € 3.25 per day). This system is used to make it possible to combine a trip by train with a last mile trip by bike and is very popular.
Picture 2: cycle parking railway station Elst
Picture 3 shows a part of the parking at the railway station, with one of the top parking places lowered to show how you can get your bicycle in one of the top parking places (as you can see, most people prefer the lower places).
Picture 3: detail of the cycle parking at the railway station
On the east side of the railway station you can find another parking place for many bicycles.
New cycle parkings are still being developed. At the new supermarket there are well designed parking stands as well as the simple racks (Picture 4). People tend to put their bikes not in the stand, but just next to it (probably to prevent the wheel from bending); so although there are very sophisticated stands people do not use them in the right way.
Picture 4: cycle parkings near the supermarket
When you see these parking locations for a relatively small village as is Elst, maybe you can imagine that in larger cities the number of bicycles is a growing problem. Cyclists cause long queues waiting at the traffic lights. (In the city of Utrecht this year they start building a parking place for 12,500! bicycles near the railway station; just imagine what 12,500 bicycles look like.)
Hi Bert,
I was at a TIDE workshop on cycle parking last week in Spain and there was a guy from Heerhugoward, the Netherlands there who talked about the Dutch mark of quality for cycle parking. I've attached the logo for it here. I was wondering if you knew more about it. For example, who sets the standards? And is there any way to prevent people from installing poor quality parking facilities?
I assume this is something that doesn't exist in other European countries, but maybe I'm wrong. If anyone else is aware of such a thing in your country, it would be great if you could share it with us. Thanks!
Bonnie
Hi everyone,
I have look around green market to notice a behavior of cyclists, considering parking.
Near market there is a several places to park a bicycle with simple bike racks.
Although there are a sufficient number of parking spaces, it is obvious that people do not like to use them, so they rather tie their bikes to a light pole, fence, road traffic sign, etc.. Perhaps one reason for this is because the parking areas are not covered, so users rather leave the bikes next to the fence, in the shade. These simple models do not provide security to its users, and they should be replaced by more modern one, that allow tiding the bike to the wheel and the frame.
And as Kevin said, the local administration hasn't shown an active and political interest for promoting the use of bicycle.
Jelena
Hi Jelena,
Thanks for the photos. It's interesting to observe a little bit to see what people actually do, and how different it is from what they are supposed to do. As you show in your photos, it's completely logical to anyone who rides a bike that it's NOT a good idea to park in the wheel-bender racks where you can't lock your bike properly.
Now I'm wondering if all of the cycle stands you photographed were installed by the local authority or by private businesses. If it's the local authority, they need someone (perhaps a local or national cycling organisation?) to tell them what standards should be met in order to make the cycle stands attractive to users.
The Dutch example I mentioned in my response to Bert seems really interesting. After all, there are lots of clear guidelines about what is good and bad. It's "just" a matter of making people aware of them.
Bonnie
Hi Bonnie,
all cycle stands were installed by the local authority. We don't have private company who will deal with traffic issues in a city. We have Public enterprise "Business Center" who, among all other activities, organize arranging and payment for parking, but only for cars.
As you might see on photos, bike traffic is not specially regulated. We have experts for traffic issue, but there is no awareness about bicycle infrastructure, and therefore no political support.
And situation in public administration is the same as Kevin said. And another problem is that citizens don't know clearly about investments from city budget.
Jelena
Hi Jelena,
With private business, I meant a local shop that decided to put a bike rack in front to attract customers. It's done sometimes in Germany and often they combine bike parking with advertising in that way (although almost as often the racks are better suited for advertising than they are for bike parking).
With regard to political support, it seems to me you need a champion to advocate for cycle infrastructure (and to promote the benefits as well, of course). It's a long-term job (and can be thankless at the beginning) but if there is a person or an organisation that champions the cause, it will start to make a difference in time.
At the European level, there is the European Cyclists' Federation. Some countries have national organisations with members in different cities like FIAB in Italy or the ADFC in Germany, but sometimes it's just local-level organisations. They can make a big difference.
Bonnie
Hi Bonnie,
I think that owners of a shops don't pay attention on how customers coming (by foot, car, bus or bike). The reason is of course the lack of awareness about mobility and benefits, but one of the reason can be the fact that in most of cases land in front shops is owned by city, so if they want to put an advertisement they will have to pay some tax. So maybe if there is some local legislation that will release from the obligation of the fee for advertisement in order to install bike racks, that might be a solution for solving a problem. In that case the city will not have to pay for the installing of part of cycling infrastructure and shop owner will have an advertisement and get probably new customers. And that will be good for citizens.
I agree with you that this kind of change will not come over night. I travel quite often and I always make a comparisons between other cities and Kruševac. We have to do a lot and it's a long term job. But as Gandhi said: "Be the change that you want to see in the world".
Jelena
Jelena, a simple question:
How they manage to keep the bikes stand up in the first photographs?
Hi Jesus,
I'm not sure, I just took a closer look on a photos, it seems to me that the owners of a bikes just find a right balance to put the bike in the wheel bender. Maybe it is not so to difficult to achieve, because the construction is until the middle of the wheel (as you can see on a picture below).
Jelena
Hello,
Perhaps the more used bike racks in Lugo are those placed at the Campus. But even those are not used regularly. Some students use their bikes to go down to the Campus and the university lends around 50 bikes every year, but this racks are not very popular. And you can only park 50 bikes at the campus (around 5.000 students) in three or four locations:
1- Central library and administrative building:
As you can see the racks are placed inside out, but perhaps is for the best, because, depending on your bike, you can park it with the crank arm or the down tube resting in the rack. No wheel in the rack, but you can tie the frame and it's more difficult to the bike to fall.
2- Sports centre (the bigger in the city, pools, stadium, basketball arena for 5.000 people, etc):
Here they don't have any excuse. You can only park 5 bikes, and you can't park it the way I said before. Here you have to tie the front wheel.
3- Veterinary school:
A bit better, but the same rack design.
So, people tie the bikes wherever they consider mor suitable. Mostly fences and handrails. Luckily, the buildings hava a lot of covered passageways with handrails.
Lucky people and teachers take the bikes indoors.
Hi Jesus,
You're right. None of the racks in your photos are particularly good. I also wonder about standards in Spain. As far as I know, you don't have a national cycling organisation like FIAB in Italy. Is that correct? Is there anything at the state level or are cycling organisations all local? The main point is, I'm sure the people who installed the racks didn't put in bad ones on purpose. Clearly they don't know what is good or bad, so it's a question of education and information so that future ones are done right. Do you know if standards are written down in Spanish? There are, of course, several good guides, including those mentioned in this course. They would (just) need to be translated so that they are useful to local authorities.
Bonnie
Hoi Bonnie,
perhaps the persons who decide on the type of racks are not cyclists themselves. When you are a regular cyclist yourself you know what works and what doesn't. So maybe it is a good idea to involve cyclists in decisions on cycle racks. (Ont he other hand: it is very good that racks are really placed. It shows an awareness that there is something called a 'bicycle'. That is a good start.)
Bert,
You're absolutely right. Only one of the public servants appointed to manage the cycling parking rides a bike. This person was appointed (in paper only) to manage the municipality's Bicycle Office. But he hasn't accepted any responibility because this role is not in his contract.
Bonnie sent me the same advice regarding public servants using the bike. I like the advice for the incentives outlined in the European Mobility Week's "Handbook for Local Campaigners" (page 16 (http://www.mobilityweek.eu/fileadmin/files/Material_2014/Handbook_For_Local_Campaigners.pdf) in particular: "Set up a “parenting” scheme several weeks in advance, involving volunteer civil servants and an experienced bicycle user. The new “cyclist” would cycle to the workplace with his or her “parent” and the pair could then be interviewed about the experience (press release, newsletter, website) during the EMW"..
Kevin
Bonnie,
Yes, we have state level associations like Conbici, and there is a sort of association of associations: Mesa nacional de la bicicleta, where different groups join in order to reach the administration in negociations. They have some publications, and there are some offcial publications about bike parking from IDAE (Energy Saving Institute). So, that's not the problem. If you have any interest in the matter, you can do a lot better.