A view from the cycle path: Cycle parking at home

Sunday, 7 September 2008

Cycle parking at home

The ground floor of this 1970s apartment block
provides secure cycle-parking for all residents.
There is a separate locked room for each flat
and also a communal area for extra bikes.
This is normal in the Netherlands. Indoor
cycle parking has been a legal requirement
for most of the time for several decades.

A law in 1992 laid down standards for the size of cycle storage that it was compulsory for all new homes in the Netherlands to be built with.

In 2003 the incumbent government overturned this legislation, and was much criticised for that decision.

Fietsersbond (the cycling campaign organisation) and some consumer organisations objected strongly about this change, and some cities implemented their own by-laws to put the storage back.

On the 19th of August this year, the law came back into force.

The regulations require a minimum of 6.5% of the floor area of an apartment or house (minimum 3.5 square metres) to be provided as storage, and for it to be a minimum of 1.5 m wide. While there is nothing to prevent people from using their storage for something other than a bike, these dimensions are chosen deliberately to make sure that there is ample secure residential cycle parking.

A friend of ours lives in one of the apartments in the block on the left. Though they were built in the early 1970s, well before the 1992 law, the entire ground floor (1/12th of the building) is storage. These apartments each have 100 square metres of usable floor space and the storage is larger than the minimum legal requirement. People who live here keep their bikes safely in this storage.

This article refers to the situation between 2003 and 2008 when the storage was not compulsory, and some developers provided storage which was down a steep flight of steps into the basement, or completely absent. The problems due to a lack of convenient storage are obvious: Raised risk of theft, bikes being stored in such a way so that they are less convenient to use than cars, risk of the bike rusting if the storage is not adequately designed. These issues are all covered by the article.

If cycling is to be popular, it has to be convenient. This includes having somewhere both convenient and safe to keep your bike, and that's why cycle parking is provided with housing.

1 comment:

elise said...: Oh, mercy, what I wouldn't do for bike storage in our apartment building! My husband and I live in Arizona, US, and we have one bicycle in the bedroom and 2 in the living room as we don't have anywhere else to keep them. Thankfully, we live in the first floor, and don't have to haul the poor things up and down the stairs everyday.; 11 September 2008 at 07:07

Posts sorted by subject

The positive stuff
Three types of safety - As well as preventing injuries and death, high quality cycling infrastructure addresses both subjective safety and social safety which are of vital importance in encouraging people to cycle.
A second revolution took place on Dutch streets in the late 20th century, transforming streets which were just as clogged by cars as those of other nations.
Pedestrians are well catered for in the Netherlands and pedestrianized shopping streets are common. Usually they allow cycling for access.
Dutch Safety Figures - Cyclists in the Netherlands are the safest in the world, but it has little if anything to do with "safety in numbers".
Sustainable safety - the principles which have lead to Dutch roads, streets and cycle-paths being safe.
A million per hour - The scale of cycling in the Netherlands is enormous. Dutch people make more cycle journeys each day than the entire English speaking world put together.
Campaigning - a collection of posts about how to campaign for more cycling. Primarily campaigning should be for children to be able to cycle. These links include reference to "Stop the child murder", a successful campaign from the 1970s.
What Works - examples of policy, infrastructure and campaigning which have made a different in the Netherlands.
Superhighways - "Cycling superhighways" are not a new idea in the Netherlands
Cycle Paths - Well designed cycle paths benefit all cyclists, regardless of experience or speed
Segregation without cycle paths - you don't always need a cycle path to keep cyclists safe from motorists
Unravelling of routes is vitally important
History - how the Netherlands got to where it is now. See especially "Stop the child murder"
Before and After - views of places before and after they have been transformed for cycling
Directness - examples of prioritising cycling
Traffic Lights - examples of how cyclists can be prioritised and kept safe at traffic light junctions. Note that it's almost always possible to turn right on a red light when cycling in the Netherlands.
Roundabouts - roundabouts in the Netherlands have one very important feature to learn from: They keep cyclists away from motor vehicles. This is far more important than the differences in geometry vs. roundabouts in other countries.
Exceptional infrastructure is always nice to see, but remember that a dense network of mundane routes is far more important to boost cycling modal share
Gritting of cycle paths - dealing with snow and ice.
Children - It may seem hackneyed, but children really are the future. If they can't cycle safely then where will future adult cyclists come from ? This is why children should be the primary focus of campaigners. Note also that according to UNICEF, Dutch children are the happiest in the world.
School travel - Everyone knows that Dutch children cycle to school, but it's a surprise to many people that school trips are also usually by bike.
Cycle Parking - including our favourite design of stand.
Cycle Parking at railway stations, see in particular Groningen and Assen as each have multiple posts showing how the cycle parking has grown over time.
Health effects of cycling
Road Works - It's important that cyclists are thought of when there are road works. If the environment becomes hostile for cyclists then they may stop cycling and never start again.
Commuting - Commuting cyclists are interesting, but they're not the only people who should ride bikes.
Anatomy of a reliable everyday bicycle - the common features of bikes used by nearly every person every day in the Netherlands.
Speed - Some people have the idea that Dutch cyclists are slow. This isn't true. It is just that in the Netherlands, everyone cycles, including the slow people. Fast cyclists are as fast as anywhere. These posts show people who ride faster than average, using the same infrastructure as those who ride slower.

The less positive stuff
What not to do if you want a cycling "revolution" - Long list of interventions and policies which are not helpful.
Copy the best examples from the Netherlands - a short list summarising the above. Important to copy the best examples, not just anything "Dutch". Bear in mind that the Netherlands is not perfect.
Shared Space - this much hyped idea simply does not work well. It disenfranchises the vulnerable and claims of safety are exaggerated. Don't confuse the concept with far more successful nearly car free streets.
Shared Use Paths designed to be used by pedestrians and cyclists together. These rarely work well because the two user groups are too different and it leads to conflicts. They are not built in the Netherlands (but cycle access to pedestrianized zones is good).
Strict (or presumed) liability - If you think this is an important part of why people cycle in the Netherlands then it is probably not what you think it is.
Helmets - one of several ways of scaremongering about the supposed dangers of what is actually a very safe means of transport

Myths about cycling

Long list of myths and Excuses - Various reasons that many people, even existing cyclists, give for why the cycling rate is low in their country, including:
  "our streets are too narrow"
  "it's too expensive"
  "our population is too spread out"
  "we have hills
  "our distances are too great"
  "it took decades in the Netherlands"
  "it's because of the price of gas"
  "it's the weather"
  "Cycle-paths cause indirect journeys"
  "Cycle-paths make people slow"
Cycling is "booming" in Britain - a claim we hear remarkably frequently, but it'll take a lot more than the action taken now before it will be true.
The Truth about Copenhagen - Pretty pictures and nice branding are all very well, but facts are important too. Denmark has no explanation of why the cycling modal share is falling in Copenhagen. The Netherlands has avoided this problem and sets a much better example of how to achieve a high cycling rate.
The Truth about Cambridge - Cambridge in the UK has made claims of being a true cycling city. The city does have the highest cycling rate in the English speaking world, but there are special reasons for its high cycling rate which cannot be copied elsewhere. Most people don't talk about this. I do.
London Superhighways - Unfortunately, London seems to be having trouble coming to grips with the idea of prioritizing cyclists.
Boris Bikes - London's bike share scheme, just like others worldwide, lacks the capacity to make any real change, and makes up for it with hype.