More cycle parking at Groningen railway station

The Fietsberaad reports that Groningen is still trying to find more space for cycle parking at the railway station.

Just ten years ago, there were only around 3000 cycle parking spaces at the station. In 2007 the Stadsbalkon was opened, this was originally intended to increase capacity to 4500 spaces, but it became obvious during building that this wasn't enough and actual capacity at the end of 2007 was nearly 6000 spaces. However, this was also not enough. In 2010, another 1000 spaces were added to the Stadsbalkon, and then an extra park was opened bringing capacity to an offical 9280 spaces, enough for one in 20 of the city's population to have a bicycle parked in racks at the railway station.

However, there are frequently over 10000 bikes parked at the railway station, and so this is being expanded again. The local government is providing an extra 500 cycle parking spaces each year until 2015 and residents have been asked where this should go.

Groningen Railway Station cycle parking revisited again

It's sometimes difficult to keep up with progress on cycle parking. I've covered the parking at Groningen's main railway station twice before: First I wrote about the cycle park built in 2006 for 4150 bikes, and then I wrote about how this cycle park had been expanded to accommodate an additional thousand bikes, bringing the total to around 10000.

Today it's the turn of the "Fietsflat" in Groningen, an additional one thousand bicycle cycle parking facility which has been built at the station to cater for the ever growing demand.

So here it is. An additional two storey cycle park.

This is not entirely a new structure. Actually, a slightly smaller, two storey cycle park was erected in this location as a temporary structure while the main cycle park was being built. However, by the time the big new cycle park was open and in use, the usage had grown such that the temporary park was also full. That's the reason why the Fietsflat came into being as a permanent structure. Unfortunately, this is often full too...

In the video you see the main "fietsbalkon", now expanded to (officially) 5150 spaces, and also the Fietsflat. You don't see the other smaller parking areas around the station, nor the indoor guarded cycle park which accommodate the rest of the bikes..

Explanatory captions on this video are only visible if you view on a computer and not on a mobile device.

Groningen's population is 188000. The main railway station has parking for around 10000 bicycles. That's one space for every 19 of the population. You can work out a comparable ratio for your own town. There are other posts about railway station cycle parking. Until 2015, cycle-parking capacity at this railway station is to be expanded at a rate of 500 bicycles per year.

Groningen railway station cycle parking revisited

I often cover the problems with providing enough cycle parking at railway stations in the Netherlands. These problems are continuing, as are attempts at solving them.

In 2006, Groningen finished a very impressive new underground cyclepark at the main railway station, called the stadsbalkon. I covered it 18 months ago (including a video showing how the double layer racks work). The new park was originally to hold around 3000 bikes, but during the design stage it was expanded to around 4150. This brought the total number of bicycles which could be parked around Groningen station to around 6500, which is about one for every 30 residents of the city.

However, before the stadsbalkon was even completed, the cycling officer of the city, Cor van de Klaauw, expressed concerns that they had not actually done enough.

The cycle park has strict rules about not being allowed to leave a bike for longer than 12 days, and also removes badly parked bikes, but there are still not enough spaces.

The number of spaces in the stadsbalkon has now been expanded to 5150 places and along with other additions the total number around the station is to be around 9800, bringing the number of cycle parking spaces at the station to around one for every twenty citizens.

There are two other smaller railway stations in Groningen, each with substantial cycle parking, though not as much as this main station.

The sign at the end warns people who have parked their bikes here that they will have to move them for the period of the expansion of the cycle park. This has now been completed.

Cycle usage in Groningen continues to grow rapidly. The fietsberaad recentlty reported that regular measurements made in spring-time at forty locations in Groningen show a continuation in growth in cycle traffic. At the 40 locations of the count, 230000 cyclists were seen in a day. Six of the locations had more than 10000 cyclists per day, the busiest two both seeing more than 14000 cyclists per day. Overall, cycling has increased by 7% over 2008 and 15% over 2007. The population of Groningen is 188000.

The photos were taken on different days by Judy and myself.

Fietsberaad article in Dutch.

Groningen Railway Station Cycle Parking

From a distance, there's not much to see. Most of the cycle-parking at Groningen's central station has been hidden from view.

In 2006, Groningen replaced the cycle parking which had been an untidy clump of bikes outside the station with a remarkable new cycle park which has space for 4150 bikes under cover outside the station. It stretches between the two wings shown in the photo from the left side right past the right side of the photo.

Along with the old two storey cycle park just around the corner and the 1500 or so spaces in the indoor, watched cycle parking in the newer looking building on the left of the photo, this brings the total number of spaces for bikes to around 6000. The population is about 180000, so there is space for about one in thirty people to have a bike at the station at any one time.

On top of the cycle park, there are now seats and a sculpture, and the whole thing looks really rather nice compared to the untidiness of the previous situation, which in any case had fewer places and didn't have the bikes undercover.

Here's my video showing cycling through the cycle park. You don't see any bike twice in the video as we take two different routes. You also don't see anything like all the bikes, as there are different ways through.



There is also a video produced by the Fietsberaad which shows the top of the cycle parking and also (about 1 minute in) how to use the double decker parking:


This new cycle park cost €10M to build. Of course, as with all cycle parking, it's permanently full. So there are also a lot of bikes parked around this cycle park. It is estimated that there are frequently over 6000 bikes in the 4150 official spaces of the new cycle park.

Updates:
Not sure how big this is ? Compare with London...

And note that in 2010, Cycle parking at this station was again increased.

Stands
Note that most Dutch bicycles have kick stands. This means they can be conveniently parked anywhere.

Nearly 60% of all journeys are made by bicycle in Groningen - a higher rate than anywhere else in the world. The city is 30 km North of Assen and it's featured on both our Study Tours and Cycling Holidays. There are also several more posts showing Groningen.