Another reason why people don't cycle ...

[XmisterIS]

My local Sainsbury's is having a major re-vamp and they're building an extension over what used to be the restaurant and part of the carpark that included normal, mother-and-child, motorbike and bicycle parking.

They have spent time, money and effort re-locating and carefully marking out new parking bays for disabled, mother-and-child and motorbikes (which is good) ... but the cycle parking is now a joke! It is a hastily and half-arsed afterthought - literally two (only two) of those big metal hoops which haven't been secured to the ground correctly. Previously, there was parking for loads of bikes, now they have parking for a grand total of four bikes - two per hoop. Yep, that's right, we are provided with parking for four bicycles in a vast car park that has provision for perhaps ten motorbikes and at least 500 cars.

The result is that the car park is now littered with bikes attached to signposts, lamp posts and those things for tying dogs to, wherever people can find a space.

Worth a letter to Sainsbury's asking them if they plan to install more bike parking, I think.

It's a trend that I've noticed all over the place - the old bike stands from the 1980's are disappearing and we're being provided with progressively less cycle parking in an age where car usage costs progressively more.

 

[snorri]

Worth a letter to Sainsbury's asking them if they plan to install more bike parking, I think.

Definitely write to Sainsbury, preferably their head office rather than the local branch. Recommend provision of Sheffield Stands, pointing out that these stands hold the bicycle securely and without risk of damage(twisting) when loading your panniers full of goodies from their store. Also wirite to the head of planning enforcement at the local authority.
If these people receive no complaints, they assume everything is ok.

This thread should be in Campaign.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

Definitely write to Sainsbury

If I were you I'd put a note on the other people's bikes (tied to the other street furniture!) asking them to write too.

If I were having a particularly confrontational day, I'd consider taking the bike in with me until adequate provision was provided...
[I do this anyway, but having a foldingbike that doubles as a trolley helps!]

 

[summerdays]

Good luck - I doubt it will result in any changes... I think councils need to become much more proactive with this ... when I complained about how they had moved the racks to a quiet not overlooked corner or right up against a wall, neither council or Tesco could see a problem with it. I've given up using the stands and just use the trolley parking stands as does everyone else - the only problem is getting the bike knocked by the trolleys. Equally there isn't a dropped kerb by this corner ... unless you cycle along the pavement to get to it.

Its one of those times when there isn't joined up thinking by the council - and when they would be able to force the company to do it via them applying for planning permission.

 

[marinyork]

Doesn't your council ensure that minimum standards are applied to car parks for numbers of disabled and cycling places?

They wouldn't get away with it here.

It's very common for standards not to be applied or even implemented at all, even if it's specifically part of planning permission/license. If you press the council (even very senior people) they'll give a stock answer something like 'standards do apply but are not always implemented', well duh I know that. Bizarrely enough enforcement/compliance is actually much higher for residential builds (I know not that many put cycle parking in) where the council perceive it to be much less 'useful' and there are far more space constraints.

XmisterIS is basically right in that a lot of the 'older' supermarkets are being renovated/upgraded at the moment and the newer stuff is putting in less/worse than what was there before.

As for sainsburys their website usually lists how many car parking spaces etc are at each store so if you look on there next to their opening hours it'll say we have 600 parking spaces, 20 disabled parking spaces, 20 parent and child spaces and 1 ATM.

 

[Davidc]

With the new government there are unlikely to be any tighter regulations on this since they are intent on removing rules, so any improvement will only come if there's commercial pressure.

If every cyclist, whether on a bike or not, only used supermarkets with good cycle parking someone might notice. As we don't have that degree of coordination and some areas have no supermarkets with good bike parking I don't think there'll be any improvement in the forseeable future.

I've taken to using Morrisons for on bike shopping as it has good cycle parking.

They (Morrisons) had a market research person at the door on Monday, and I agreed to talk. The last question was, "why do you chose this supermarket over others? a) The range of products available? b) great pricing? c)free car parking for 2 hours? d) other - tell us.

I told her! I hope a few others did, as their cycle racke are nearly always full.

 

[2Loose]

There is a brand new Tesco opened up on my normal commuting route which also has no bike stands, despite having 50+ cyclists passing it morning and evening.

I think I will stop in and point this out to a manager, then get on my bike and go to Morrisons.