Local Shops and Locking Bikes

[Ben17]

Something occurred to me as I was out today. I passed a parade of shops and noticed a lack of spaces to lock up bikes. This got me pondering, so when I got home I had a look on Streetview at three other local parades and small shops that I'm aware of. Similarly, nowhere to lock a bike - but generally a decent amount of car parking, of course.

I wonder if this is something local to me in North Warwickshire, a coincidence due to a very small sample size, or whether the case is that small community shops and services don't generally have places to lock up? I've found it a bit disappointing really, as with local shops generally being within a few miles of most houses - at least around here - popping to the shops should surely be the perfect journey for encouraging cycling over the car.

It may be quite a small thing when thinking of bicycle infrastructure, but there seems to me a simple opportunity here to improve the feasibility of using a bike for day-to-day errands. After all, from my point of view at least, you can have the best segregated cycle routes in the world, but it's no good if at the destination, the bike can't be stored relatively securely.

 

[Slick]

At least you have part of the story with your segregated cycle routes. We have neither, but I have been constantly quietly impressed with the inventiveness of the average cyclist with what they can find to lock their bike.

 

[Ben17]

Sorry, badly worded perhaps. There are few segregated routes here, bar a few shared use paths. I was just highlighting that even if they were there, I still wouldn't be wanting to take the bike out for these types of trips, just because I can't be sure of being able to lock the bike up.

Yes, I could use a lamp post or railing if there is one suitable, but even that isn't a given. The shop up the road from me literally has no appropriate street furniture to use. Plenty of pavement space though where something suitable could be installed.

 

[rivers]

It could be a regional thing. There is lots of cycle parking all over Bristol (from what I've seen anyway), but then there seems to be a lot of people that cycle in Bristol. It is most likely city/town specific.

 

[Ben17]

Thinking about it, I'm sure you're right. I doubt cities like Oxford and Cambridge would have the same issue, for example, and Bristol as you point out.

Perhaps I'll make enquiries of the council when I get a quiet hour. Trouble is, I daresay it's a chicken and egg thing. Not enough cyclists, why bother installing anything? But then, without it there's the discouragement aspect.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

cycling is broadly speaking, banned in our town centre, what cycle parking exists is utterly inappropriate, and therefore underused, and is not legally accessible to someone riding a bike, and it a long way away from the majority of the shops. It takes real skills to come up with something that bat-shoot crazy but Horsham District Council manage that easily.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Same council installed some county council supplied racks outside their offices, in a position that was only accessible by climbing a short flight of stairs.

They've since moved offices. No cycle parking provision outside the new ones.

Their response to a recent epidemic of bike theft from the racks outside our local leisure centre was to close the racks to cyclists.

 

[Fab Foodie]

The answer is Brompton shaped :-)

 

[NorthernDave]

It's a good point.

I live on an estate built in the 60's right at the end of the £29m Cycle Superhighway and the two parades of shops that survive are typical of the time and have no specific bike provision, but several car parking spaces, although that is now insufficient given that most people think it's acceptable to use the car rather than walk anywhere. The shops do have a covered walkway (veranda?) in front of them, so you can lock your bike to one of the supporting uprights though so you're not totally stuck if you arrive on two wheels.

However, a couple of years ago a new Co-op store was built and that has (I think) 3 Sheffield type stands out front, in addition to parking for about 20 cars. You very rarely see a bike locked to them though.
I suspect that in order to get planning permission now they have to include some sort of bike provision, so that seems to be the influencing factor rather than a genuine desire to attract cycling shoppers.

 

[Sandra6]

None of the local "parades" of shops that I am familiar with in and around Carlisle provide cycle parking. I usually use a lamppost or railing.
Sainsburys was the only supermarket to provide a decent amount of bike parking, but recently they decided to demolish it.

 

[simon.r]

There's a fair amount of Sheffield stands around here

 

[GrumpyGregry]

The answer is Brompton shaped :-)

Our local council does not allow Bromptons to be brought into their offices!

 

[Fab Foodie]

Of course there is another solution...https://www.brompton.com/

TMN to me :-)

 

[simon.r]

TMN to me :-)

And bonus points for quoting my post before I read yours and deleted it!

 

[Fab Foodie]

Our local council does not allow Bromptons to be brought into their offices!

Why not?