BBC: New UK housing ‘dominated by roads’

[Fenlander]

I want one for my bike. It's a bit of a faff getting it out of the garden shed and bringing out the front.

One of the houses we looked at had what looked like and used to be a garage but had been split across the middle to form a bike shed to the outside with a door to the back end which was a utility/washroom with another door through to the kitchen. The idea was they could come in to the garage all muddied up, lock the bike away, get cleaned up and enter the house.

[DB617]

I have not seen anyone use their garage to actually park a car since my grandfather used to park his Talbot Horizon in his - and he died in 1992.

If I ever have a home with a garage I probably won't either - though it'd depend on the car I have.

We managed to push the junk aside enough to get my sister's Chevy Matiz, one of the smallest cars around, in one half of our garage while she was on her first year in uni... such is our family's car dependency that she took it to Gloucester before the first year was even over and paid £50 a month to park it half a mile from her flat.

[roadtester]

I want one for my bike. It's a bit of a faff getting it out of the garden shed and bringing out the front.

One of the houses we looked at had what looked like and used to be a garage but had been split across the middle to form a bike shed to the outside with a door to the back end which was a utility/washroom with another door through to the kitchen. The idea was they could come in to the garage all muddied up, lock the bike away, get cleaned up and enter the house.

That's quite a common conversion I think - a house near me has that arrangement.

Personally I think it's a pretty sound idea - I'd just worry slightly about it being a bit confusing/off-putting to some potential buyers when the time came to sell.

[Glom]

I want one for my bike. It's a bit of a faff getting it out of the garden shed and bringing out the front.

One of the houses we looked at had what looked like and used to be a garage but had been split across the middle to form a bike shed to the outside with a door to the back end which was a utility/washroom with another door through to the kitchen. The idea was they could come in to the garage all muddied up, lock the bike away, get cleaned up and enter the house.

I like that idea.

[FosseWay]

I want one for my bike. It's a bit of a faff getting it out of the garden shed and bringing out the front.

One of the houses we looked at had what looked like and used to be a garage but had been split across the middle to form a bike shed to the outside with a door to the back end which was a utility/washroom with another door through to the kitchen. The idea was they could come in to the garage all muddied up, lock the bike away, get cleaned up and enter the house.

I like that idea.

So do I.

One of the downsides of my house is that it has no garage, and nowhere obvious to put one (not without deploying a lot of explosives, anyway). The principal problem with not having a garage is not the lack of somewhere to put the car; the car survives well enough in the open air, I can park it next to a power outlet if I need to use the engine warmer or want to hoover it, and I generally own cars that aren't worth putting in garages anyway. Rather, the lack of garage is irritating because bikes have to be stored outside or in the cellar, and if the latter, you have to haul them up the steps every time you want to go out. We have a small outdoor cupboard that fits the lawnmower and strimmer, but it's a bit of a pain with them taking up most of the floor space.

A bike storage room with direct access to somewhere you can clean yourself off before going into the house proper would be very useful. Just difficult and expensive to achieve.

More generally on the subject of this thread: There is overall a general lack of cycle storage at places where people need it, which is mostly at home and work. Local authorities go round putting cycle parking facilities in shopping areas (often in places where you're not legally supposed to cycle ) because they're relatively cheap and are tangible, visible ways of showing that Something is Being Done, but the truth is that if people actually started biking to work in the numbers that the planners would like, there would be huge cycle storage problems. OK, people living in houses generally have a garage, cellar, car port, back garden or somewhere they can put a bike. But how many apartment blocks have reliable, plentiful and secure cycle storage? Or how many people have to haul their bike up to their apartment and store it in a spare room, or risk a rollocking for keeping it in the corridor?

But however bad cycle parking is at people's homes, it's a great deal worse at work. My workplace is a 6-storey office block capable of accommodating probably 600 people (although far fewer than that actually work there). The secure indoor cycle parking can probably take max. 20 cycles, and even then those parked furthest in would have problems getting out. There is more space outdoors, but that is not ideal: theft is a problem, as is cold - if your lock freezes solid then you have no way of getting home. Even then, I doubt there are even 100 bona fide cycle parking spaces outside the building. (There will be more within reasonable walking distance, but then you're competing with the occupants of other, nearer, buildings.)

The same goes for showers and places to store wet gear. People who cycle to work need facilities that people who drive generally don't, but this fact seems to have passed planners by. The only reason cycling to work at workplaces like mine functions OK is because not very many people do it.

[Berk]

The difficulties seem to be of your own making. Did you install the storage cupboard?? Is there not room to install an additional one next to it for your bikes??

If so, problem solved.

That being said, it does sound a little strange, given you mentioned you have a sophisticated alarm and intruder system installed.

[FosseWay]

The difficulties seem to be of your own making. Did you install the storage cupboard?? Is there not room to install an additional one next to it for your bikes??

If so, problem solved.

That being said, it does sound a little strange, given you mentioned you have a sophisticated alarm and intruder system installed.

Huh?

I don't understand any of this, if it's aimed at me. How have I made problems?

My house was built in 1934. I was born in 1974. I bought it in 2013. So no, I did not install the cupboard. Some form of free-standing structure that would be big enough to take bikes and still leave room to move around would be possible, but the available locations are either inconveniently round the back of the house where it is hard to manoeuvre larger items around, or in places where significant ground alterations would be needed (possibly not explosives, but certainly laying considerable concrete foundations).

Not sure what the alarm has got to do with anything.

[Berk]

My apologies, I thought your house was a lot more recent (and higher spec).

Surely chaining your bikes up at home is OK??

[boliston]

I find a lot of the cycle related problems can be solved with a folding bike - in fact there is no way i'd ever now go back to a non folder as it can simply be stored in a corner of the bedroom at home and slung under the desk when i get to work - we have dedicated parking and showers at work but this is more aimed at the 'lycra' type cyclists than me - i find walking to work uses far more energy than cycling as i don't generally cycle very fast and it's a 10 minute ride vs a 40 minute walk

[WHBM]

Has anyone considered that housing may be "dominated by roads" because that is what those buying the houses actually want ?

[jgharston]

My apologies, I thought your house was a lot more recent (and higher spec).

Surely chaining your bikes up at home is OK??

They get wet.

[FosseWay]

My apologies, I thought your house was a lot more recent (and higher spec).

Surely chaining your bikes up at home is OK??

They get wet.

Wet in itself isn't a particular problem - if the bike's wet, you're probably going to get wet when you ride it anyway. But keeping a bike outside all the time isn't particularly good for it. And (possibly not this winter) water has a habit of freezing, and it can make a bike inoperable very easily. My old bike that I use to get to the bus stop I do keep outside, but I'd rather look after my others.