Siting of cycle parking locations

[Fenlander]

Lincolnshire County Council have spent a dollop of money on some bike racks, it’s created a storm of interest and some very quick backtracking by them getting some removed while they reconsider where to resite them.
https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news ... ks-4603053
I’m glad they’ve added some cycle infrastructure and I’m not fussed like some that it’s deliberately been placed in normal parking bays but I do have a couple of questions.

Firstly whilst they do look big & bright green from the side in the pictures, end on the green bit isn’t too obvious and the dark grey even less so, You couldn’t park a skip like that without having reflectors and a flashing light for example.

Another question is over the specific siting of one of them, it’s in a marked Loading Bay - can you legally park a bike in a loading bay?

[Mark Hewitt]

Those things are supposed to make the point of look how much cycle parking you can fit in *one* parking space. Local residents spectacularly missing the point.

[John McAdam]

Removed after only 24 hours? The council needs to grow a pair and show a bit of leadership.

[Fenlander]

Removed after only 24 hours? The council needs to grow a pair and show a bit of leadership.

That particularly annoyed me, they removed 2 of them on the grounds that it’s out of character for the area, surely they know what area they were putting it in in the first place??? If they’re now going to consult with locals on new location then why not ask first?

[jervi]

As it happens, I actually use the one in Sleaford since it was installed, although tend to not leave my bike unattended for longer than 10 minutes incase some Karen decides to stab my tyres (I leave my camera running, so I'll just go and find their Range Rover and do their tyres in return if that ever happened).
Also the one in Sleaford is in a loading bay, so its not taking away from car parking, especially when there is a at least 400+ car parking spaces within 5 minute walk of the town centre.
But hey, some people feel entitled to park in loading bays. (talking about those not with blue badges or actually unloading/loading)

[BeenEverywhere]

I'd love to know the thought process that went off (assuming it goes back to a councillor's mate having some ugly bike racks that no one wanted to buy). The problem around Spalding isn't having something to prop your bike up against, the problem is having somewhere to put your bike where it's not going to be gone in 60 seconds. It would have made far more sense to put the money towards some proper secure bike storage.

[Al__S]

These bike racks are sturdy and secure, if you use a good lock.

Someone could park a large, brightly coloured vehicle in the high street for an hour and the worst anyone would be able to do is tut

[BeenEverywhere]

These bike racks are sturdy and secure, if you use a good lock.

Not when the cycle exporters carry bolt croppers and cordless grinders

[Fenlander]

The overall impression I’ve got is that this is the council saying “look at us, we’ve been given this money to do something and this is what we’re doing - making a bright green statement that we’re prioritising cyclists over cars in these locations”.
This is Sheep Market, Spalding, there’s an existing set of hoops right at the start of the pedestrianised bit outside the Pied Calf pub, if you pan left there’s another set of hoops outside the public toilets (with cycling artwork above them) hidden behind the green council van. The new ones have been placed outside the estate agents in the end of the bay where there’s a red car parked. That GSV image is on a market day, so either Tuesday or Saturday and it looks busy. However, back then the council supported the market, they no longer provide & set up stalls so less traders come, so less people come. Our county & district councils are at war with each other anyway, both want to take control away from the other under the new shuffle proposals.

At the other end of the pedestrianised centre of town is Herring Lane, another rack has been placed in that loading bay. It would have made a bolder statement to put it in the car park in one of the bays but that would be a county V district thing again. It’s this loading bay that I’m more interested in, I do occasionally use it myself when delivering heavy & bulky items to local businesses.

[L.J.D]

It will be the same residents who moan about congestion and traffic noise and pollution who are doing the whinging. It makes me laugh how they are moaning about lack of parking spaces as it is. Well surely people cycling instead should free up more parking spaces. I don't think they look bad at all. Good investment I wish they'd do more of it around these parts.

[Piatkow]

I think that taking out a loading bay is out of order.

My local council's trick is locating cycle parking in places that can't legally by cycled to. Naturally we regularly see people cycling through the supposedly pedestrianised High Street.

[M19]

If there is space to site cycle parking which has been ignored in favour of taking up a parking space then this does come across as being more about political virtue signalling than simply providing cycle parking.

It’s not the most attractive feature to adorn a high street. You go to great lengths to declutter streets, co-ordinate street furniture and paving and this happens.

By all means providing cycle parking is a good thing, if done with a bit of thinking with consideration of how it can be well sited and coordinated, not with a political agenda.

[the cheesecake man]

- can you legally park a bike in a loading bay?

Perhaps it's aimed at people who want to load their bike...

[WHBM]

It will be the same residents who moan about congestion and traffic noise and pollution who are doing the whinging. It makes me laugh how they are moaning about lack of parking spaces as it is. Well surely people cycling instead should free up more parking spaces.

I regret to advise you that research studies, generally kept quiet by politicians, show that there is very little transfer between car and cycle travel. The most common for cyclists is they are generated additional journeys, then transfer from walking, and then from bus (this last notably in inner London). Transfer from car is pretty much off the scale, just before transfer from rail. Pretending otherwise is incorrect.

Now I'm from the old fashioned school of transportation planning, where we would evaluate for any proposed project how much use would likely be made of it, broadly driven by what advantages it offered. Cycle racks that stay empty all day just don't cut it here. Of course, we were long used to politicians who regardless of the professional expectations wanted the new project anyway, and another group of politicians who didn't want it for different reasons, both generally narrowly self-centred. But they just had to be faced down. Now this attitude seems to have permeated from the politicians to the officers, TfL being the prime example, and Virtue Signalling is seen as part of professional advancement; whether it has been useful to the community or the money has been completely wasted seems to be by the by now.

[Fenlander]

Been up town this morning, it’s market day so fairly busy. Neither of the car shaped racks had bikes in them and as the empty rack is blocking the loading bay a lorry was parked on the road round the corner instead (it won’t fit in the bay now).

[Britain]

The overall impression I’ve got is that this is the council saying “look at us, we’ve been given this money to do something and this is what we’re doing - making a bright green statement that we’re prioritising cyclists over cars in these locations”.
This is Sheep Market, Spalding, there’s an existing set of hoops right at the start of the pedestrianised bit outside the Pied Calf pub, if you pan left there’s another set of hoops outside the public toilets (with cycling artwork above them) hidden behind the green council van. The new ones have been placed outside the estate agents in the end of the bay where there’s a red car parked. That GSV image is on a market day, so either Tuesday or Saturday and it looks busy. However, back then the council supported the market, they no longer provide & set up stalls so less traders come, so less people come. Our county & district councils are at war with each other anyway, both want to take control away from the other under the new shuffle proposals.

At the other end of the pedestrianised centre of town is Herring Lane, another rack has been placed in that loading bay. It would have made a bolder statement to put it in the car park in one of the bays but that would be a county V district thing again. It’s this loading bay that I’m more interested in, I do occasionally use it myself when delivering heavy & bulky items to local businesses.

It will be the same residents who moan about congestion and traffic noise and pollution who are doing the whinging. It makes me laugh how they are moaning about lack of parking spaces as it is. Well surely people cycling instead should free up more parking spaces.

I regret to advise you that research studies, generally kept quiet by politicians, show that there is very little transfer between car and cycle travel. The most common for cyclists is they are generated additional journeys, then transfer from walking, and then from bus (this last notably in inner London). Transfer from car is pretty much off the scale, just before transfer from rail. Pretending otherwise is incorrect.

Now I'm from the old fashioned school of transportation planning, where we would evaluate for any proposed project how much use would likely be made of it, broadly driven by what advantages it offered. Cycle racks that stay empty all day just don't cut it here. Of course, we were long used to politicians who regardless of the professional expectations wanted the new project anyway, and another group of politicians who didn't want it for different reasons, both generally narrowly self-centred. But they just had to be faced down. Now this attitude seems to have permeated from the politicians to the officers, TfL being the prime example, and Virtue Signalling is seen as part of professional advancement; whether it has been useful to the community or the money has been completely wasted seems to be by the by now.

Both are good points. There are plenty of arguments to cycle over driving, and plenty of arguments to drive over cycling. One big thing to consider is that it's not feasible for everybody to cycle. Not every driver is capable of cycling, so there will always need to be a vehicular alternative to cycling.

I've never agreed with this half-way bull of sticking a show off bike rack in a bay to try and pretend you're doing something when you're not. If you care about encouraging cycling then put in proper infrastructure and try not to do it at the expense of motorists. If you don't care about encouraging cycling, focus on improving the current motor network properly. None of this taking away a driving lane and turning it into a bike lane which cyclists won't find safe enough to use and will create more pollution and anger from more sitting traffic. Invest properly and create segregated bike paths or alternative routes for cyclists, so long as they'll actually be used.

[Fenlander]

I live on a main road into town, half a mile to the left of me there’s a cycle lane that runs to within a couple of hundred yards, half a mile to the right there’s another that runs through the industrial estate. The official link between it runs along the old railway line, a bumpy, stony, potholed track with weeds & brambles really narrowing it down on places. It’s unlit so only really gets used by a few cyclists during daylight hours. That means the majority of the cyclists go the longer but paved way around along the footpath past my house, a pavement that’s less than 1m wide in some places. Very, very few of them cycle on the road, I’d say less than 1 in 50 of them. Twice in the last 3 years the police have targeted the pavement cyclists but nothing has been done to improve the options for them and most of the enforcement was over the lack of lights rather than riding on the path.