Alison Hill of Cyclox welcomes the arrival of bike hangars in Oxford and says it will transform cycle parking in the city.
On August 17 three bike hangars arrived in Jericho, one in Cranham Street, one in Nelson St and one in Great Clarendon Street, after a consultation lasting one month.
These are the first ones to be installed in Oxford.
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Bike hangars are on-road cycle storage units for bikes. They can fit six bikes and provide secure storage for bikes. They take up about two thirds of a standard car parking place and are bolted down on the road next to the kerb.
London boroughs are rolling out installation rapidly. There are an estimated 4,000 cycle hangars across London, but there is still a big waiting list, evidence that they are very popular with residents.
They are useful in areas of higher density housing where there isn’t space for bike storage on the property. Typically, this would be in streets with terraced houses where there is a lot of on road parking.
Jericho is an example of such housing, with front doors opening directly onto the street.
It has lots of terraced houses and currently residents either store their bikes inside their house or leave them on the street locked to a lamppost, a drainpipe, or another piece of street furniture.
More than half of all households in Jericho have no car and rely on cycling and on public transport.
Bike theft is a big problem for the community and is one of the key barriers preventing Oxford residents to take up cycling.
Many people who have had their bikes stolen give up cycling, because they just don’t want to risk losing their bike for the second time.
The funding for the hangars comes from the Thames Valley police who secured funds through the Home Office Safer Streets Fund.
Jericho and East Oxford are areas where there is a high rate of cycle theft so secure cycle parking has been installed in both areas.
The cycle parking in East Oxford uses the ‘Streetpod’, which provide secure parking but open to the elements. They are a first come first served cycle parking solution and do not require residents to pay to park their bikes, whereas bike hangars do.
The Oxford Mail reports that some residents are unhappy about the bike hangar being installed on their streets and compare them to pigsties. Though it is hard to see the beauty in cars parked bumper to bumper along each street.
But a bigger problem than appearance is that the hangars overlap the pavements, making already narrow pavements narrower. Cyclox and others have said to the county council this is not acceptable.
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The county council has responded promptly saying that they will take the hangars in Nelson Street and Great Clarendon Street off the pavement and place them fully on the carriageway removing pavement obstruction.
They will replace the hangar in Cranham Street with a mini-hangar, as a full-size hangar encroaches too much on the carriageway.
The mini hangar can still accommodate four bicycles and will open parallel to the kerb/footway and will not obstruct the footway.
If you are interested in renting a space in one of these bike hangar or getting one installed on your street, you can submit a request to Cyclehoop, the company managing bike hangars, via http://www.cyclehoop.rentals/The rental price has been set at less than the cost of parking a car in a controlled parking zone at £55 a year.
However, a quick check of the site shows that Nelson Street and Great Clarendon Street hangars already have a waiting list showing that there is unmet demand.
This is the start of a transformation in cycle parking and we will see many more coming to Oxford in the next few years.
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About the author
Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here.
He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.
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