11 comments by 4 or more people

1. Chris May

   It's a positive step. However, I can't help noticing that whilst the #1 concern is security, the only solution being proposed is a relatively expensive-looking one, rather caveated. ("Potential of installing portacabins that combine parking with changing facilities")

   Surely there must be some cheaper alternatives than portacabins? Big metal boxes/cages, for instance?

   01 Dec 2005, 17:20

2. Andrew Marsh

   Further thoughts after the meeting included a bicycle tag and registration scheme that would allow bicycles that become an immovable fixture to be identified more readily and removed. Regular 'policing' of secure cycle parking would probably be necessary to (a) improve security (b) prevent it being a place to semi-permanently store bicycles that are not used for commuting for example.

   01 Dec 2005, 17:36

3. Chris May

   I don't know how representative I am, but I'd happily pay some moderate fee (say, £10-£20 a term) in return for a guaranteed space in a secure bike park, particularly if the deal included insurance should the park turn out not to be so secure after all. If there are others like me, then the tagging/registration scheme would be un-necessary – abandoned bikes could simply be removed when their owners failed to pay their next term's fees.

   01 Dec 2005, 19:04

4. But not everyone wants a parking place more secure than the current ones – I don't. There is also a demand for secure non-commuting bike parking for cyclists who live on campus.

   01 Dec 2005, 19:12

5. Chris May

   not everyone wants a parking place more secure than the current ones

   Very true; at least, not everyone wants something as secure as I do. That said, a number of people working in ITS at westwood have bemoaned the security of the current provision; I think they'd appreciate at least some CCTV coverage.
   Looking around (the westwood bike racks), I think I'm in something of a minority in terms of bringing a fairly expensive bike to work. Maybe I'll just continue to keep it in the office :-)

   01 Dec 2005, 21:07

6. At Coventry railway station Virgin Trains has a high security cycle storage facility for 17 cycles. There's no hire charge, but a £20 deposit is required for 3 months use. If there is a waiting list after the 3-month period the cyclist has to go to the bottom of it to ensure everyone gets a chance to use the facility. Virgin Trains have had some positive feedback and a photo should be appearing in Virgin Monthly Update.

   (Source: Coventry City Council Cycle Users Group meeting July 2005).

   I noticed a fair number of bicycles squirrilled away in academics' offices in the Sociology department…. not everyone who commutes to campus has high enough status to have enough private space to store a bicycle!

   02 Dec 2005, 09:26

7. Steve Rumsby

   Surely there must be some cheaper alternatives than portacabins?

   At first sight, the portacabins look like overkill. But part of the problem with the way this is being handled is that the people expressing an opinion about what's required are people who already cycle, and on the whole would cycle whatever facilities are available. I whinge about the lack of covered parking, but I leave my bike out in all weathers anyway – I'm not going to stop cycling if it isn't provided outside University House. The locker rooms and showers in UH are very nice (but possibly too small if many more people start using them) but I've worked in buildings with no lockers or showers and where I had to change in the gents. It didn't put me off. If the aim is to encourage new people to start cycling, we need the opinions of those people. People who don't currently cycle, but might if the right facilities were provided.

   Of course, I wouldn't say no to better facilities, and those portacabins do look pretty good. If you're going to cycle a reasonable distance, the availability of showers is almost essential, and this could be the only way of providing them for many buildings on campus. I would certainly prefer them to the facilities I have now in UH, which are already better than most on campus.

   I'm not desparate for more secure cycle parking either, at least not at the moment. If my enthusiasm for this mode of transport continues I may end up investing in a more expensive bike (especially if a Boost-style scheme made a more expensive bike less expensive:-), and then my interest might pick up! Until then, I'm much more interested in covered parking.

   02 Dec 2005, 09:42

8. Just a small comment – I personally am not interested in more covered parking if it's not secure. At least with open parking, like outside university house, there are people passing – being covered just seems to make them easier to steal. It happened to a friend on Gibbet Hill, where the cycle parking is particularly tucked away and hidden.

   02 Dec 2005, 10:07

9. Steve Rumsby

   Depends on how they are covered, I suppose, but I take the point that being open is actually a security feature and maybe covering needs to go hand in hand with enhanced security.

   02 Dec 2005, 10:44

10. re. George's comments about cyclists on campus looking to store non-commuting bikes, I definitely concur.

    We are forbidden to keep bikes in our rooms, do they think we're going to lock up a couple of grands worth of bike outside the Maths building? or at Westwood by ITS anyone?

    31 Jan 2006, 21:35

11. In response to Steve Rumsby 2 December:

    I do not cycle to work at the moment but I soon will be once the Cycle to Work Scheme is in place here at Warwick. My concerns are probably well covered already, but for what its worth, I would like to see secure, monitored parking – preferably covered.

    One of my colleagues knows all too well the hazards of leaving one’s bike anywhere on campus when her bike was stolen only last week. Her bike was locked in the secured brick building based at Uni House. Having discussed this with a few of my other cycling colleagues it seems they feel their bikes are safer locked up to the bars directly outside Uni House – mainly as it is in full view of the building and CCTV.

    From my point of view a lot of the incentives attached to cylcing are only really worth it if there is ample, stress free and safe storage.

    27 Mar 2007, 13:29