Official guidance and instructions on how to park a bicycle are to be incorporated across the Liverpool City Region.
With an emphasis on active travel across the six local authority areas becoming more prevalent, including the development of new cycle routes across Liverpool, authority leaders are keen to get people out of their car and, if not onto public transport, on their bikes. However, more than half the respondents to a walking and cycling report in 2021, said they were more likely to put the pedal down if they had access to safe and secure cycle parking facilities.
Now, the city region’s combined authority is outlining the best way of providing and maintaining cycle parking across the six areas. A guidance document, to be discussed by the combined authority when it meets on Friday, is split into six key areas.
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It includes the variety of parking options the city region could implement, based on price, security and suitability. Among them are cycle parking planters with attached loops to which you can lock a bicycle.
The low cost option, which are increasingly popular in town and city centres, their dual purpose as bike lock and planter can enhance the streetscape and save space. As they are grounded in place due to their weight, they do not require any civil works to install, however they can also be drilled into the ground for additional security.
Shelters, compounds and travel hubs are also mooted options. The most common destinations proposed for the parking options include employment centres, high streets, city and town centres, retail parks, hospitals, educational institutions and public transport hubs.
The report said revenue funding would be required to cover maintenance, upkeep and operational costs in the case of cycle hubs that are staffed and/or offer services. Revenue sources could include user charging pay-as-you-go or membership fees for use of cycle hubs or residential cycle hangars or parking services and enforcement.
The addition of a retail or catering unit for commercial lease within a cycle hub, with profits used to support the running of the parking facilities is also a suggested way of bringing in cash. The move to regulate cycle parking comes as new pot of £1.4m funding will help to pay for a variety of active travel projects.
This will include detailed local route and infrastructure plans developed across Halton, Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral. The funding will also be used to trial new secure cycle parking schemes, with bike parking hangers to be installed in some residential areas.
The cash will also pay for free cycle safety lessons for city region residents.
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