There's been a suggestion from Stephen
"Simple Minds fan" Williams* to use multistorey car parks for bike parking.
Williams said: “There’s always lots of chatter about cycle paths, road closures and other aspects of highway management. But this deals with only one of the barriers to increasing the confidence of occasional cyclists to ride more.”
He added: “These measures would increase leisure cycling but the key to getting more people to see their bike as a mode of transport for shopping, leisure visits or commuting to work is the confidence that you can leave your bike for a few hours or the whole working day and find it’s still there when you return.
“Car theft was rife until the last decade or so but car security and car park security has seen theft rates go down. We need the same effort to see a big drop in bike thefts.
https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/bike-parks-could-replace-cars-in-some-car-parks/Now, I agree with him that reliable, secure parking is an incredibly important component of being able to use a bike for transport around town. Sheffield stands on wider pavements are great but there simply aren't enough of them. Locking to railings and fences is not necessarily secure, can cause trips hazards and often annoys property owners/users. But I'm not sure that putting bikes in multistoreys is an attractive idea.
Firstly, it is insecure; bike locks and the Sheffield stands themselves are not invincible, and these locations give thieves the isolation and time to work out of sight. As he points out, theft of cars is much rarer nowadays but theft from cars is still very common.
Secondly, these places are dark, ugly, and stink of oil and urine. They are simply the least attractive edifices in any modern town, not places anyone would seek out.
Thirdly, the locations themselves are not always convenient. Stacking cars vertically in centralised locations works because there is no other space for them; cyclists would generally rather park nearer their destination(s).
That said, the basic principle that parking space, as well as road space, needs to be reallocated, is one I agree with.
*To be clear, I have no idea of his musical tastes and I'm not implying he has a simple mind!
