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Bike Storage residential, including onstreet secure ‘hangars’

NB – For temporary on-street bike parking, e.g. when shopping or visiting, see our bike parking page.

Difficulty in storing a bike at home can be a serious deterrent to bike use and therefore makes it harder for Councils to achieve targets for increased bike usage.  This can apply to a wide range of accommodation types, including flats, tenements and terraced houses without easy access to a back garden.

There are many aspects to this problem, some of which are covered on other pages and in our factsheets…

  • Research – evidence that tenement bike storage problems in Edinburgh are resulting in reduced bike use – see the paper by Dr Tim Ryley [item 0809 on our ‘local research’ page]. 2023 Cycling Scotland report.
  • Bike storage in front gardens – thanks largely to persistent campaigning by Spokes over some 10 years, the Scottish Government changed the rules so that modest bike sheds in front gardens normally no longer require planning permission, with its £200 cost.   For details, a Council factsheet, and the history of our efforts in Edinburgh and at national level see our page on garden bike storage.
  • Bike Storage at Home’ competition 2023lots of innovative ideas!
  • Bike storage in flats and tenements – see our factsheet and other materials
  • Making your bike shed secure – see Security page [paras 2011 and 1403]
  • Bike storage while you are at work – see this page
  • Onstreet secure bike storage –  Councils can make a huge difference by providing secure [covered and lockable] onstreet bike storage.  See below for Edinburgh developments.  Although this sometimes means removal of car parking spaces, removal of one car space can provide bike storage for 6 or more bikes.  There is a strong equity argument that if sufficient residents of a tenement wish one car space outside their block replaced by multiple bike spaces, the council should make this change, rather than providing only for the minority of residents who wish all spaces to be for cars.

Edinburgh Council Onstreet Secure Bike Storage

Edinburgh’s scheme is most welcome, albeit it took 10 years from the initial idea to major implementation, as this timeline shows.  Most of Edinburgh’s onstreet ‘bike hangars’ (each holding 6 bikes) are fully booked, and further installations are promised.

The scheme is run for the Council by Cyclehoop, www.cyclehoop.rentals, who install and maintain the hangars at locations approved by the Council.   Where hangars are onstreet, Traffic Regulation Orders are required to convert car spaces into bike spaces, so getting one is a lengthy process.  There is a fee to rent a space – this covers Cyclehoop ongoing costs and profit, so running the scheme is cost-neutral to the Council, but means that rent of a bike space costs more than a residents’ car parking fee.

To find bike hangars near you, and book a space if available, enter your postcode at www.cyclehoop.rentals.  You can also suggest new locations (see button on bottom left of the map).

If you have comments – e.g. too few spaces, the cost, or other issues, speak to your local councillors – the Council tells Cyclehoop what they can and cannot do.  Of course, for everyday maintenance and rental issues, contact Cyclehoop.

Note: Paragraph numbers represent year and month; e.g. 2011 means November 2020

2008 Installation begins!

2004 TRO/20/10 – Secure Cycle Parking  Draft Traffic Regulation Order to allow those hangers that will be onstreet (i.e. all or nearly all of them).  We think this is a first phase, for 50 or so streets.  Plans & locations The TRO itself

1810 Delayed rollout now to go ahead on increased scale.  Report to 4.10.18 Transport Committee.  NB report was approved with added decisions – see item 9 of minutes.

1611 Edinburgh to roll out on-street bike storageReport of 1.11.16 Transport Cttee decision

1606 Delay & uncertainty re rollout of onstreet storage – see page 2 of Spokesworker 12.6.16

1512 Pilot scheme summary & future plansCouncil presentation to South Central Neighbourhood Partnership

1410 Edinburgh pilot scheme at last fully in place!  One user’s experience [with photos].

1405 Edinburgh Pilot Scheme, progress report [pdf 291k] with pictures of the trial onstreet storage containers

1405  Hackney Borough example Part of the delay in Edinburgh has been the need for Traffic Regulation Orders to legally convert onstreet space to bike parking.  London had similar problems but several Boroughs seem now to have speeded things up considerably.

1402  Traffic Regulation Order TRO/13/31 [pdf 21k] and Location maps [pdf 299k] Final versions, now out for public objections.   OnStreet bike storage soon – Evening News

1312 Draft Traffic Regulation Order TRO/13/31  [pdf 21k] and Location maps [pdf 299k] for pilot storage scheme.  Installation now expected in April.

1308 Traffic Regulation Orders for the 6 pilot locations expected to be published, with the hope of actual installing by the end of the year – although objections to the TROs could delay this further

1203 Edinburgh Council chooses 6 applicants for the pilot storage project.   Next stage is to agree with the applicants the type of storage, then to promote the necessary Traffic Regulation Orders where the storage is onstreet.

1110 Edinburgh Council seeks applicants for pilot onstreet storage project

1009 Council Active Travel Action Plan approved – includes commitment to trial onstreet bike storage

Onstreet Secure Bike Storage – examples elsewhere

Lambeth Bike Hanger
1403 Hackney BisSDSLIEAAt6pM

1307 Lambeth Council has installed 27 ‘Bike Hangers’ onstreet in residential areas  – each lockable and holding up to 6 bikes, a total of 162 spaces so far – more are planned.  Users pay £5 a month for a key to their nearest ‘hanger.’   “An innovative cycle parking programme that looks to use the carriageway for the purposes of secure or over-night cycle parking where people have no space for their bikes at home. To our knowledge this is a UK first. This program is targeted towards high density multi-occupancy terraced housing where there is very little available space outside of the carriageway.”  Further info on Lambeth’s wider approach to cycle parking.

1403 Hackney too [tweet from Councillor @VincentStops]

1305 Westminster Council to convert some resident car parking bays to bike parking [Local Transport Today 17.5.13]