August 06, 2021
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Cycle Storage Guides

Guide To Cycle Parking For Universities

George Turvec

By George Hosegood

Cycling has time and again been proven to be better for not just you, but the environment and those around you. No surprise then, that more and more people are opting to cycle – whether that’s to work, for leisure, or to study.

But to enable more people to cycle we need secure, safe, and reliable infrastructure. That includes improving cycle lanes, bettering accessibility, and furthering quality cycle parking.

One of the areas standing to gain from durable, reliable, and user-friendly cycle parking facilities are universities.

University campuses are busy throughout the day, with both staff and students travelling in and out for seminars and lectures. To accommodate the increasing numbers of people cycling, that parking requires detailed thought and planning.

Here’s a guide to the benefits of these improvements, and what universities can do to put these changes into practice.

Cycling Improves Well-being and Productivity

Secure, well-located, accessible, and easy to use cycle parking will ultimately help encourage more people to commute via bicycle. When you know and can trust you’ll have somewhere safe and secure to park your bike, you’re more likely to cycle.

And more people cycling brings individual benefits. Those cycling to work have been shown to take fewer sick days, for instance. Alongside improving health, well-being and productivity, in many urban areas cycling will be the quickest and most efficient mode of transport.

That should mean more students attending lectures and classes, with an increase in focus and productivity.

Storing all parked bicycles in dedicated areas also makes it easier to prevent bike theft. With either basement areas or shelters, CCTV and lighting are deterrents which are easily implemented.

Further, in the long run with more people cycling to university, the demand for car parking will decrease. Cars occupy more parking space, whether that’s on street or in car parks. Affording the campus that extra space for wider pavements or new university buildings can be very valuable.

Campus Benefits

For the university campus, more secure dedicated cycle parking means avoiding students and staff chaining their cycles to fencing, lampposts, or trees.

That reduces clutter and eyesores, and can help transform campus areas into more welcoming, and green spaces, with less congestion and more opportunities to improve walking and sitting areas.

Sedum living roofs on cycle shelters help encourage wildlife, provide natural drainage, and what’s more look great.

Shelters come in a range of finishes – timber, mesh, profile, or glass. With that choice, you can match the finish to surrounding buildings – helping integrate the facility into the campus rather than making it an afterthought.

With an increased volume of cyclists comes a reduction in cars and therefore noise and air pollution. It’s a virtuous circle where the more people you have cycling, the increased likelihood further people are likely to join. And that can only begin with the right infrastructure.

How To Design And Install University Cycle Parking

The first step involves identifying the available space you have for parking, and then making sure you meet the demand for storage from students, staff, and visitors.

Including a mixture of different racks and stands ensures you provide a usable space for all manner of cycles – including recumbent and cargo bikes. Two-tier racks are ideally suited to high density parking, but ensuring you include correctly spaced Sheffield stands too will always provide disabled and cargo bike delivery spots.

We’ll help you ensure spacing and dimensions suit both the usability of the racks while meeting the necessary number of parking spaces.

Creating a welcoming environment with signage and graphics wil help educate those cycling on how to park their parks, and guests easily locate the racks. You can also ensure the parking is branded with University graphics and colour schemes.

Adding e-bike chargingfolding bike lockers, and/or bike repair stations all help contribute to the quality of your facility. Going beyond box-ticking all helps create the infrastructure that will make cycling a welcoming way to travel.

Repair stations in particular require little space, can be custom branded, and can help reduce abandoned bicycles, while greatly helping people keep cycling and repair their bikes..

Get in touch with our team to help design and install the right cycle parking solution for your project, or take a look at our projects page for further inspiration.

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