Bike scheme still waiting for operator
CYCLISTS in Cardiff have been left waiting more than a year for a promised trial of secure on-street storage hangars.
In October last year Cardiff council announced a new trial, with plans to install cycle hangars on residential streets.
More than a year later no hangars have been installed, amid difficulty getting a company to sign up to the pilot.
Cycling campaigners have called it “essential” to get a lot of cycle hangars installed quickly.
The hangars, which look like large bread bins, take up less space than a car and can store up to six bicycles each. Several other cities in the UK already have them, including Bristol, London and Edinburgh.
When announcing the trial last year, the council asked residents to suggest potential locations of where the hangars should be installed. The trial followed a petition from Cardiff Cycle City, which received hundreds of signatures, and has now received more than 500.
The pilot was widely welcomed on social media by many living in shared accommodation or flats, where space to keep bikes inside can often be limited.
One user said: “Space and access can be one of the barriers to people using bikes, but hangars like these that provide secure storage could help remove that barrier.”
Another said: “This seems like a really good initiative. We’ve had quite a few bike thefts around here in recent years. More secure storage would really help.”
More than 1,000 bicycles were reported stolen in Cardiff over the last 12 months, according to data from South Wales Police, with 102 reported thefts in
September alone. The rate of bicycle theft in Cardiff is more than triple than in Swansea, Rhondda Cynon Taf or Bridgend.
A spokesman for Cardiff Cycle City said: “It’s great the council are getting on with building new protected cycle tracks, but lack of infrastructure isn’t the only thing that prevents people from cycling.
“Many people live in terraced houses, flats, or houses of multiple occupation, that have no space for storing bikes, while the roadside space outside their house is filled with parked cars. We think it’s only fair to offer some of this space to people to store their bikes by installing cycle hangars, which make more efficient use of the kerbside as six bikes can be stored in the same space as half a car.”
“If the council is serious about the climate emergency, and its ambition of getting people to switch from driving to cycling short journeys, then it is essential that cycle hangars are installed quickly and in large numbers.”
Cardiff council said so far it could not find a company to provide the hangars and make a pilot “financially viable”, but called for any potential operators to get in touch.
A council spokesperson said: “We are still hoping to see a scheme happen in Cardiff and it remains one of many plans to improve infrastructure for cyclists and to encourage active travel, so that people are less reliant on private cars. We would welcome any operators getting in touch to discuss solutions and partnership approaches to implement a scheme in Cardiff.”