£300,000 project to build 50 bike shelters across city
NEW bike shelters could be installed throughout Glasgow as part of a £300,000 project.
City chiefs will carry out a feasibility study to identify 50 locations where residents could benefit from the bike parking units.
Glasgow City Council Land and Environmental Services (LES) officers will look at the potential of building the £6000-a-pop shelters at tower blocks, flats and on streets across the city.
It comes despite a similar scheme at Alexandra Parade having been removed in 2012 after reports of anti-social behaviour.
There is currently no funding in place, but officials hope to access cash through cycling charity Sustrans.
George Gillespie, the council’s executive director of neighbourhoods and sustainability, said: “Glasgow has a significant number of its population living within a four-mile radius of the city centre in properties such as Victorian tenements, high rise flats and apartment blocks.
“These often have limited cycle storage space and are based around narrow central stairwells.
“These can present problems for moving bicycles and where stored in a communal space, can cause obstruction and attract a greater risk of theft.
“Also, smaller lifts, where lifts are available, present problems for the movement of cycles to the floor of residence.
“Such barriers, that are a result of inherited architecture of the city, are a hindrance to cycling and reduce the potential for increasing levels of cycling in these areas. These storage issues conflict with the desire of residents to lead more sustainable and active lives, as confirmed by those residents who have submitted multiple requests for secure cycle parking.”
If funding can be found, housing associations will be able to approach the council to install the bike shelters in backcourts and other communal spaces in tower blocks and tenements.
Malcolm Balfour, who chairs the council’s environment committee, said: “I was at a meeting this morning and I know that Sustrans do have a significant amount of money to invest in this type of programme.”
The new feasibility study is expected to be complete by early next year, with officers keen to push ahead with funding proposals thereafter, if it is found to be worthwhile cost effective.