Cyclists: watch this space

EVERY TIME I OPEN the cycle hangar at the end of my street, passers-by ask me about it. Tourists exclaim what a great idea it is. Locals ask how they can get a space in one. Some have contacted their councillors, others are on long waiting lists. Some say, with a raised eyebrow, that it’s unfair that you can park your car for free on the streets of Portobello, but you have to pay for storing a bike.

I pay £6 a month for a guaranteed space in the hangar and it’s changed my life. I have an electric bike which weighs 26 kilos. I live in a top flat and have severe osteoarthritis in my knee. I cannot carry the bike up to my flat. When my knee is flaring, I use my bike as my mobility aid. I cycle everywhere as I don’t have access to a car.

SHORT ON SPACE

Our tenement has a narrow stair. Before I had the hangar space, I kept my bike in the stairwell. When I went out on my bike, I never knew whether I would have a space to return to as there were more bikes than the space available. Bike storage in tenements often results in neighbour disputes, problems accessing the back green, and may incur warnings from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. Bikes in stairs are also regularly stolen.

My cycle insurance company covers the hangar use as it’s within the specified distance from my flat. But what about everybody else in Edinburgh that needs a space and hasn’t got one? There are swathes of the city with no cycle hangars at all. Aside from fear of traffic and the lack of safe cycling infrastructure, lack of storage is a significant barrier to people who want to cycle. The problem is made worse for many disabled people who want to cycle adaptive cycles including trikes. These cycles need more space than provided in the current hangars.

If the council is serious about enabling everybody to cycle who wants to, it must prioritise low-cost secure convenient cycle storage, particularly in tenement areas, and storage solutions provided for disabled people who use, or would like to use, adaptive cycles. Equitable financing also needs to be addressed. It shouldn’t be cheaper to park a car on the street than a cycle. And hangars should never be on pavements. There is enough street space in Edinburgh to reallocate existing car parking spaces to cycle storage.