Bike Week - nearly here - news snippet

Nice to see the bike week poster so prominently displayed at St Albans City Station.  STACC did a bike count this week and there were approximately 600 cycles parked around the station.  We have to say approximately, as more were arriving during the count!
Good cycling parking is vital if more people are to choose cycling as their preferred transport mode.

Parking survey update

STACC is looking at bike parking in St Albans. It's a long task, but we've made a start. Last Friday I spent most of the afternoon getting rained on and surveying bike parking spaces in the city centre. I also met local councillor Beric Read to talk about how we can get hold of more spaces, especially to cope with higher demand and reduced space on market days.


Overall the city centre area is fairly well served for bike parking spaces. Most of the racks are Sheffield/Penny Farthing type; there is one site of substandard 'wheel bender' racks which don't seem to be used much. Some of the bike parking sites between St Peter's street and Drovers Way - Waddington Road and the alley next to BHS- don't seem to be being used. Beric will look at what signage could be installed to point them out but if you can't find a space look for one there! In the city centre there is space to expand the existing sites by filling in gaps and a couple of places where new racks can be installed but these will need to be approved by private landlords and/or Highways/Conservation/Planning and funding will have to come from somewhere.

Away from the city centre bike rack provision isn't so good. We have a fairly large list of requirements which I'm going through, I will map these up and talk to Beric to see what can be done. I'll continue existing surveying racks and adding them to the map. I'll publish the demand map once it's finished.

Bike Week Report: City Station Bike Coding, Tuesday

A concerted effort on Tuesday evening at St Albans City Station resulted in somewhere between 110 & 120 bikes being post coded (to help them to be returned to owners if recovered after theft).
We manned the bike parking areas on each side of the line, working in teams of two.
Many commuters complained of cycles being stolen - one chap had had 8 bikes stolen in the course of 20 years commuting.
We also gave away a number of cycle alarms which had been purchased at a generously discounted price by a group of local councils - one of which was St Albans. We understand that the station staff are required to respond when a cycle alarm sounds.
The operator First Capital Connect has recently also given out these alarms to season ticket holders.
Both FCC and British Transport Police are keen to reduce cycle theft, but according to some commuters we spoke to the operation of CCTV remains very unsatisfactory.
Another point of commuter complaint was the shortage of cycle parking places. FCC do attend the St Albans Cycling Forum and always indicate their keenness to attract passengers to cycle to the station. They have a rolling programme of cycle parking provision which is gradually being actioned with delivery believed to be on schedule. Let's see if they keep to it.
Be sure to tell STACC of any problems you encounter.

St Albans City Station - Cycle Parking

STACC's Richard-571 reports from St Albans Cycling Forum (16th April).....

Just wanted to point up the helpful post-Forum piece in Herts Advertiser
(Thursday 19 April, page 5) in case anyone missed it.
( Article is reproduced below)

Highlights from the article include Larry Heyman of FCC (ex-Thameslink):
1) predicting saturation of car parking capacity by 2012
2) suggesting that "150 cycle spaces could be provided (initially)"
3) ...as a first step towards our medium term target of 1,000 spaces.

Less good news... floating of parking charges for cyclists, and "new
racks will depend on funding which has not been found as of yet".

Jack's contribution to this piece picks up on funding - and makes the point the article
might have started with - "Leave your car at home and get on you bike"

Clearly the Forum has proved useful again...

PS: ....here's a link to a letter about cycling to Royston Station:
http://www.hertsad.co.uk/search/story.aspx?brand=ROYWestOnline&category=Postbag&itemid=WEED19%20Apr%202007%2011:21:11:967&tBrand=ROYWestOnline&tCategory=search

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Article in Herts Advertiser 19/4/07

EVEN with a new multi-storey car park being built at St Albans City Station, it’s predicted that by 2012 it will run out of room.

With the steady increase in the city’s growth, the new 813-space car park at the station is likely to be full in five years’ time, according to train operator First Capital Connect’s Integration and partnership manager, Larry Heyman, who also lives in St Albans. He said: “At the moment there is an average of 500 people a day parking at the station but with the fact that there is an awful lot of development in Herts I can imagine that by 2012 that car park could be pretty well full.” Now new ways of enhancing the provision for cyclists are being investigated and after a meeting with the St Albans Cyclists Forum (SCF) this week, Mr Heyman said that 150 new cycle racks could be provided. He also wants many more to be introduced to meet the SCF’s benchmark of 1,000. He said: “At the moment there are 396 racks and on a typical day these are all used and there are an extra 150 cycles chained to lampposts, fences and pretty much anything that doesn’t move.” Due to a lack of space Mr Heyman is now looking into double level cycle racks with a cantilever design and will be going out with the SCF to look at ways other stations have met the cyclists’ needs. This will include some stations where cyclists are charged a fee but FCC want to avoid this wherever possible. Mr Heyman said: “I also want to make sure the new racks are ones that cyclists want to use and that are safe and secure so people can be confident they will find their bike in the same condition as it was left in the morning.” However the new racks will depend on funding which has not been found as of yet. Jack Pia, of the St Albans Cycling Committee and the SCF, said this was achievable: “I think it’s of major importance. Herts County Council realises this and have discussed joint funding. There are a lot more resources for cyclists these days to encourage them to use cars less. The district council also has funds for cycling.” He added: “It’s not just for those who want to save the world, but for people who want to save money and get to work quicker without being held up in traffic. People drive amazingly short distances to get to the station but if you live within two miles or less, it is a hell of a lot easier to cycle.”

Liz adds....

Thanks to Jack for chasing this and getting some good coverage. STACC now await invitation from Larry to visit some other stations to view and comment on their cycle parking provision e.g double decker parking at Guildford Station.