It’s an article about London, yes, but cheap council car parking permits that cost significantly less than the market rate for a comparable private car parking space is a nationwide problem.
I’m not a fan of the recent trend of demonising drivers but I can’t wrap my head around how you can charge more for a car space than to park a bicycle. Doesn’t make sense.
My cycle hoop costs £80/year, my car permit £158.00. This is Westminster zone 2.
To be honest I don’t mind paying either.
>Cyclists can pay up to £107 for bike hangar usage annually, despite taking up much less space than drivers do.
Generally paying that amount isn’t even an option as they won’t install enough bike hangers for the demand.
I’ve often thought about buying a knackered van and just leaving it outside for additional storage. Parking is so cheap!
Wait, you guys have bike storage options?
Very little secure storage options in Leeds and a lot of bike theft. With all the money going into cycle lanes, they seem to overlook this part.
These pro-car absurdities exist elsewhere. The shortest possible train journey across the Mersey is £3.40 single or £3.60 return, but to go through the Mersey Tunnel in a car is £1.20 each way for a local resident. Of course you can get multiple people in the car to cut the price even further.
It’s crazy that this would be an issue in London, the only city in the country that actually seems to make sense for cyclists (my own city only has a few dedicated cycle lanes, and a lot of them just stop when roads become too narrow, ie presumably in the most dangerous parts for cyclists- the idea of biking around here is genuinely terrifying). We’re doing a terrible job at making non-car options appealing if we can’t even manage it in *London*
I worked for the company that installed these for Islington, they cost about £3k each to put in so it doesn’t seem too ridiculous to charge a small fee to use them. Plus it seems they have a waitlist that is huge, so the price isn’t a deterrent.
Sounds like you get a dedicated space in these bike hangers, while car parking is an oversubscribed free-for-all. I can understand why a dedicated space costs more, even if it is smaller.
If there is so much demand, both schemes should probably be charging more. Even the most expensive hanger listed in the article is less than £7/m/sqm. Imagine renting a flat in London at that rate!
I mean I pay £1.50 a week for mine but I live on a housing association estate. The lockup was fitted by the council and subsidised I guess.
You can park a bike anywhere for free. Even chain it to a lamp post, railing or tree. That’s a secure space. It’s more relevant to compare it to a garage as an equivalent.
I have a Brompton E bike, I can’t recommend them enough. When I get to the office it just folds up and goes under my desk.
This is comparing apples to oranges really.
In Islington the cost of the permit is based on the emissions of CO2 g/km. My previous car cost ~£100 per year to park, the new one despite being slightly bigger is much cheaper at ~£30 per year. The most polluting car would cost £700+ per year. For that you are allowed to park in a certain zone, but it is on street parking and a free for all – there’s no guarantee you even get to park on your street.
In contrast the cycle hangers are a secured, dedicated space. You always know you’ll have a space to leave your bike, and it is locked and protected from the weather.
Now of course, if you wanted to drum up outrage you could look at the cheapest car permit cost and compare it to the most expensive bike storage cost and write an article about it, ignoring the more expensive car permits, and ignoring that dedicated cycle storage is better than on street parking. But surely our media would never do that
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It’s an article about London, yes, but cheap council car parking permits that cost significantly less than the market rate for a comparable private car parking space is a nationwide problem.
I’m not a fan of the recent trend of demonising drivers but I can’t wrap my head around how you can charge more for a car space than to park a bicycle. Doesn’t make sense.
My cycle hoop costs £80/year, my car permit £158.00. This is Westminster zone 2.
To be honest I don’t mind paying either.
>Cyclists can pay up to £107 for bike hangar usage annually, despite taking up much less space than drivers do.
Generally paying that amount isn’t even an option as they won’t install enough bike hangers for the demand.
I’ve often thought about buying a knackered van and just leaving it outside for additional storage. Parking is so cheap!
Wait, you guys have bike storage options?
Very little secure storage options in Leeds and a lot of bike theft. With all the money going into cycle lanes, they seem to overlook this part.
These pro-car absurdities exist elsewhere. The shortest possible train journey across the Mersey is £3.40 single or £3.60 return, but to go through the Mersey Tunnel in a car is £1.20 each way for a local resident. Of course you can get multiple people in the car to cut the price even further.
It’s crazy that this would be an issue in London, the only city in the country that actually seems to make sense for cyclists (my own city only has a few dedicated cycle lanes, and a lot of them just stop when roads become too narrow, ie presumably in the most dangerous parts for cyclists- the idea of biking around here is genuinely terrifying). We’re doing a terrible job at making non-car options appealing if we can’t even manage it in *London*
I worked for the company that installed these for Islington, they cost about £3k each to put in so it doesn’t seem too ridiculous to charge a small fee to use them. Plus it seems they have a waitlist that is huge, so the price isn’t a deterrent.
Sounds like you get a dedicated space in these bike hangers, while car parking is an oversubscribed free-for-all. I can understand why a dedicated space costs more, even if it is smaller.
If there is so much demand, both schemes should probably be charging more. Even the most expensive hanger listed in the article is less than £7/m/sqm. Imagine renting a flat in London at that rate!
I mean I pay £1.50 a week for mine but I live on a housing association estate. The lockup was fitted by the council and subsidised I guess.
You can park a bike anywhere for free. Even chain it to a lamp post, railing or tree. That’s a secure space. It’s more relevant to compare it to a garage as an equivalent.
I have a Brompton E bike, I can’t recommend them enough. When I get to the office it just folds up and goes under my desk.
This is comparing apples to oranges really.
In Islington the cost of the permit is based on the emissions of CO2 g/km. My previous car cost ~£100 per year to park, the new one despite being slightly bigger is much cheaper at ~£30 per year. The most polluting car would cost £700+ per year. For that you are allowed to park in a certain zone, but it is on street parking and a free for all – there’s no guarantee you even get to park on your street.
In contrast the cycle hangers are a secured, dedicated space. You always know you’ll have a space to leave your bike, and it is locked and protected from the weather.
Now of course, if you wanted to drum up outrage you could look at the cheapest car permit cost and compare it to the most expensive bike storage cost and write an article about it, ignoring the more expensive car permits, and ignoring that dedicated cycle storage is better than on street parking. But surely our media would never do that