A new report by Fare City released today explores the issue of cycle hangars and how Londoners are asked to spend more to park a bicycle in a secure hangar than they are to park polluting cars outside their homes, further embedding car dependency. The average cost of renting a space in a cycle hangar in London is £57.90. This means a family of four would spend on average £231.60 a year parking four cycles, which is nearly five (4.6) times the average cost of parking a petrol car (£50) and seven times an electric car (£29).
The Clean Cities social media and billboard campaign #ThisIsAwkward has been bringing to life the chronic shortage of spaces available for Londoners to park their cycles. New billboards are now running to coincide with the launch of today’s report, focussed on the high costs of storage. The first is in Islington, where the cost of a cycle hangar space is an eye watering £107.25 a year – almost twice the London average. This means it would cost a family of 4 trying to securely park their cycles 14 times more (£429) than a resident permit for a small petrol car (£30).
A billboard is also running in Southwark, which has the largest waiting list of any borough with more than 8,500 residents. The billboards showcase the weird and wonderful places people are forced to park their cycles from the bedroom to the kitchen to the toilet, submitted by people on social media. In Southwark it would cost £160 to park four cycles, compared to £32 for a petrol car.
Comparisons of costs of cycle versus car parking in every London borough is included in Table 1.
High costs and lack of access to secure storage can be a severe barrier to people cycling, with 400 cycle thefts occurring every week in London, and a 60,000 strong waiting list for a secure cycle hangar space (8,524 waiting in Southwark alone).
Oliver Lord, UK Head of Clean Cities Campaign, said:
“This report shows that in some areas the situation is more than awkward, it’s just ridiculous. Cycle parking should never cost more than car parking. We’ve got it the wrong way round. Income from car parking, especially polluting vehicles, should be used to fund affordable and secure cycle parking.
“Who wants to cart their wheels up three flights of stairs or salsa past their wheels when going to the loo? Cycle hangars are a hugely practical way for councils to help people be less dependent on their cars, which is essential to tackling London’s toxic air.”
