Secure places to store bicycles are in huge demand across Bristol as new hangars were almost fully booked up within an hour and a half. Five out of six spaces in the 40 new hangars recently installed were already reserved just 90 minutes after cyclists could apply to rent them out.
Bike hangars are becoming an increasingly common site on residential roads throughout the city, each providing space to safely store six bicycles. For people living in small flats or shared houses, they solve an obstacle in getting more people cycling, with somewhere to leave a bike.
But the roll-out of new hangars has been hampered by “incredible demand”, with residents suggesting lots of sites that weren’t included in the latest round of installation. Councillors pressed for details on new hangars during a meeting of the member forum on March 11.
Green councillor James Crawford said: “Bishopston is receiving two new bike hangars, however from conversations from residents there is a lot of untapped demand for more. It’s great to see such incredible demand for these hangars. But there were a lot of suggested sites that were unsuccessful in this round.”
Bicycle theft is rife in Bristol, putting off many people from taking up cycling. Outside some blocks of flats, for example, are just a few unsecured Sheffield stands, leaving bicycles vulnerable to thieves. Hangars on the other hand are accessible only with a key or via an app.
In the latest round, the West of England Combined Authority installed 40 new hangars in places like Bishopston and Brislington, providing space for 240 bicycles. The latest figures suggest that 227 spaces have now been reserved, with just 13 left available.
Unprecedented demand led to the booking website running slowly, as it struggled to cope with the high number of people trying to reserve a space. The council previously had its own system for accepting suggestions for new bike hangars, but this was taken over by the West of England.
Green Cllr Ed Plowden, chair of the transport policy committee, said: “We’ve had a bit of a problem with this. We had a long-standing way of suggesting bike hangars, and WECA insisted on putting in their own way of doing that.
“Residents across Bristol responded really well to that. We’ll be working with WECA to ensure that when we roll out future phases, they’re based on information that we hold, as well as any new information that we can feed in.”
He added that there was no timeline for installing more new hangars. Some could be installed as part of liveable neighbourhood projects, in the east and south of the city. No decisions will be made until after the upcoming election on Thursday, May 1, for a new West of England mayor.