As part of my degree, I am to design a form of temporary cycle parking for festivals and other such temporary events.

What features of a parking system would encourage you to firstly cycle to the event and secondly to use the parking facilities?

Would you like a simple, but secure ‘hitching post’ to lock your bike to? would you prefer a ‘pod’ to lock your bike in so its away from prying eyes? locker for helmet/gear storage? locks provided, or bring your own? Etc.

Any features you can think of – no matter how wacky!!

lets have ’em!

a solid, non-transparent box with a decent lock, one of many inside a bigger cage with cameras, keycard access and a 24hr attendant. then i might consider starting to debate whether or not to think about it.

security wheter this be physical, insurance or some other system. when there is that many people in one place i wouldn’t take a bike without being sure it will be there on my return.

wot he said ^^^^^^

has to be uber safe and out of sight. boxes always preferred

few big containers, with a few members of staff to stack/retrieve your bike. Loads of big sheets of cardboard between them all so they didnt get scratched.

Simple, effective, cheap (compared to buying/renting individual ‘pods’) and secure as long as the staff are trustworthy but maybe they could take out insurance? Of course you cant force people to use it which might limit its effectiveness if you overcharge (anything over £1 would prob put most of the general public off) as theyll just lock it to the nearest tree/lampost/fencepost/otherbikes.

At the TdF in Hyde Park the other year they had a very simple but effective system, basically a ‘cloakroom’ system for bikes. You handed your bike over, it was taken into safe, guarded storage and you were given a ticket. The bike was only given back on production of that ticket.

If you limit ‘public’ access to the stored bikes, you massively reduce the chance that they get nicked.

2nd the cloakroom system. Maybe even more secure if you have to fill in a phone number and postcode on the bikes ticket, that way if you lose the ticket someone can’t claim it.

whats the degree alex?

i think a cloak room idea would certainly be best, how that would be implemented i dont know (thinking on the side of the contractor). A lorry with a modular racking system, hanging bikes up by thier front wheels, but also allowing the racking to slide?
hanging a bike up on its front wheel is ok, but you need a bit of space to get them up and down, if they were on sliding rails, they could be, once hung up, pushed closer together to save space.
perhaps have a fabric/rubber curtain of some sort inbetween each bike to prevent scratching/damage?
if you designed it well, it could even be unmanned?
like the car park in irobot, and in the VW factory, you enter a number known only to yourself, and it spins the carousel of cars/bikes until yours is at the collection window, and then unlocks the door.
some Orange shops have this for charging phones, instead of having a ticket or a key you can loose, you punch in a number of your choice to lock the unit, and punch in the same number to unlock it.
a phone number being the easiest one, and very secure, 11[??] digits

i think you may have a density problems, bikes dont stack very easily, and owners dont appreciate them being bashed around…

Hi Alexonbike
maybe you could try out your designs at our event later this summer.
Take a look at this website.www.warminsterwobble.co.uk
the event takes place in the town park and we will have to provide secure cycle parking on the day.
Got any plans/designs yet?

Thanks everyone for the input.

I’m aiming to make it an unmanned facility as far as possible. This would reduce overall costs and reduce the likelihood that some of the trusted individuals could be members of a ‘gang’.

Olly – I’m in my final year of Design with Engineering Materials at Loughborough.

Frenchie – Sounds good! I’m unsure if Ill be making a prototype yet as time constraints push in. (finished project – evaluated, must be submitted by 8th May. That’s on top of my other bits of work. My parents live in Chapmanslade so Warminster is only down the road! Ill look into it – thanks very much for offering me somewhere to test the idea.

Might be worth getting in touch with Peter Eland at Velovision.
Pete’s featured many different parking concepts over the years and, at the least, would be interested in the results of your work.

VeloVision: The Revolution

cctv

alexonabike – I would be VERY interested in your ideas for the Big Bike Bash. It is one area that is giving me a headache.

What happens at most other event? The ones I have been to you just sleep with the bike or lock it in the boot or the car.

WCA – thanks for your interest. I’d love to help out.

If you send me an email to my address (in profile) ill email you with a document i got from the Transport for London which may be of use to you. It outlines what they believe is acceptable in the terms of temporary cycle parking. I feel they fall short of acceptable, but it’s a start.

That Japanese thing someone posted a vid of a while ago looked good.

Hi worldclass accident. the solution we have come up with for the Wobble here in Warminster is to hire crash barries[cheap] set them up in an H formation for folk to lock up to, rather depends how many bikes turn up I know but its a start

i don’t know about London Transport’s general level of security, but the setup at finsbury park station is really good – basically what i outlined in my first post, in that it’s completely enclosed in metal cage and permanently staffed. really good, and looks pretty failsafe.

Glastonbury (back when I used to go) had a cloakroom system for bikes and bags. Dutch in-town bike parks are pretty similar, and are very busy over there.