Houten celebrates cycling

Houten, "Cycling city 2008" in the Netherlands, celebrated the official opening of two railway stations, a work of art and -by opening a giant bicycle wheel lock- the grand bicycle parking facility under the main railway station, with a town wide party on Saturday 16th April 2011.

In this video: first the celebrations then a better look at the bike parking facility

The bicycle parking facility for over 3,000 bicycles is located directly under the railway tracks and platforms. The bicycles are not hidden in some dark cellar in a distant corner here. No, this bicycle parking facility is in fact an important and integrated part of the station. The bicycles are sheltered and guarded for free. There are the logical extra services like maintenance, repair and rental bikes. But there are also lockers and toilets and even the Tourist Office is located in the same building as well. The lightness and the bright colours are not just making the facility pretty, coupled with the fact that all passengers walk right through it and there is someone present at all time, it creates a high level of social safety. Which is an important factor for a facility to be used at all.

This bike parking facility is called 'transferium' because it is so easy to transfer from one mode of transport to the next. In this case from bicycle to train and vice versa. In fact 60% of train travellers in Houten come or go by bicycle. In the rest of the Netherlands that number is around 40%.

The bicycle parking facility opens daily just before the first train leaves in the early morning and closes only after the last train arrives in the late night. Which on weekdays is from 5 am to 1:15 am.

Houten; arguably the most cycle friendly town in the Netherlands

Some background information

Houten is a relatively new town. Originally a small village that (from the 1960s on) was planned to be expanded dramatically to give the people from nearby city Utrecht a better place to live. In the early 1980s the first homes were ready and in 1982 a new railway station replaced the old one that had closed in 1934, to cater the developing larger town. In the 1970s the town had a population of 4,000. Today Houten proper houses 44,000 people and it will grow even more.

From the very start of the expansion Houten was created to favour cycling by:

• creating many cycle routes with priority;
• “compartmentisation” of the city for motorised traffic (there is only one through route, wide around the neighbourhoods);
• building the homes with the front towards the cycle routes and the back to car parking (so the routes are not scary after dark);
• building schools, shops and other public facilities along the main cycle routes (making them more convenient to reach by bike);
• creating multi-level crossings where the cycle routes and motorised traffic cross.

This resulted in the world famous very cycling friendly town where the model split was 44% of all trips by bicycle versus 31% by car the last time it was measured (2002). Houten has set the standard for the way many towns and cities now treat cyclists.


Making use of the railway expansion

Houten was built on either side of the most important North-South railway line of the Netherlands. This line had to be expanded. The railways run for 5.3 kilometres (3.3 miles) through Houten and from 2007 on the tracks were doubled from 2 to 4 tracks. In collaboration with the Dutch Railways the council of Houten took this opportunity to create an entirely new main railway station and they also updated the town’s centre. For the new most southern neighbourhoods in Houten a completely new second railway station was created. The original 1868 railway station building was picked up and moved to a new location 150 meters (492ft) South, to make way for the extra tracks.

The North-South railway line (black) cuts Houten in half.

The budget for this railway project was 110 million euros to which Houten contributed 30 million.

Now that there are two tracks in each direction the local trains and express trains do not interfere with one another anymore. The new railway tracks were built 1.8 meters (5.9ft) higher than the old, so that the space under the tracks could be used in a better way. It made underpasses easier and lighter and thus more attractive.

The extra space under the main railway station is now the location of the beautiful new bicycle parking ‘transferium’ with over 3,000 parking spaces. At the second railway station another facility will be built for 1,700 bicycles. High numbers for a town of 44,000 people. But simply necessary when cycling is the most important mode of transport.

David has written more posts about Houten before.

 

Assen railway station bike shop: Longer opening hours, more guarded cycle parking spaces

A small story in the local newspaper. Longer opening hours at the bike shop at Assen's railway station. The shop was previously open from before the first train in the morning until after the last train in the evening. Now the opening times each day will be from 5 in the morning until 2 the next morning, easily covering the times for trains. At any time, the shop will be able to offer bike sales, repairs, rentals (for normal rental bikes and also OV Fiets bike share bikes.

The longer shop hours also mean better availability for the approximately one thousand secure indoor cycle parking spaces (this has quietly increased from 750 places last year), though of course the 1550 outdoor spaces can be accessed at any time.

Such long opening hours are quite exceptional in the Netherlands. It is rare here for shops to open late at night, and virtually all shops are shut on Sundays and on Monday mornings. As such, this bike shop will be one of very few shops of any kind which are open at such hours. Outside these hours, there is still the vending machine.


View of the indoor cycle parking from a platform at night-time.


Outdoor parking on the Western side of the line.


Outdoor parking on the Eestern side of the line.

Assen's population is 65000. The railway station has parking for 2550 bicycles. That's one space for every 25 of the population. You can work out a comparable ratio for your own town. There are other posts about railway station cycle parking.

Update 2013
New plans for the railway station will expand the size to 3500 bikes to keep up with increased usage. Another blog post will include details in the future.

Assen is not a university town. This is a fairly typical amount of railway station cycle parking for a normal Dutch town without hoards of students to boost cycling numbers. You find such numbers even in villages, at railways stations all across the country.

Groningen Railway Station cycle parking revisited again

It's sometimes difficult to keep up with progress on cycle parking. I've covered the parking at Groningen's main railway station twice before: First I wrote about the cycle park built in 2006 for 4150 bikes, and then I wrote about how this cycle park had been expanded to accommodate an additional thousand bikes, bringing the total to around 10000.

Today it's the turn of the "Fietsflat" in Groningen, an additional one thousand bicycle cycle parking facility which has been built at the station to cater for the ever growing demand.

So here it is. An additional two storey cycle park.

This is not entirely a new structure. Actually, a slightly smaller, two storey cycle park was erected in this location as a temporary structure while the main cycle park was being built. However, by the time the big new cycle park was open and in use, the usage had grown such that the temporary park was also full. That's the reason why the Fietsflat came into being as a permanent structure. Unfortunately, this is often full too...

In the video you see the main "fietsbalkon", now expanded to (officially) 5150 spaces, and also the Fietsflat. You don't see the other smaller parking areas around the station, nor the indoor guarded cycle park which accommodate the rest of the bikes..

Explanatory captions on this video are only visible if you view on a computer and not on a mobile device.

Groningen's population is 188000. The main railway station has parking for around 10000 bicycles. That's one space for every 19 of the population. You can work out a comparable ratio for your own town. There are other posts about railway station cycle parking. Until 2015, cycle-parking capacity at this railway station is to be expanded at a rate of 500 bicycles per year.

The bike apple - new cycle parking at Alphen aan den Rijn station

From the Fietsberaad:

Wednesday 18th August was the opening date for the "Fietsappel" ("Bike Apple"), an unwatched cycle park in the area of the railway station in Alphen aan den Rijn. Travellers and visiters can park their bike for free in this multi storey building of steel in the shape of an Apple. 970 bikes fit within the bike racks in the "apple."


The ‘Fietsappel’ was designed by Wytze Patijn of Kuiper Compagnons. The concept is as an artwork of an apple. The floor is a spiral shaped as an apple. The steel artwork has a width of 27.5 metres and a height of 15.5 metres, the sloped floor goes around the "core" which is a steel column. The outside skin is transparent and gives the impression of space. It was a deliberate choice to make the cycle park feel as open as possible to give a good feeling of social safety.

At the station there are two other parking facilities for cyclists. Under the stationarea is "De Verbinding", which combines a bike tunnel under the railway line with an underground watched cycle park of 1280 parking spaces and next to it there are now two unwatched cycle parks. The "Kerk en Zanen" with 600 places and the new Fietsappel with 970 spaces.
This brings the total number of cycle parking spaces at Alphen aan den Rijn station to 2850. The town has a population of around 72000 people, so there are places for around one in 25 residents to park a bike at the railway station.

This is not exceptional, but actually quite normal. It is a similar proportion to other railway stations in the Netherlands - and somewhat different from the situation in London, other places in the UK, and indeed the rest of the world.

The Netherlands doesn't just have one or two "cycling cities." It's the whole country. There's quite a collection here of railway station cycle parking stories on this blog.

Update Jan 2011: Daniel Sparing visited the Fietsappel and took some photos.

There's now an official translation as well

Golden cycle stand

In 1999 a programme called "Room for the bike" began, aiming to increase the amount of cycle parking at Dutch railway stations.

The 200000th new cycle parking stand due to this programme has just been installed in Hardenberg. It's coloured gold. The 200000 are made up of 157000 unwatched stands, 30000 watched places and 13000 cycle lockers.

60000 more cycle parking spaces at railway stations will be installed by 2012, and ProRail promises to keep up a rate of building 25000 new spaces per year at least until 2020.

The result is that the entire country has an enormous ratio of bicycle parking spaces available to the population of the town in which they exist.

Some of the cycle-parking at Assen railway station, expanded under this scheme.

Assen, where we live, has a cycle-parking space at the railway station for every 25 citizens. Groningen has better than one space for every 20 people, the village of Beilen has enough for one in fifteen and the small town of Meppel has enough for one in twelve.

Read all stories on this blog about railway station cycle parking.

The cycle stand shown at the top is a "Tulip" design. These are the very best cycle-stands. Read why in a previous blog post previously.

Groningen railway station cycle parking revisited

I often cover the problems with providing enough cycle parking at railway stations in the Netherlands. These problems are continuing, as are attempts at solving them.

In 2006, Groningen finished a very impressive new underground cyclepark at the main railway station, called the stadsbalkon. I covered it 18 months ago (including a video showing how the double layer racks work). The new park was originally to hold around 3000 bikes, but during the design stage it was expanded to around 4150. This brought the total number of bicycles which could be parked around Groningen station to around 6500, which is about one for every 30 residents of the city.

However, before the stadsbalkon was even completed, the cycling officer of the city, Cor van de Klaauw, expressed concerns that they had not actually done enough.

The cycle park has strict rules about not being allowed to leave a bike for longer than 12 days, and also removes badly parked bikes, but there are still not enough spaces.

The number of spaces in the stadsbalkon has now been expanded to 5150 places and along with other additions the total number around the station is to be around 9800, bringing the number of cycle parking spaces at the station to around one for every twenty citizens.

There are two other smaller railway stations in Groningen, each with substantial cycle parking, though not as much as this main station.

The sign at the end warns people who have parked their bikes here that they will have to move them for the period of the expansion of the cycle park. This has now been completed.

Cycle usage in Groningen continues to grow rapidly. The fietsberaad recentlty reported that regular measurements made in spring-time at forty locations in Groningen show a continuation in growth in cycle traffic. At the 40 locations of the count, 230000 cyclists were seen in a day. Six of the locations had more than 10000 cyclists per day, the busiest two both seeing more than 14000 cyclists per day. Overall, cycling has increased by 7% over 2008 and 15% over 2007. The population of Groningen is 188000.

The photos were taken on different days by Judy and myself.

Fietsberaad article in Dutch.

Railway station cycle parking in Zutphen and Wageningen

All Dutch railway stations have mass cycle parking. This video from Radio Netherlands Worldwide shows a newer cycle parking facility at Zutphen railway station in contrast with an older one at the station in Wageningen. The new facility is designed to be more comfortable for cyclists to use, as well as more secure against cycle theft.

Wageningen's population is just 36000 but there are thousands of spaces for bikes at the station. Zutphen has a population of just 47000, and over 3000 cycle spaces at the railway station. That's one space for every fifteen residents. In absolute numbers it's actually more than London, a much larger city with 8 million inhabitants which provides spaces for just one in every 2800 residents to park a bicycle at all of its fifty railway stations combined.

Note that the video was made last winter while there was snow on the ground. The cycling rate in the Netherlands only drops about 5% in the winter, so most people were still cycling and the bike racks were still full.

Bus and bike access only. Don't bring your car.

Bus-road on the left, cycle-path on the right. There is no conflict between cyclists and buses. Also no conflict with car drivers on this route.

The new housing area of Kloosterveen on the edge of Assen has not yet been completed, however most of the transport infrastructure is in place. This photo shows the route from the western edge of the development into the countryside. It is for cyclists and bus passengers only. The cycle path is on the right in this photo and the bus lane (one bus in width, but for bidirectional use) is on the left. Note that while the bus road is not heavily used - there are only buses every few minutes - cyclists are not expected to share space with the buses. This would lead to conflict between cyclists and bus drivers, and a reduction in subjective safety for cyclists.

The sign makes it quite obvious what will happen to a normal car being driven over this obstacle, as does a close look at the second photo.

There are more routes out of the city by bike than by car, which is part of what makes cycling such an attractive option.

This is the cycle path you eventually end up on if you follow the route from the city centre to the new housing estate and keep on riding out the other side.

Earlier I featured another example of a bus road next to a cycle path, and posted about the lack of fears that cyclists have about buses in an environment where cyclists and buses only very rarely mix. There are also other integrated transport posts which might also be of interest.

Headline news

Front page headline news in today's "Metro" - a free national newspaper available at the train station.

"Cyclists struggle with full cycle parking". The article, continued on page three with a headline "Where did you leave your bike?" is about the continuing crisis in railway station cycle parking in the Netherlands. The newspaper reports on how due to the growth in cycling, cyclists taking their bikes to railway stations have a growing problem of finding somewhere to park. Rotterdam is building a new underground cycle park for over 5000 bikes, Amsterdam is building a new one for 7000 bikes.

The number of people arriving at the railway stations by bike rose on average by 40% in 2008 and in university cities the rise was around 50%. The railway company is predicting another rise of 30% in the next ten years.

Overall, an additional 100000 cycle parking spaces are to be built at railway stations across the country, and another 150000 existing places are to be renewed. That's enough new and renewed spaces for one in 64 of the population of the entire country. The newspaper is asking quite seriously whether this is enough. The Netherlands has just 16M people. For the USA (for instance) to achieve the same thing, they would have to build 4.6 M cycle parking spaces at railway stations.


"Going by bike to the station ? You're not the only one..."

The Netherlands has a higher cycling rate than any other country and there are cities here with higher cycling rates than any cities elsewhere. This is why so much cycle parking is needed. Dutch cyclist counts don't even include those people who are cycling to the railway station or bus stop. They're counted only as public transport users. There are other posts about integrated transport or specifically about cycle parking.

The high cycling rate is the result of policies to increase the directness and safety of cycling.

Meanwhile, there are efforts to get cycling combined with public transport higher up the agenda.

Mark's commute in the summer

Mark Wagenbuur previously sent me a video showing his commute in the winter, which appeared on this blog complete with a discussion of the amount of cycle parking at the railway station in Utrecht.

Here's a summer version of the same commute. Look out for the bikes around Utrecht railway station. There are currently around 14000 cycle parking spaces here, soon to be over 20000. That's for a city of 300000 people, so about one for every 15 people.

This amount of cycling is perfectly normal here in the Netherlands. So normal, in fact, that Utrecht's entry in wikipedia doesn't even mention the word bicycle.

I feel I ought to offer a prize for the person who can count the bikes in the video. No prize for counting the moving cars, though. That's not difficult at all.

There are other posts about cycle parking, including information about other places in the Netherlands and comparisons with other countries.

More NS cycle parking

I covered before the fears of a shortfall in railway station parking in the Netherlands. There is actually some very good news that has come out of this.

The national railway company is promising to build 100000 (one hundred thousand) additional cycle parking spaces across 150 stations. That's an average of 666 extra cycle parking spaces per station.

They're also promising longer opening times for the guarded cycle parks, more cycle shops at railway stations (they do repairs while your bike is parked), improved wider cycle racks, that they'll be more active at removing abandoned bikes, and that there will be a lick of paint and other maintenance for existing cycle parks.

All this will take about five years to happen.

The question which remains is "is this enough ?" Let's hope it is.

Now, an average of 666 extra spaces per station. How does this compare with elsewhere ? To give an example, the number of extra spaces being installed in just five stations is more than the total parking at all 50 railway stations in London. It also compares very well with the amount at other places in the UK. There are quite a lot of cycle parking articles.

How many cycle parking spaces do you have at your local railway station ?

Thanks to Frits for pointing this article in the latest copy of "Spoor", the Dutch Railways magazine.

More Railway Tunnels

Railway lines often form a barrier to cyclists. That's just as true here in the Netherlands as in other countries.

As reported recently by the Fietsersbond, Minister Eurlings has made 117 million euros available to build tunnels under railway lines. These can reduce the distance that cyclists need to travel, and increase the popularity of cycling.

Tunnels for cyclists cost between one and 5 million euros to build and this new funding will cover a quarter of the cost for any individual tunnel. The new the funding is therefore enough to support building of around 150-200 average tunnels over the next couple of years, and these will be spread between the 26 towns targeted by the funding.

There are already quite a large number of crossings of railway lines for cyclists. One of those in Assen itself is shown in the video below:


And here's another, 30 km North, which provides a short cut on my commute to Groningen. Note how pedestrians and cyclists are separate in both cases, with a four metre wide cycle path and a two metre wide sidewalk:

Read more about bicycle tunnels in the Netherlands, including details of standards for width, slopes etc.

Remember that the Netherlands has a population of just 16 million people. This new funding works out as around 7 Euros per person, just for extra railway tunnels. There is plenty of funding elsewhere for other things to do with cycling (e.g. Assen spends about 27 euros per person per year on new cycling infrastructure). Quoting just absolute figures can be misleading. It's the spending per capita which is really important.

Discover public transport

We recently had this leaflet through our door. It offers the opportunity to "discover public transport", by giving each member of the family a one day pass to the local bus network.

The leaflet also points out that folding bikes are allowed on the buses for free as hand luggage.

Being able to take a bike on the bus is a very useful option. I prefer to cycle, but I've done this three times already this year to get to Groningen for work when it's raining too much for the 60 km round trip by bike.

The Dutch Railway Station Cycle Parking Crisis

The Fietsersbond reports in the May/June 2009 "Vogelvrije Fietser" that cycle parking at railway stations in the Netherlands is in crisis. There simply are not enough places to accommodate people's bikes. Growth in use is around 5% per year, which means there will be a shortage of 150000 spaces in three years time.

Ten years ago, the ministry responsible made half a billion gulders available for cycle parking. This seemed a lot at the time, but more is needed. It looks like a billion euros will be required over the next ten years for railway station cycle parking in the Netherlands. That works out as 60 million a year for the actual building and 40 million a year reserved for maintenance, advertising, planning etc.

The map shows how many extra spaces some cities are planning. Delft, for instance, is building a new 5000 space underground cycle park. However, there is already concern that it will be completely full from the first day that it is available because cycle and train usage is growing so quickly between the time that plans are made and the cycle park opens.

Cycle parking is also under pressure to look attractive, and that often means that it should be underground, covered parking, rather than being a vast area of bikes exposed to the elements in front of the station. Groningen already has done this. However, the problem is that each underground space costs about 2100 Euros to build, while an outdoor space costs just 300 Euros per bike.

I've previously covered the cycle parking at Assen, Amsterdam, Groningen, Utrecht and Beilen stations. The last link includes comparisons with British railway stations.

There are also other articles about cycle parking and planning.

100 million Euros per year for railway station cycle parking ? That's roughly twice what the UK, a country with 4x the population, spends each year for everything to do with cycling. Britain recently announced a once off sum of 5 million pounds for improved cycle parking at ten railway stations, but that's only around half the amount that was spent here in Groningen alone... The Netherlands does have some problems too, of course. Mark Wagenbuur pointed out to me in email that the railway company has so far only promised to build 100000 spaces, not the 150000 which are expected to be needed...

Railway station car and cycle parking

I've written before about the cycle parking at Assen railway station. How it is to grow to 2300 cycle parking spaces this year or enough for one in 28 of the population to leave their bike at the station. This time I'm covering it from a different angle.

There is also car parking the railway station. You can see cars parked at the far end of the cycle park in this photo. They are in a position a bit further from the platform and ticket office than the cycle parking. At present there are 40 car parking spaces at this location and a similar number on the other side of the tracks. There is only room for around one in 800 residents to drive to the station, and 15 of these spaces are being lost this year to make room for more cycle parking spaces.

The car parking is inexpensive to use, though with the limited spaces I suspect that drivers can find it difficult to get a space. It's an example of carrot rather than stick. People are being encouraged to cycle by choice for the sake of convenience, not charged out of their cars.

The bus station is adjacent to the railway station, so it is also convenient to combine bus journeys with train journeys.

You can see a video of walking from the railway platform to the cycle park in the photo here.

More cycle parking at Assen Railway Station

Another headline in our local newspaper. The amount of outdoor cycle parking is to be more than doubled. At present there is space for 750 bikes outdoors, and another 800 are to be added this year. This is in addition to the 754 places which there are now in the indoor guarded cycle park (which was more than doubled in size last year).

The total is now to be over 2300 places. Assen's population is 65000, so that's one place for every 28 residents in this one location (naturally there are also thousands of other places to park your bike spread around the city, including another large guarded cycle park in the shopping centre). By comparison, London has only around 2800 spaces for eight million people.

The additional space for bikes in Assen is to come in part by removing fifteen car parking spaces.

The article goes on to say that the local government is committed to stimulating more use of bicycles and public transport. However, they are also going to be more active in making sure that bicycles are parked correctly. It is a problem at present that because there are more bikes parked at the station than there is space for them, there are many incorrectly parked bikes which can get in the way and look rather untidy. Badly parked bikes really can cause a problem here because there are so many of them.

The local paper also is running an online poll about the cycle parking. Three responses are possible. a) Good Idea, b) Not necessary, c) Why don't they do it straight away ?

Currently the poll results stand as 45% wanting immediate action, 32% saying it is a good idea and just 23% saying it's not necessary.

For an example of somewhere with a higher proportion of spaces per person, and a discussion of the amount of cycle parking provided at British railway stations, see this earlier post.

Update 29/1/2009. Here's the outcome of the poll in the paper, published a week later.

47% say it's a good idea, 41% say the local government is dragging its feet and that this should be done immediately and just 12% say it's not needed.

The number of cycle parking spaces at the station will soon have more than doubled from the situation last september when I last wrote about it. There are other posts about cycle parking and integrated transport.

A long commute and a LOT of cycle parking

Mark Wagenbuur, who lives in 's-Hertogenbosch sent me this video of his commute from home to his office in Utrecht. It's a distance of around 50 km ( 31 miles ) in each direction. He has tried driving, but this city centre to city centre journey takes over two hours by car. Mark's solution to the commute is similar to that of many Dutch people. He walks to the station, takes a train, and cycles at the far end. This usually takes Mark about 50 minutes

The cycling in this video starts at about 2 minutes in when Mark retrieves his bike from secure cycle parking in Utrecht railway station. After a short ride he parks his bike in the secure parking at his office. This is quite normal. Everything is provided for. Note the communal bicycle pump visible in the parking area.

The video was shot in January and the commute is in darkness at below freezing temperature. Nevertheless, you will see hundreds of other cyclists going about their daily business.

Utrecht is currently planning to build a new cycle park which will accommodate twenty thousand bicycles at the railway station. You can see why this is needed by looking at this second of Mark's videos which shows many thousands of bicycles parked around the station area. These bikes are all in addition to thousands more which are already stored inside secure parking like that which Mark uses:



16th January a bit later. Update with figures...

Mark sent me further email with some figures for the number of cycle parking spaces in Utrecht at the moment. You'll see further down that the total is currently over 14000. Viewed in this light, a new 20000 space cycle park doesn't seem all that extravagant. If there were a few more places, maybe Mark wouldn't have had to wait so long for his space in the indoor park. A little over 40% of all journeys are by bike in Utrecht. It is quite a high figure. Higher than that of any city in any other country, but not quite the highest in this country. Here's Mark's comment:

I tried to get some background figures for you. Since they are usually so telling.

But it was not easy to find out exactly how many bicycle parking spaces there are around Utrecht Central Station! Still, I think we can make an educated guess now.

First this data about Utrecht and inhabitants and commuting

Utrecht is the 4^th largest city in the Netherlands

Number of inhabitants: as of 10-01-2009: 300,000

source http://www.utrecht.nl/300000

Commuters

(Figures from 2003 from:

http://www.fietsberaad.nl/library/repository/bestanden/document000114.pdf)

Number of employees from outside the city who work in Utrecht 122,000

Number of employees from Utrecht who work outside the city 58,500

(page 8)

Number of travelers per day at Utrecht Central station 114,000

(page 9 caption of the last picture)

Bicycle parking facilities / racks

http://utrecht.fietsersbond.nl/documenten/2006/fietsparkerencs.html

From 2006: since then many more outside racks were placed*!

Table 2. Current capacity of the guarded parking facilities around Central Station

	Total number of parking spaces	Number of places for people with season tickets	Number of places for one day parking
NS facility Stationsplein	3.200	2.400	800
NS facility Sypesteynkade	1.500	1.390	110
NS facility Jaarbeursplein	716	444	272
U-stal (city) Stationsplein	1.000	700	300
Total	6.416	4.934	1.482

Table 3. Number of bicycle parking spaces and shortage in 2006 and in 2025 (guarded and unguarded)

	2006		Prognosis 2025
	Unguarded	Guarded	Unguarded	Guarded
Number available	3.431	6.415	8.750	8.750
Number essential with an 85% use	11.098	6.415	17.757	10.264
Shortage	7.667	0	9.007	1.514

* http://utrecht.fietsersbond.nl/home/nieuwsarchief.html

27-11-2007

“The number of parking spaces around Utrecht CS was raised by almost 1,800 places in the past 12 months. In 2008 an estimated 2,500 places will be created.”

(These were all created in outside racks. Even two stories high, as can be seen in my video: from the street they are three racks deep and the one closest to the building is even double layered. Bikes in two layered racks is a rarity outside really… but Utrecht has them).

---

Today’s Figures

Total Unguarded Parking spaces

Adding the 2007 figures and expected places for 2008 (which I think were indeed created since I now see racks where there weren’t any before) we come to this:

2006	added in 2007	added in 2008	total
3,431	1,800	2,500	7,731

Total Guarded Parking spaces

no change there since 2006 around the station, new facilities were created by the city but they are for shoppers (as well) so I wouldn't count those.

6,416 (of which 4,934 for season tickets holders and 1,482 for day use.)

I would round both off to:

• Guarded and indoor places circa 8,000
• Unguarded outdoor places circa 6,500.

But maybe you are more precise ;-)

Note: 15 years ago when I tried to get a place in the NS facility (what would "Fietsenstalling" really be in English?) I had to wait 3 months (so I had to buy a month ticket 3x before I could get an annual ticket). Now I have the annual ticket I stick to it and renew it every time since I would have to wait again if I ever loose the rights to that annual ticket!

"Fietsenstalling" in English ? I think we'd just call it cycle-parking. However "stalling" suggests "stabling" (as for horses) and suggests that it is sheltered and that your bike will be protected, as it very often is over here.

A glimpse of another route to work in Utrecht, with a 50 km each way ride, can be found here. Click for many more examples of integrated transport and cycle parking on this blog. We passed through Utrecht on the 2006 Study Tour.

More cycle parking at Beilen Railway Station

Extra bike places

BEILEN - By order of ProRail, more covered cycle places have been built at the train station in Beilen. The parking now has room for 624 bike (previously 288). At the same time 64 bike lockers were placed as well as a space for 12 motor-scooters."

Sometimes little stories like this, buried on page 45 of our 56 page weekly free local paper, tell a big story. Beilen is a small town 20 km or so south of Assen with a population of under 10000 people. However, cycle parking at the station is being taken very seriously indeed.

Compare with the grandeur of this press release from First Great Western in the UK:

First Great Western and First Great Western Link’s Transport Integration Manager, Jonathan Radley commented: “As part of the UK’s largest public transport operator, First, we’re committed to integrated transport and helping our customers to make joined-up journeys. This extra cycle parking adds to existing provision at our stations, and we hope will make it easier for cyclists to find a space, particularly at busy times. We’re grateful for help from the Department for Transport and CTC in making this project a reality.”

Customers of First Great Western and First Great Western Link together make almost 60 million journeys a year with many travelling to or from the station by foot, on bikes, by bus, taxi or even by ferry.

Transport Minister Derek Twigg said: “The quality of cycle parking is a key factor in determining how confident cyclists feel about using their bike to get to the station. That’s why fairly simple, low-cost improvements like those at First Great Western and First Great Western Link can have an positive impact in encouraging people to leave their cars at home. We’re pleased to play our part in this scheme, alongside improvements to cycle routes led by local authorities across the country.”

The new parking takes the total number of bicycle spaces at Reading to 160, with 302 at Bristol Temple Meads, 38 at Plymouth, 20 at Southall, 16 at Thatcham (including 4 cycle lockers), 100 at Maidenhead, 4 at Charlbury, 8 at Mortimer (including 4 lockers), 534 (including 10 lockers) at Oxford and 6 at Bramley.

A big and impressive looking press release. But hang on... Just 200 new spaces spread between ten stations ? A total of 302 at Bristol ? That's less than half the total at Beilen, and Bristol has over 400000 residents. More than 40 times the population are fighting over less than half the amount of cycle parking at the railway station. Can it be right that availability of residents of Britain's "Cycling City" have 1/80th of the availability of cycle parking that is normal for a small Dutch village ?

Beilen is a typical Dutch town and has enough parking spaces for 1 in 15 of the population to leave their bikes at the station. Bristol, on the other hand, is the newly crowned "Cycling City" of the UK and has enough for 1 in 1350 people to do the same. Is that enough ? Is it enough to justify such a press release ?

Mind you, they're doing better than Plymouth. That city has a population of over 250000 people but just 38 spaces. Enough for 1 in 6500 of the population to cycle to the station...

Of these cities, Oxford, with it's 151000 population and 534 spaces is doing the best. They've enough spaces for one in every 282 residents. However, Oxford is historically one of the places with the most cycling in the UK. Even there the expectation is that cycling to the station will be over an order of magnitude less popular than in a small Dutch town.

It's not just the railway station of course. When I cycled through Beilen a few weeks ago I took a photo of bikes parked at a bus stop as well as a bit of video which you can see here.

It's sometimes difficult to explain to people from the UK or USA just how much cycling there is here, both in the cities and in small towns. Cycling is incredibly popular in this country. It's not just an incremental difference, but a staggering one. What's more, cyclists are very well looked after, and not only at railway stations. Come and see it for yourself.

3/1/2009 update

Judy went to Beilen and took some photos of the new cycle parking. You can see the new tulip style bike racks to the right (old ones in the very foreground of the photo).

The lockers are in the photo on the left.

You can tell this is all very new because the sand still hasn't settled between the tiled surface.

Groningen's main railway station has nearly 10000 spaces and is added 500 cycle-parking spaces every year until 2015. Groningen has less than half the population of Bristol.

Utrecht makes another interesting comparison with Bristol. Utrecht has just 300000 people, but there are over 14000 cycle parking spaces at the station, and this is being expanded...

This might be a good time to mention again that 40% of all train passengers in the Netherlands arrive at the station by bike, and that because they only use a bike for part of their journey none of them count towards the cycling statistics. Also see the other posts about integrated transport.

Temporary cycle parking in Den Haag

The Fietsberaad just sent another newsbrief. Among the interesting cycle facts this month, Den Haag is in the middle of building a new underground cycle park by the main railway station in the city.

The photo shows the temporary cycle park at the station which has been put in place for commuters to use while they wait for the new facility. This temporary cycle park has 2500 spaces. As you'll see, cycling is taken seriously, including when works are being carried out. It is vitally important that cyclists don't lose the habit of cycling. I also have a picture of a temporary cycle bridge.

As you can see from the top photo, this cycle park was built somewhat larger than the original artist's impression in order to accommodate more bikes.

Den Haag is not alone
Cycle-parking at railway stations is growing rapidly all across the Netherlands as the requirement for it has also grown rapidly since the early 1990s.

Other examples on this blog include Groningen's main railway station, and the station in Assen, both of which have been written about more than once, or see all railway station articles. To get an appreciation of the number of spaces needed for cycle parking even at a small village, see this post.

Update March 2012
This cycle-park was eventually named "the bike tower". While it was supposed to have been demolished when the new underground cycle-parking was complete, The Hague Municipality and the railway company now predict that 11400 cycle-parking spaces will be needed at the railway station by 2020 and there won't be room for them all in the new underground cycle-park. As a result, this "temporary" cycle-park will become a permanent structure and its capacity will be expanded to 3550 bicycles, an increase of more than a thousand over the original size.

This story actually has a very familiar ring about it, as something very similar happened in Groningen. A temporary multi-storey cycle-park erected during construction of the main new underground was not demolished, but renovated with extra capacity, even though the new underground cycle-park also had its capacity nearly doubled from the original plan. This is a reflection of how cycling has grown, and continues growing, in the Netherlands.

I have other posts with more facts about trains in the Netherlands, a series of posts on integrated transport, and other posts about cycle parking.