"Promoting Cycling - the sustainable future"
With cycling on the increase in the UK over recent years (and will continue to do so), the value and quality of bikes people ride, colleges and universities becoming more sustainable in terms of transport options and car parking spaces being more in demand, there is the realisation that there is a need for more secure cycle parking facilities.
On university and college campuses, the above are all reasons to promote cycling as well as being a healthy travel option for staff and students. The provision of high quality cycle parking is crucial to this and the evidence is that people want better and more secure parking and staff, in particular, want individual lockers.
Cycle-Works are a specialist secure parking company who have installed their products at many universities and colleges in the UK for over 17 years. Their products range from the simplest Sheffield stands and wall racks to large shelters and compounds. For sites where space is an issue then there are the Josta high capacity 2-tier racks and where high security is required individual lockers such as the Velo-Safe come in to their own.
Velosafe lockers - the Velo-Safe is a space efficient locker which can be arranged in many different ways. The unique stylish shape means that they have a small footprint, and they can also fit in corners and areas that would not normally accommodate a locker.
The success of the Velo-Safe lockers on campuses can be illustrated by various case studies below
Loughborough College
A ground-breaking green transport initiative at LoughboroughCollege has been installed by Cycle-Works. The Colleges new secure cycle locker system was described as 'brilliant' by the Mayor
of Charnwood Councillor Jill Vincent, who explained it has come as a partial answer to a long-running campaign to ease traffic congestion in the town.
Solution
Cllr Vincent, who attended the official launch of the scheme with the Deputy Mayor Cllr Roy Brown, was part of a council team which had introduced new traffic regulations to reduce parking around the college campus. She said: "We realised that this could not be treated in isolation but about parking throughout the area and the need to integrate green transport. This scheme is particularly brilliant and it will improve things and help within the whole system." Twenty Velo-Safe lockers, five cycle hoops and CCTV for residents at The Gables have been installed in an initiative backed by the Post-
16 Transport Partnership at Leicestershire County and Leicester City Council; together with the county council's environment and transport department. The College has also funded 24 cycle lockers
and CCTV on its main campus for students and staff. College principal Jim Mutton described the scheme as „very important to both the College and for Loughborough and the county as a whole. He stressed that people should be encouraged to use their cycles but needed to know they would be safe and secure. He revealed that the cycle lockers were being very well used with the main campus having a waiting list of 30 already.
Peter Symonds College, Winchester
Peter Symonds College is situated in the heart of the historical city of Winchester and attracts students from a wide catchment area. The car parking on the college site is limited and, in order to help alleviate this, a policy to promote cycling to staff and students who lived locally was introduced.
Solution
The College management saw the innovative Velo-Safe designs at a exhibition, and thought they would be ideal for the college site. Cycle-Works installed the first series of 10 Velo-Safe lockers at the College in January 2009 and, due to their overwhelming success, subsequent installations followed 10 in Oct 2009, 10 in January 2010 and a further 10 in August 2010. The Velo-Safe lockers have a unique, space saving design that allows them to be arranged in a variety of shapes and so they have been installed in different configurations at many different sites across the college campus. To complement the secure Velo-Safe individual lockers Cycle-Works also installed two 10 bike Solent Shelters in November 2009. These shelters offer covered bicycle parking for up to 20 bikes with the higher security 'Rounded A' racks that are provided as standard. Students at Peter Symonds College now have the choice of free open access bicycle parking in the Solent and other shelters, or they can pay a refundable deposit to park their bikes individually, in a modern secure Velo-Safe locker.
Liverpool Hope University
Liverpool Hope University is committed to encouraging active travel by its staff and students. The University were looking for a solution to encourage cycling to the campus. In order to achieve this they required individual secure bicycle parking.
Solution
The University contacted Cycle-Works Ltd and the solution found was to install 15 Velo-Safe lockers at one site on the campus. Lockers were sited in one location providing a space saving and easily usable design in two banks of 4 and one bank of 7 lockers. Cycle-Works were also able to offer the choice of colour for the lockers and green was chosen in order to blend with the foliage nearby. The works were completed in October 2010 in just one day in readiness for the new academic year. The success of the use of lockers has led to a further order of 10 new lockers installed early in 2012.
Other products from Cycle-Works include:
Josta 2-tier racks - Cycle-Works are the UK's exclusive distributor and installer of the Josta 2-tier rack system. It is a space efficient racking system that stores one bike directly above the other and therefore increases bicycles parked by up to 50%.
Shelters and compounds - the company offer a selection of shelters and compounds from standard shelters for 10 bikes to large bespoke compounds that can include access control systems.
Racks and stands - from the simplest of Sheffield stands and the Josta wall rack to the stylish and innovative Lock2Me stand, there are individual racks and toast racks suitable for any location.
The reality is that there will be more pressure on universities and colleges to become more sustainable and to provide more infrastructure and facilities for cyclists. In order that this can be attained then students and staff need to be confident that their bicycles can be securely parked or stored whilst they are at study or at work.
Cycle-Works can help the estates departments fulfil these requirements with a complete service that includes consultation, site surveys, installation and after sales service.
For further information please visit www.cycle-works.com