Islington has just put up a raft of public consultations about the 18 bikehangars they are planning to install later this summer. We’ve been waiting a LONG time for this, and the day has finally arrived!
There are notices on lamp posts near the proposed sites which say that the end of the consultation period was Friday November 10. We could actually see one or two on the streets soon! (Dated November 12)
While the council put two 6-space units up last year, these new ones are different. The new units are made by Asgard, and have a more angular look. Most importantly, these units are all going to be installed in car parking spaces. Islington has been reluctant to do this for years, so this marks a positive and very welcome change. Islington will join Lambeth, Southwark, Haringey and, of course, Hackney in providing secure, on-street cycle parking for residents.
The consultations are running through 15 July, so you only have a couple of weeks to let Islington know your thoughts on their plans. Here’s a map of the locations with links to the relevant consultation:
Are there any near where you live? Let Islington know you support it by clicking on the location and filling out the SurveyMonkey form for that bikehangar.
We’re almost there! These 108 spaces are just the beginning.
Nick, have we got any photos of the inside of the bike hangars? How strong is the internal structure that accepts the D locks and given that only half the roof lifts up, how easy is it to secure the front wheel, or at least the first wheel in there. As I understand it, we, Cycle Islington, have not yet seen a prototype.
Other than the photos on the consultation websites, I don’t believe we have. David Shannon had a leaflet with some photos on it, but I don’t recall if it showed the inside. Certainly a good question to ask about the D locks. It’s important that people are able to lock their frames and not just their front wheels to the internal rack.
I saw one in Soho near Carnaby Street, thought it was a recycling bin at first! Not sure about the flat roof, people were leaving cups and rubbish on it. Bit flimsy looking IMO…
No hangars near our lower Holloway street where enough residents want an on-street one, so no survey question for us to answer.
Tufnell Park no longer part of islington? Lot of people up near the tube could use this.
Yes, it’s clear that Islington has a huge backlog of demand for these. We’re pleased the council is no longer preventing them from being installed at all, but there’s a long way to go to catch up to Hackney and other boroughs.
I just received a letter about the bicycles:
Dear resident
I am writing to you because you are currently on our waiting list for secure on-street cycle parking, otherwise known as residential bike hangers.
We have plans to install bike hangars at 18 locations around the borough in early 2018. One of these bike hangers will be near to where you live. Before we can allocate parking places to those on the waiting list, we need some further information from you and confirmation of your current address.
The annual cost of a space in a residential bike hanger is £104, plus there is a returnable £25 key deposit.
Please fill in the attached Cycle Parking Application Form and return it by email to road.safety@islington.gov.uk by 05/01/2018. It should only take you three minutes to complete.
Please make sure that you select Residential bike hangers in Q1 and tick “1” in Q2, as we can only offer one bike hanger space per application. Note: the tick boxes are clickable.
Marc, that’s very helpful. Thanks for posting. When this post was made, we (Cycle Islington) didn’t know that the annual charge was going to be £104. Do you think the charge is reasonable?
There are zero near any of the estates at New Orleans walk where there are plenty of people that would use them, including me. All the locations in the north of the borough are basically in the leafy wealthiest areas – further suggesting that cycling is something the middle classes do.. not good. Does anyone know how they chose these locations?
I don’t understand why the estates aren’t being catered for – the area’s with the highest density of people with the least space! It’s basic common sense.
The estates have a separate secure cycle storage programme. As I understand it, that’s mostly because the money comes from a different place. So none of these bike hangars will be on estates. However, I’m told the council does try to meet demand on estates for secure cycle storage. Is there a specific estate which has insufficient secure storage?
Hi Nick,
I understand there is a cost differential between these bikehangars and the ones that Islington have actually been trialling. Possibly about 1/3rd cheaper? Do you have any detail on this?
I would really like to know bicyles are secured inside. Can we see a prototype, hear from current users?
I actually live on Crayford Road where the Cyclehoop bikehangar has been trialled, aside from the fact that it is on the pavement (!), the feedback is very positive, access is easy, bike can be secured well, it is very sturdy (tested by all the neighbourhood kids), the cost to the user is not prohibitive, and it is has an agreeable design that works well for the users and does not look ‘out of place’ in the street.
I’m just wondering if the bikehangar in this consultation and the one trialled are like for like products? Every other borough (30 in total) seem to use the Cyclehoop ones, what other consideration than just cost is Islington applying? I say this knowing that the councillor and several of the involved officers do not own a bicycle….
Also, do we know who will be running the customer service for these? The company or the council? The bikehangar the council trialled comes with a service provided by the company, who employ several full-time staff for this. If it is the council itself, how will this be managed?
With an estimated 30,000 bicycles in Islington, 18 bike hangars are a drop in the ocean, if the service is run by the council, will they every be able to scale up to the next 500 or 1,000 of these?
And why these locations?
And finally, is Crayford Road in Tufnell Park going to lose the Cyclehoop bikehangar it has now, or is Islington going to run two schemes at the same time? I don’t see a replacement in the plans.
Too many questions to make a decision I would say, or if unanswered, only the type of decision that Islington council would make…
I hope you can provide some detail. Thanks a lot!
Answers a few questions http://www.asgardsss.co.uk/secure-bike-shelter
The company suggests offering up the space of one car allows for a unit that can hold 9 bicycles. Why is the council planning only to use the space of half a car and accommodate 6 bicyles?
This is great to see more hangars rolled out – particularly since I have just had to have my bike repaired- again – due to vandalism a few weeks ago (despite being locked securely to a bike hoop on the street) . I do think it is still a bit sparse in Tufnell Park – the Dalmeny Road is welcome but I would like to recommend more. Ideally in Campdale Road – perhaps opposite the tennis courts, or in the stretch by the shops (where there are more flats) also round the corner in Mercers Road near Mercers Mews. Ideally we will be seeing at least one hangar on every road in the future to encourage more cycling and security.
This is great and we really need more of this! Disappointing to see so few in Canonbury/ Essex Road area; there are none within 25 mins walk of me unfortunately! Would love to see them a bit more spaced out in the next round as there seems to be a high concentration in the north of the borough.
Emily, if you are prepared to walk 25 minutes to get your bike, that’s amazing. Most residents get very tetchy if they cannot park their car directly outside their house.
Consultation now closed but if there weren’t any hangars planned near you, then please do contact LBI on publicrealm@islington.gov.uk; if you manage to get six people from the same (small) area to sign up as well, more chance there will be.
I’m very supportive of on-street secure cycle containers. But I’ve taken a look at the Asgard website and the internal pictures indicate that a
bike can only be secured inside the storage container by locking to a wheel guide. The Cyclehoop design seems to also have a side bar (a bit like the traditional “Sheffield” D frames). I know the whole container has a lock which is probably pretty rugged but if the container gets open then the bike is quite flimsily secured inside. And I must admit that, although cheaper, the Asgard design is a bit unsightly wheras the Cyclehoop design is more elegant. A trade-off, I guess.
Very glad to hear you support these Cllr Convery. We are pleased the Council was able to get more for their money from Asgard, but like you we’re hoping it wasn’t a false economy. We’ll be keeping an eye on their performance once they’re finally installed.
I understand the Council will install a batch of Asgard containers in various locations around the Borough. Then we’ll revert to the Cyclehoop design. In my own ward, Caledonian, we’ve decided against the Asgard design and to go in the next wave of purchases to install the Cyclehoops model in two locations that have now been consulted on. It’s important we retain wide public support for these (i.e. amongst non-cyclists) and in neighbourhoods where there are already many “visual environment” challenges the last thing we want to do is have a public row about unsightly devices on the highway.
A row over “unsightly devices on the highway”? You’ve seen those thousands of other metal boxes left littered around the borough right? I’m talking about cars btw
Paul, apologies for use of word ‘veto’ in now deleted CI tweet. Your comment above did make me think veto was the right word but more importantly for a tweet it’s 4 letters. We were’t hesitating in responding to your tweet. It’s just that we’re not always looking at twitter notifications.
Good to see them being rolled out. But disappointing none in the Highbury Fields area.We could deliver a major improvement, for example, if the part of Highbury Crescent that currently splits the Fields – and is currently closed for the use of construction work on the bridge at the Corner – remains closed, with bike hangars at both ends. It would be a real boost to cycling in the borough…
Hello there! Has there been any update on this? Are these hangars to be installed then? Many thanks.
Hi David. We are as curious as you are. We were told they would be in sometime over the summer, and then in August. Clearly that hasn’t happened. At the quarterly meeting with Cllr Webbe in September, we brought up the fact that there is still no sign of them. We were told we have to be patient, although we don’t have any further information on what the delay is or why they originally thought they would be in earlier. As soon as we know more, we’ll update you.