Secure cycle parking – crunching the numbers

The number of cycle parking spaces in Edinburgh is set to double according to the council’s Transport Convener.

There are many numbers in the council report which will be discussed on Thursday, and in this article we pick some of those apart.

Before the report was produced the council recorded 108 hangars installed in Edinburgh with six spaces each (648 spaces). These are some of the spaces in Phase 1 which aimed to create 180 units (1,080 spaces).

Phase 1 has not yet been completed as the council did not, until now, have the funding to do that.

In April 2021 the council agreed to “double” the provision of hangars from 50 to 100 but this number is meaningless. You have to look at the headline number of 1,080 spaces, and it is even more meaningless to quote any number without any funding to install the hangars. The money from Sustrans has previously been provided on a match funding basis, but there was not enough left until now.

Now the council has received funding of £806,600 from Sustrans to provide more secure cycle storage.

Phase 2 comprising 200 hangars – or 1,200 spaces – will be paid for out of this funding.(The Transport Convener mentioned 272 hangars to us in a briefing but that number is not in the papers that we can see.)

Priority will be given to “population density, existing coverage, number of requests and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile”. So if Phase 1 had 180 units and phase 2 has 200 then yes it is correct to say that, by the time Phase 2 is complete, the number of secure parking spaces in the capital will have doubled.

When the council discussed the possibility of more storage units in April 2021, a report produced for the council by Director of Place, Paul Lawrence, stated: “Cyclehoop Ltd were awarded the contract to supply, install, manage and maintain 180 units at a contract value of £576,000. The cost of providing the additional units would be £351,000 for each of the next two financial years.” The funding now offered by Sustrans (£806,600) exceeds the projected two year cost of £702,000 (Two times £351,000 mentioned above.)

Pricing

It is possible that rental prices might eventually be lower in certain areas, or indeed higher in others, but at present every space, wherever it is, costs £6 per month or £72 a year. This may become a part of the renegotiation with Cyclehoop, the company which sources and installs the hangars, when their contract ends next January. There is also a deposit of £25 paid by the user.

The Transport Convener Cllr Scott Arthur, said that the new hangars in phase 2 will be going where they are needed most. He said: “I think the important thing to know is that people who are living in social housing etc – these houses tend to have less storage space, so it makes a big difference where the hangars are.”

Out of the £6 per month charge only £1 comes to the council, resulting in an annual income of £10,368 which is then set aside to pay for any unusual repairs not covered by the contract. There has only been one deliberate attack on a bike hangar and a few instances of graffiti, but this has all been paid for out of the contingency fund. The fees do not pay the capital cost of buying the storage units, and some degree of maintenance is required and also provided by Cyclehoop.

The council says there have been very few complaints about the cost – only five – and all of those compared the hire cost to the charges for vehicle parking permits.

The lowest cost for any year long parking permit in Edinburgh is £34.70 for a first permit for Zones 5-8 and S1–S4 and N1-N5 for a small car with an engine size of up to 1000CC.

The most expensive permit is a second permit for a single address in Zone 1-4 for a vehicle with a 3 litre engine (3000CC) and that costs £864.10.

The annual cost of one cycle space is £72, and so for six spaces the charge generated by a space roughly equivalent to one car parking space is £432. While the council aims to generate income from parking of cars or these bike hangars, they will also look at demand. They may also substitute hangars which have space for cargo bikes or adaptive bikes where these are requested.

The council has also established a system where demand will in future be cross referenced against a map of the areas on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.

Where are the hangars?

The council map is not easy to read, but Cyclehoop has a much better map where you can also ask to be put on the waiting list. Sadly we are unable to embed it but you will see from the image above that it is clearer and more up to date.

You can find the map here and if you want a space in an existing hangar then you can be put on the waiting list.

As well as this on the council website you can create demand for a CycleHoop hangar at your own address. On the website the process is to send an email.

“If you would like your street to be considered for future roll-outs please email joe.taylor@edinburgh.gov.uk.

“Please note your details will be stored and shared with Cyclehoop who will be administering future applications.

“We have received a large number of requests, and we are currently reviewing these with a view to roll out extra storage units in stages.”

Below we have compiled a list of places where the hangars are already installed or being installed at today’s date. (and if you know of any other streets then we would be glad to know.

(Where the street name appears twice it is because there are two hangars.)

We calculate that there may be 678 spaces in use right now (but are happy to be corrected). If you know of a bike hangar which is not on this list then please let us know.

In the beginning

This project began nine years ago in 2014 when the council set up a trial.with spaces on Lonsdale Terrace, Warrender Park Terrace, South Oxford Street and Douglas Crescent. The council admits that “significant waiting lists formed for each site”. In 2016 the council approved 10 to 15 new locations with a total of 20 to 30 units per year over a three year period – again meaningless numbers without the funding behind them, and all part of the headline numbers.

In October 2018 the number of proposed units was doubled to 180 in total with six spaces per unit (1,080 spaces) and this is the same number later mentioned and approved in 2021.

The contract was awarded to Cyclehoop in early 2019 and the first hangar was then put in place in 2020. Occupancy rates are 99% or 644 users, and the waiting list at present is 1,586 people.

Phase 2 of the project comprises a further 200 units or 1,200 spaces by the end of the year 2023/24.

In an improvement on what was expected, there will be no capital spend by the council for the second phase – Sustrans will fund 70% of the cost of the new units and Cycling Scotland will pick up the remaining 30%.

Cyclehoop entered into a five year contract with the council in 2019, so unless it is renewed their contract will end next year. The demand however is huge in comparison with the number of spaces created, and it would seem necessary to negotiate a new deal to keep up the momentum to service this.

It is essential if you would like to have this cycle parking on your street that you keep on asking for it, and get your neighbours to do the same. On average, six new requests from residents are received by the council each week.

TRO process

The Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) required before any hangars are installed have taken longer than council officers initially thought to obtain, and they also have to be merged with the traffic orders for larger projects such as Controlled Parking Zones. There are hangars being put in place this week – these are only the balance of Phase 1. (And there are four locations where the hangars cannot be completed as the necessary TROs are not yet in place but the council does not say where these are.)

The TRO process allows anyone who would be impacted by a new cycle storage unit to object during the statutory consultation phase, but the council hopes they now have a better idea than before which locations are likely to work.

Transport Convener Cllr Scott Arthur said: “There’s no shortage of demand, so whilst people might say £6 is maybe more than they would want it to be, there’s a massive queue of people wanting to pay £6 for it.”

And this statement is also true even if we only look at the numbers on the waiting list.

Phyllis Stephen

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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.

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