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| Cycle parking at Norwich station (1) |
In comparison, the Office for National Statistics has estimated that the TTWA population for Manchester is 1,204,000 and the latest Census puts Manchester's population at 503,100 people.
Basically, Manchester is nearly 4 times the size of Norwich in terms of both the Travel to Work Area and resident populations.
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| Cycle parking at Norwich station (2) |
So with plans to increase the amount of people cycling in Manchester you would think that Manchester's key train station - Manchester Piccadilly would have the same amount, or preferably more cycle parking provision that Norwich. Well you might, but unfortunately you would be wrong !
Whilst, Manchester Piccadilly has recently seen some additional bike parking installed (basically as a planning requirement for the new car park) it still only has the grand total of 43 Sheffield stands (most of these are not under cover) which provides parking provision for 86 bicycles....
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| New cycle parking at Piccadilly station 1 |
Achieving such an increase in cycle parking at Manchester Piccadilly would be most welcome but so far it would appear that Network Rail have been unwilling to provide high-class cycle parking facilities in either the quantity or quality warranted by a major train station serving the UK's second largest conurbation.
Contrast this to the recently announced plans to build the "biggest cycle parking facility in the UK" at Cambridge station. The plan is to install cycle parking to cater for 3000 bicycles.
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| New cycle parking at Manchester Piccadilly 2 |
To be fair, Norwich, being smaller, does only have the one station. If you're going to compare them on the basis of populations and area, you should include all the stations in that area serving that population.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I can still well believe that the number and quality of cycle parking spaces at Manchester stations compares poorly with other cities - I've often wished there were bike spaces at Piccadilly with cover and CCTV coverage (or some other form of security). I have left my bike at Piccadilly for the weekend when going away for a night or two, but I don't like doing it.
I do feel that safer routes are more of a priority, as a perception of danger is the main thing stopping people cycling. Cyclists will lock their bikes to other things and hopefully that might lead to an increase of bike-parking-places. But that's not to say we can just let parking sort itself out...
Just saw this about 400 secure spaces at York station. Now that makes Manchester look bad!
ReplyDeletehttp://road.cc/content/news/73724-secure-bike-parking-facility-400-spaces-opens-york-railway-station
Tim, thanks for the link and providing 400 secure cycle parking places is a good start but it is planned to charge for this parking. See http://www.cycle-heaven.co.uk/secure-parking/
DeleteCharges
Weekly - £5.00
Monthly - £15.00
Quarterly - £35.00
Annual - £100.00
A £15.00 refundable deposit is required for the key fob.
The comparison between Manchester Piccadilly and Norwich was about free-to-use cycle parking.
Those new stands aren't really an increase in parking. They block the fence which was used by cyclists before. It is merely a tidying up exercise.
ReplyDelete