City of Cockburn Bike Parking

Jillian Woolmer
City of Cockburn
79

The City of Cockburn is aiming to get more people on bicycles during Bike Month this October. If more car drivers replaced short trips, like going to the gym (Cockburn ARC) and rode their bikes instead, these car bays would be redundant and the City would need to install more bike parking areas to cater for the additional bikes. This would take up less room than these car bays do currently. (This photo opportunity was too hard to resist - there was bike parking available near ARC but I wanted to show how little space bikes take up compared to cars. We had met early to go on a bike ride to inspect some bike detours and look at the condition of local paths for work. We did not actually park our bikes for long on the day as ARC was closed due to the lockdown and we just met there for our saddle survey of bike paths in the local area.)

Bike Week was extended to Bike Month last year as so many more people ride bicycles now. Since the Covid 19 lockdown in March 2020, people have been riding even more, dusting off their old bikes or buying new ones if they could. With so many more bikes, bike parking will need to be increased to meet this demand. This is something that is being considered by various areas within council - such as planning, engineering and parks. Local shopping centres and cafes also need to increase their parking if they would like more bicycle riders to stop and stay. The bike parking below in Perth is perfect for coffee or lunch as you can see your bike from your table.

Bike Parking was installed at the Hub community group meeting place and made visible by using 3 U rails not as chicanes but to support bikes and be visible in front of the window of the meeting place. This one of the meeting places for our Cockburn Community Rides. Staff and People on Bicycles meet local residents and others that want to ride in the local area. Staff members from all areas are invited to attend the Sunday rides. They are informal community rides that help people to get to know the local area more. Many staff live within the City of Cockburn so can come along and gain confidence riding, help us find where bike parking or bike paths are needed throughout the City and find the best way to ride to work.

Staff and local residents are encouraged to get on their bikes for a bit of exercise and explore the local area with others. Most people are not aware of the best routes to ride as they are often off road and away from the busy traffic. To find the best places to ride, meet at the Hub 1 Starling Street in Hamilton Hill on Sundays at 9am. Two Cockburn Community Bike Rides were organised for Bike Month. Additional community rides are promoted via the Cockburn Bicycle User Group on Facebook (CoBUG).

The City works with a number of different groups to promote travel behaviour change. This includes residents, visitors, workplaces and schools. The City works on the Cycling and Walking Network Plan, planning and designing paths to help encourage travel behaviour change. The City hosts a number events throughout the year and have been making them more bike friendly by organising bike parking like the one below or valet bike parking with a red carpet.

Temporary bike parking was installed by a local cafe due to customer demand below. If you can't find any bike racks or see bike racks that are seldom used, you need to look for the reason why.

Popular bike parking generally has good passive surveillance (near a window or somewhere you can see it easily), racks about 1 metre apart and large racks so you can lean your bike against it and lock it securely. Some places remove car parking and place bike parking there instead.

Over 400 people have joined CoBUG and help improve the bike network in many ways, including simply asking for better bike parking at their workplace, shops, cafes, train stations and any other destinations that they ride to. By frequenting places regularly by bike, more people are catering for bikes and even removing car parking. One of our regular cafes installed additional seating in the car bays and allow bikes to be parked alongside.

My favourite bike parking is still the colourful Cockburn Bikeshed below that was built to cater for staff bike parking.

This story is related to Host a social ride for staff

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James (Your Move)

Thanks for sharing your reflection on the many sides of bike parking in Cockburn, Jillian. I too particular like the Cockburn Bikeshed parking! Your detailed reflection has earned you 20 points, plus 40 points for letting us know about the social rides organised out of the HUB.

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