Oxford station cycle parking is woeful says campaign group Cyclox

Cycle parking at Oxford Station is in a woeful state.

Perhaps it was the knee-deep piles of leaves last autumn that made the station bike parking area look so desperately neglected. Or maybe the forgotten bikes dangling at crazy angles from their rusty locks.

The covered area is hard enough to get in and out of even if you find a space, but the open area is like an assault course which you leave with scratched shins and elbows. Getting your bike to a free bit of rack may be difficult, but what will you find on your return?

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Hopefully your bike will still be there (you spent enough on a good lock, after all) but your exit is blocked by all the other bikes. And as for parking a non-standard bike, like a tandem or a tricycle that is nigh impossible.

Why does Great Western Railways allow this sort of chaos in the station car park? Of course, they make money from the car parking, whereas bike riders do expect to travel and park for free. Like the NHS, ‘Free at the point of use’ is the bicycle’s USP – unique selling point. Just as Park and Ride should be free to encourage behaviour change, free bike parking is a pre-requisite for cities wanting to get more people on their bikes. But free shouldn’t mean neglected and inadequate. Somehow the hidden value of free bike parking should translate into proper well-maintained facilities for bikes – and not just standard bikes but trailers, cargo bikes, tricycles and tandems.

Oxford Mail:

Some people have taken to leaving their bike a 10-minute walk away at the Westgate bike hub rather than at the station. Though it only has 180 places, they are under cover, access is only with a personal key card and bikes are protected by CCTV.

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It is a tiny taste of what many Dutch and German cities provide at their stations. Amsterdam station has just opened a 7,000 place underwater bike storage to replace their existing huge parking area. Utrecht has a 12,500 place covered bike parking facility. Cambridge has recently opened one with 3,000 places.

Several London railway terminuses have excellent bike parking on the platforms – Marylebone and Paddington for example. That is probably not practical for Oxford station, but it should be a stimulus for thinking imaginatively.

The railway bridge is closed to motor traffic until October so cycling to the station will become even more attractive and the car park may not be as well used. We are asking GWR to put up 500 covered bike racks in the car park like the ones at Oxford Parkway.

Bike parking needs to be over-supplied in the design for the new station. We have to design for the future we want and cycling to a train or bus is the greenest longer distance commute we can achieve at present.

The last plans Cyclox saw for bike parking at the new station was for about 2,400 places situated below ground level (accessed via the planned high level cycle path going under the Botley Road bridge). How was that figure reached?

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Was it based on the amount of space that could be spared or on the anticipated increase in usage with the new station? It’s time to revisit that calculation and increase the capacity.

As a minimum we want to at least equal Cambridge’s 3,000 spaces – which includes lots of space for cargo bikes.

Otherwise, there is a risk that like now there will be bikes will be left all over the place, parked against lampposts and railings. And worse still people might be put off cycling to the station for lack of safe parking.

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