Bike Parking

Q-Park works with experienced partners to provide safe and secure bike storage in our city centre car parks.

The challenge

The breakout of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown has seen cycling in the UK increasing by as much as 200% on weekends and 100% on weekdays. Ireland has also seen a massive uptake in cycling during this period. This record increase has caused a surge in bicycle demand, especially entry-level models. Cities in the UK and Ireland have put together plans to implement cycling infrastructure to support this boom. In the UK this includes the creation of 100km of cycle lanes in Liverpool and the bringing forward of active travel plans in Manchester. In 2021, the bulk of Ireland’s transport spending went on cycling and walking, with 3 times the amount spent on these projects compared to urban transport. Although cycle lanes and supporting infrastructure has been put in place, there is still very limited secure bicycle storage available in city centres in the UK and Ireland. The need for additional bicycle parking is a necessity to support this increase in demand, especially considering the high rate of bicycle thefts, a large percentage of these occurring on bikes parked on roads and in other unsecure locations.

Q-Park’s solution

Q-Park develops parking facilities into Sustainable Mobility Hubs. Moving from a solely parking focused business strategy, Q-Park transforms car parks into instruments to help realise urban accessibility, sustainability, and liveability. Mobility hubs function by working with expert business partners to provide sustainable services within the car park such as bike parking, electric vehicle charging, last mile logistics and car sharing. Q-Park Park Lane car park is Q-Park’s flagship mobility hub, housing sustainable partnerships with BP Pulse, DPD, UFODrive, Virtuo and other partners.

Bike parking is an integral part of Q-Park’s sustainable mobility hub strategy. By creating purpose-built areas in the car park for bike storage, Q-Park aims to encourage more people to cycle into busy city centre locations, reducing the number of fossil fuel vehicles on the road and helping the UK and Ireland achieve their lofty emissions targets.

By partnering with an experienced bike storage partner, Q-Park will dedicate an area in the car park for the partner to develop a bike parking area, complete with security features, digital access methods and optimised bike parking facilities. Q-Park will then assist the partner in marketing the area to create local awareness of the space, giving customers a green alternative to public transport or fossil fuel vehicles.

Q-Park also works directly with city centre businesses who do not have enough space to accommodate bikes in a secure and dry environment. Businesses can now take space in a Q-Park parking facility to use as their very own bike storage area in all major cities in the UK and Ireland. Q-Park will create a secure branded reserved area in our safe facilities. The company will be issued with a physical or digital access device so employees can enter and exit the car park via our secure pedestrian doors. This new service is ideal for companies taking part in a cycle to work scheme.

Outcome

Q-Park partners with Spokesafe in our Oxford Street and Soho car parks in central London. Spokesafe create purpose-built facilities to provide cyclists with access to a network of locations to safely park and a community of active travel enthusiasts to interact with. The two Spokesafe locations that currently operate within Q-Park car parks provide 90 bike parking spaces in areas that desperately need them. Q-Park has plans to work with Spokesafe in more car parks and cities in the UK.

In Ireland, Q-Park has teamed up with Dublin City council to provide over 100 free cycle parking spaces in our Q-Park The Spire car park. Customers can request a bike pass on the Q-Park website and will be sent a QR code that will enable them to enter and exit the car park through a designated bicycle entrance and access the locked bike storage cage.

During the height of the pandemic, Q-Park worked with two London based businesses to construct secure branded bike storage areas for their employees in our Harley Street and Chinatown car parks. The employees now have somewhere safe to park their bikes whilst working in the office.

To find out more about Q-Park’s sustainable mobility hubs click here.