The prospect of a new multi-storey bike park for Cambridge Station has received official support and financial backing from the Government. 

The Government has pledged £500,000 towards the £.2.5 million project, which aims to provide 3,000 secure, CCTV-monitored spaces for cycles at the Station. In addition, facilities where bikes can be repaired, rented or bought will also be provided. 

This is in response to the Station’s current cycle racks reaching breaking point in terms of capacity. One student, who regularly uses the station’s cycle racks, says, “I’m surprised [such development] hasn’t been done before, to be honest, because it’s ridiculous. [Bike parking at the station] is causing a real issue at the moment.” 

Due to overcrowding, cyclists are inconvenienced at the very least, and are often actually being forced to put their bikes at risk, simply having to leave their bikes propped up somewhere else, unlocked to a bike rack. 

The Cambridge Station bike park would be the largest of its kind inBritain, but other similar models have already been trialled with considerable success in areas such asLeeds, and before that, inAmsterdam. The Leeds CyclePoint works on the basis of a £1-per-day charge. 

 It is as yet undecided whether or not Cambridge cyclists will be similarly charged for use of the facility. Worries have been raised that if a charge is levied, cyclists will simply lock their bikes up outside of the bike park, exacerbating existing congestion problems outside the station.

 The development will be carried out as part of an ongoing redevelopment of the whole CB1 area. Cambridge Cycling Campaign, a group lobbying for better, safer conditions for cycling around the city, do mark the impact that better station parking would have for the Cambridge cyclist’s experience, in their ‘Cycling Vision 2016’, but there are also a great many other improvements which they deem necessary. 

 The Campaign urges the need for wider cycle lanes (the government’s recommended width is 2m) and junction improvements, especially at roundabouts, where the risk for cyclists is very much increased if no right-of-way for bicycles has been provided. 

Moreover, there is a clear need for more bike parking around the city, not just at the station, as is evinced by the number of bikes propped up against shop fronts or college walls throughout town. The Grand Arcade cycle park is very successful, to the point of being overfull.

 Similar bike parks could be built around the city. However, the convenience of concentrating bike parking facilities in this way could be questioned, since most bike journeys made in Cambridge are short, quick trips, with convenience at a premium, thus the demand from cyclists is for parking at the very point of their journey’s end. Increasing the quantity and dilution of bike racks throughout town seems called for.