Wednesday 7 March 2012

Latent demand - build it and they are there already

I was fortunate to have a day out of the office yesterday, which in part involved a trip down to see my folks in Haywards Heath.

Two things struck me as I made my journey from Tooting. First was that all companies providing public transport services should be supporting the Times Cities fit for Cycling campaign, and if they operate in London the LCC's Love London, Go Dutch campaign.

I cycled to Clapham Junction, parked up, got the train to Haywards Heath, then was picked up by my parents and spent the rest of the day with them before getting the train back to London, and cycling home.

More people cycling = more business for those transport companies. Whilst I enjoy cycling long distances as well, it's not practical to do them every day. But combining those journeys makes it quick and comfortable.

At the beginning of this year, Southern Rail who have the franchise for Haywards Heath's station installed this new Bike Hub service. It includes this double decker bike parking facility.



Only a few months in, and it is full.


It seems to me as if they underestimated demand. Southern Rail are to be commended for installing this facility, but it seems that they could probably double it, and still run out of space given how quickly this one has filled up.

Perhaps one day instead of this view:


View Larger Map

It'll be more similar to this:


View Larger Map

OK you can't see the bike parking, that's because they've built this:

1 comment:

  1. As part of a new shopping development in Cambridge, a monitored basement cycle park was provided. It's now completely full pretty much all the time.

    Whilst it's a great step forward, why do planners constantly underestimate the cycling need?

    ReplyDelete