The city council is meeting this Wednesday to discuss whether or not they should make the Bike Lockers permanent in the city. The CycleSafe EcoPark Bicycle Lockers, as they’re called, were first installed in August of 2021 and are, since then, available in three different locations in London.
‘’London Bicycle Café has definitely noticed and appreciates that the city of London has installed bike lockers downtown, which is a benefit to local businesses and downtown as a whole,” says Andrew Hunniford, worker for a bicycle store in Downtown London.
Photo: Bernardo Lucca
‘’The feedback I guess that we would provide is to place these conveniently and prominently, in locations and make signage that would ensure people can understand how to use them and where they are. What they lack now is just good implementation. They’re very discreet, they’re not marked in terms of what they are, there is no instructions on how to use them.”
The storage containers protect against theft, vandalism, and weather. They can store up to two bikes and have several door-locking options. According to a city hall staff, the number of people who registered for the program this year increased drastically, from 17 hourly rentals to 85 hourly rentals.
Photo: Bernardo Lucca
The three locations you can find a bike locker are at the corner of Dundas Street and Wellington Street, at the north of Clarence Street (between Victoria Park and the former Williams Café), and in the parking garage (P1 level) at Covent Garden Market.
‘’In the case of the ones in the market, instead of being featured outside of the market, they’re hidden in a parking garage, a place that you really don’t want to actually ride a bicycle at all.”
Andrew still says that their store gave feedback on the lockers based on an article they read talking about the usage of the structures, published last year, in November.
‘’Advertise them, put signs on them and pick better locations. They have taken no change, so I would imagine usage hasn’t changed either. If they would like these to be successful, they should take steps to look at their implementation and ask themselves if this is working or not, and what can we do to make it better.”
Andrew Hunniford – Photo by Bernardo Lucca
Besides the problems with the lockers themselves, a campaign called ‘’London Cycle & Link’’ was launched by the biker community of London in the summer and fall of 2022, claiming for safe streets, for all ages and abilities. The campaign tried to raise awareness for infrastructure, maintenance, parking and bike-share programs.
A local seller named Mason highlighted how bike numbers are ramping up in the city and how that can affect the businesses in town.
‘’More bike locks around the city, regardless of the style of whatever, means more people are incentivized to ride their bikes, which generates business for us, gets people outside and more active and it’s just a generally positive thing for the community.”
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