You need to go to the shops. There’s no bread, the milk is low and there’s not a single berry in the house. Maybe you have a car, but the traffic is terrible. Maybe you don’t have a car. That’s ok; your bicycle just happens to be the most efficient form of travel ever invented. According to a French study it is the mode of transport that requires the least energy per kilometre travelled. Being a relatively small, flat city, York is ideal for cycling. It makes sense to get on your bike, especially for shorter journeys of less than 3 miles, which is the distance of many journeys within York’s ring road and can be cycled within half an hour. But once you get where you’re going, where do you put your bike?

It’s not just segregated cycle lanes and quiet routes that influence people to choose one destination over another. When I plan to cycle somewhere I ask; will my bike be seen from inside, tucked down the side of a building or at the far end of a car park? Is there a strong, immovable object to lock my bike to, are there bins, a set of trollies, or a stack of compost bags blocking access to decent parking stands? The determined cyclist finds an alternative; locking to sturdier trolley bay barriers at a shop or a nearby lamppost. Unaffectionately termed ‘wheel benders’ make it impossible to lock a bike by the frame – something crucial to satisfy insurers and advise from police on locking a bike in the best way to prevent bike theft and are best avoided.

We’ve put together some information from the charity Wheels for Wellbeing on the ideal design, position and accessibility of cycle parking, and some of the research from the Department for Transport, Transport for London, Sustrans and Cycling UK, which looks at the wider benefits of giving us somewhere decent to park our bikes. There is an economic benefit for retail sites, but there are also wider benefits to communities to something as simple as providing facilities that actively encourage people to visit all kinds of locations by bicycle.

Good cycle parking is more important than you might think. Since parts of London saw amazing infrastructure investment, prompting as much as a 300% increase in cycling, and Sustrans conducted wider studies across 23 cities in the UK & Ireland the economic benefits of cycling have become clear. A DfT commissioned report on the wider economic case for cycling investment stated a ‘cycling city’ could be worth more than £300m in NHS healthcare savings, and an area of cycle parking could deliver as much as five times higher retail spend per square metre as the same area of car parking. According to Sustrans’ latest study, cycling could also help mitigate the climate crisis by saving hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon emissions each year.

Look at some of the features and benefits of good cycle parking we’ve put together and think about improvements you’d like to see at your local shops. Then think about parking at other local amenities like your doctor, library, local gym, community centre. Network with other cyclists in your part of York and write a collective email or letter to your MP. To write to your local Cllrs, find them here.

Become a member and attend one of our events in York to meet others in the city’s cycling community or visit our York Cycle Network on Facebook.

If you’d like to read more about good cycle parking practice, take a look at this article from Cycling UK.