As you may have noticed already, it’s Security and Storage Week on road.cc at the moment, which is why the latest episode of the podcast is dropping on your streaming platform of choice a few days earlier than usual.

And to mark the occasion, this week’s storage-related discussion focuses on one of the most useful and controversial – if you’re a grumpy SUV driver, anyway – urban cycling innovations of the past 15 years: the cycle hangar.

 

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Back in the late 2000s, after having his bike nicked in London by a thief who lifted it over the top of a signpost, architect Anthony Lau founded Cyclehoop, a company specialising in – you guessed it – cycle hoops, a retrofit that converted lampposts into secure parking for two bikes, while preventing the type of theft suffered by Anthony.

Since then, Cyclehoop has expanded beyond its humble hoop-based origins to become the largest cycle parking network in the UK, currently working with 25 local councils to offer more than 19,000 parking spots for bikes across a range of short-term spaces, as well as 24-hour accessible cycle storage hubs, while earning notoriety for its much-discussed (and Boris Johnson-approved) car-sized and shaped bike racks.

Cyclehoop Car Bike Port 05
Cyclehoop Car Bike Port 05 (Image Credit: Cyclehoop)

But it’s Cyclehoop’s 3,000 award-winning residential Bikehangars, invented by Lau, which have arguably had the greatest impact on the storage and security habits of the UK’s city-based cyclists.

Spawning a host of imitators over the past decade and recently spreading across the Atlantic, Cyclehoop’s Bikehangars provide secure shelter for six bikes in half the space normally occupied by a car parking space, giving cyclists outdoor, weather-protected cycle storage near their homes.

However, despite their ability to provide much-needed, affordable storage space for cyclists unable to safely secure their bikes due to a lack of space in their properties, while taking up minimal space on the road, the cycle hangars haven’t been without their detractors.

Edinburgh Bikehangars
Edinburgh Bikehangars (Image Credit: Cyclehoop)

Over the years, we’ve seen them variously described by NIMBY residents and drivers as “ugly”, “green measles”, and accidents waiting to happen (thanks to the occasional motorist crashing into them), while they’ve also been accused of “deliberately” blocking car parking spots.

But in a wide-ranging chat discussing the origins and growth of Cyclehoop, the persistent and increasing problem of bike theft in the UK, and the lack of safe, secure storage facilities for cyclists (and also why SUV-shaped bike hangars could be the future), Lau insists that swapping car parking spaces for bike storage, and receiving some flak in the process, is just “something we need to do”.

> “So many people are put off cycling by the threat of having their bike stolen”: Bike theft victims call for more secure cycle hangars as demand soars

“I like to know what cyclists think, but I also like to know what the public thinks,” he says.

“Because one of the challenges councils face is that you have to take away car parking spaces to install the hangars, but it’s something we need to do.

“There are too many cars on our streets, and driving a car is just too easy. And we want to make cycling and parking your bike as easy, accessible, and secure as parking your car on the street.

“Councils do face opposition from people who are losing their car space. But if you think about it – one person and one car space, if you take that away you can now give 12 people a secure bike space.”

Lambeth Bikehangar
Lambeth Bikehangar (Image Credit: Cyclehoop)

He continued: “Cycling is growing and will continue to grow, and it needs more space. If you think about the space a car takes up, on a typical residential street you can’t even cross the road, there’s cars on either side.

“So if you can take away just a few car spaces on every street and get people to cycle, you’ll find very quickly that you’ll have more space.

“There is always going to be someone who doesn’t like change, and they’ll see that space as belonging to the driver.

“And I think that’s a mentality we have to change – the streets aren’t designed for cars, they’re designed for people. And cycling is something we have to prioritise, and that means making unpopular decisions.”

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At the time of broadcast, our listeners can also get a free Hammerhead Heart Rate Monitor with the purchase of a Hammerhead Karoo 2. Visit hammerhead.io right now and use promo code ROADCC at checkout to get yours.