Hackney resident speaks out over lack of bike storage as #thisisawkward campaign reveals cyclists’ eye-popping workarounds
The Cherry family’s picture features on the campaign’s billboard. Photograph: Alex Bigham
“It’s really awkward having to store bikes in our toilet,” said Hackney cyclist Frances Cherry.
She is calling for more secure public storage to help families protect their bicycles.
“We have bikes in the toilet and also in the hallway,” she added. “We’ve had bikes stolen so we need to keep them safe.”
Her photograph of bikes stored in the toilet features on billboards in Stroud Green Road in Islington, highlighting the tight spaces in which people keep their bikes under the #thisisawkward banner.
Pictures submitted include someone who sleeps in a bed next to their bike, a bike stored close to an oven, and bikes hanging over a balcony in a housing estate.
A Twitter submission shows bikes hanging on a balcony. Image: @citycyclists
Cherry and her family started cycling more when roads were quieter because of the lockdown and are keen to carry on. They have also ditched their car.
Like other flat-dwellers in Hackney, they say they are limited in where they can keep bikes because storing them on communal walkways is a fire risk.
Not all models of bikes fit in lifts and it can be tricky carrying them up and down stairs to reach communal storage in some blocks of flats.
Hackney boasts the highest number of people cycling to work in London and the second highest number in England after Cambridge.
There are 4,977 cyclists on the waiting list for bike hangars in Hackney according to research by the Clean Cities Campaign, with 3,600 spaces provided in 600 bike shelters across the borough.
Bath solution: Another radical workaround. Image: @CycleIslington
Researchers from the Clean Air Wins coalition found there is a waiting list of 60,715 people wanting to hire a bike hangar across London’s 32 boroughs – nearly three times more than the 22,592 spaces available in London.
According to the council, just 30 per cent of Hackney residents own a car, and campaigners say people need to feel confident of keeping bikes safe.
Cherry called on the Town Hall to help by making more space for bike hangars on the streets.
“They should just cut the number of storage spaces for cars on the roads and put bike hangers in their place,” she said.
Aled Richards, the council’s strategic director of sustainability and public realm, said the borough has the highest amount of cycle parking in London with 650 cycle hangars, 2,758 parking stands, 106 bike ports and 414 cycle hoops.
He said: “We also have the highest levels of cycling and this means there is high demand for the services.
“Hackney manages its cycle hangar membership programme in-house, which allows close monitoring and management of demand as well as providing an excellent service.
“The programme has been a success and attracted high demand, which increases with the introduction of each cycle hangar.”
The council is looking at ways to get more funding to provide more, he said.
Try hanging the bike on a wall, to store it out of the way. It’s the simplest solution of all and there are good bike hooks available.
Really glad to see a campaign about this. There is a historical imbalance in favour of cars, which runs counter to Hackney’s policies to improve air quality, human health, and reduce carbon emissions. One car space can house six bikes, yet families have to keep them in their living room, while residents are permitted multiple car park spaces for free! It’s mad! I don’t dislike cars, but there should be a rebalancing to reflect how citizens travel, and in favour of healthy options.
I bought a bike a while ago to start to cycle for weight loss and fitness. I live in a small 1 bed flat in Stamford Hill on the Guinness Partnership Estate. There are bike hoops outside my block that are chocked full of abandoned bikes so I paid to use the Cyclehoop storage for a reasonable fee. After a year the Cyclehoop fee went up by x10 due to Guinness Partnership dropping out of supporting the scheme. This made it unaffordable. I had no where safe to store the bike and my flat is too small so I sold the bike. My housing officer at Guinness did nothing about abandoned bikes taking up the free hoops. If the infrastructure is too expensive and free infrastructure is not monitored and maintained then it’s a total waste of time. We need affordable/free Secure cycle storage as street based cycle hoops have been cut with power saws/grinders to steal bikes in the open. Housing associations and local boroughs must support this or it will fail.
Lots of flats – including mine – have tiny thin halls and no free wall space in the rooms. It’s not possible to store a bike in many flats you need to understand this.
Considering the fact that only 30% of people in Hackney have access to a car we should really be aiming to devote less than 30% of kerb space to car parking. The use of the rest of the kerbspace should be upgraded to accommodate cycle parking, plants and seating.