Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

End of trip facilities are becoming more important as commuting numbers rise, and have reached the point where they are used as a selling point for some complex's (sp?). But how important? There was a place in Melbourne at Banana Alley that made an attempt at commercial parking with shower/change and secure storage facilities that didn't last long at all. I guess there wasn't enough patronage.

Just how important is it to people to have secure storage, change facilities etc? More....Does the concept of cycle commuting mean free "parking"? Is the idea of paying to "park" your bike anathema? How is that different to paying to park your car? What about shower/change facilities? Given that it's our choice to ride to work, is it reasonable to expect these?

I run my own business, in my own facility and everywhere is a bike park, so lucky in that respect. But for mine...

1. Very important. High end bike means high end security.
2. I don't see that cycling entitles me to free parking on public land beyond one of those poles/jiggers on the footpath.
3. Paying to park would depend o what they were offering. Probably no issue. I don't see much difference between a car and my bike in this respect
4. Given my state when I get to work (and more importantly post work), yes. Change rooms/showers would be important to me
5. I think it's reasonable to make employment choices based on facilities if they're that important. I think that it's fair to expect the same access to parking facilities that others in a similar position in the same business is offered.

This is something that's been on my mind lately....I guess the better weather over summer brings out more commuters, and I see more bikes parked at tram stops, outside the Royal Melbourne etc. Some of those places are a better proposition for bike cages than some rail stations I've seen empty day after day.

I basically have a factory all to myself, so storage is not an issue. It also has a very basic shower (one tap, three switches to make the water hot, hotter, or scalding). I consider myself lucky.
The times that I have had to ride long distance to somewhere other than work (i.e. Uni) has been OK, but much more annoying by the fact that I have to pull all my lights off, and put them in my pannier, then cart that around with me for the day (and it's not a convertible backpack type). I think things would be different for me if I didn't have the facilities that I do.
I think hypothetically I would pay for secure parking if I was working in the CBD or something, but it would need to be proportional to the size of the space taken up relative to a car, so about 1 fifth the car parking cost.

fat and old wrote:End of trip facilities are becoming more important as commuting numbers rise, and have reached the point where they are used as a selling point for some complex's (sp?). But how important? There was a place in Melbourne at Banana Alley that made an attempt at commercial parking with shower/change and secure storage facilities that didn't last long at all. I guess there wasn't enough patronage.

Just how important is it to people to have secure storage, change facilities etc? More....Does the concept of cycle commuting mean free "parking"? Is the idea of paying to "park" your bike anathema? How is that different to paying to park your car? What about shower/change facilities? Given that it's our choice to ride to work, is it reasonable to expect these?

I run my own business, in my own facility and everywhere is a bike park, so lucky in that respect. But for mine...

1. Very important. High end bike means high end security.
2. I don't see that cycling entitles me to free parking on public land beyond one of those poles/jiggers on the footpath.
3. Paying to park would depend o what they were offering. Probably no issue. I don't see much difference between a car and my bike in this respect
4. Given my state when I get to work (and more importantly post work), yes. Change rooms/showers would be important to me
5. I think it's reasonable to make employment choices based on facilities if they're that important. I think that it's fair to expect the same access to parking facilities that others in a similar position in the same business is offered.

This is something that's been on my mind lately....I guess the better weather over summer brings out more commuters, and I see more bikes parked at tram stops, outside the Royal Melbourne etc. Some of those places are a better proposition for bike cages than some rail stations I've seen empty day after day.

Not forgetting that it is in the employer's interest to have fit and active employees. It is good for business in many ways, productivity, image, fewer absences etc. Some provide gym facilities, walking groups etc for the same reason. A secure bike cage is not a big expense in that case.

I'm lucky, I have good facilities, and there is little to no difference between the travel time, so I have no reason to ride the incubator to work.

Cheers

Cameron

I'm at a campus where I could pay for bike facilities or use free ones. I use the free ones. It means I have to bring in my own towel. I work on a secure floor so the bike is about 10m away from me.

I'm lucky to work for a large corporate in Sydney.
Our company has a shower on each floor and small lockers.
We are tennants in a shared building, and there are plenty of places to lock your bike in the basement.
Our firm also has a secured cage where we can lock our bikes on a hanger.

Despite the security, I did hear that a bike was stolen from the cage (clearly, if you have a very expensive bike, you still need very good security on it).

It might cost me 10-20mins more each way, but I am happy to ride.

Oh, and would I work for a firm that did not have these facilities? I'd be less inclined to consider that opportunity.

Very important to me.

My commute is 40km one way, in summer once a week, I ride in, do a 16km TT and then roll into work. Now twice a week it is commute in, join fast 35km group ride, then head into work.

I have always had secure parking at work, along with shower and locker.

When they removed the secure parking at work, summer before last without warning. I spat the dummy, it was a TT day, not willing to park my TT bike on the street, I rode home and caught train back. My protest along with a few others, resulted in a new secure parking arrangement.

I would be willing to pay for secure parking, if I did not get it at work for the days I need to ride a good bike into work. Though other days I would probably ride a bike I could park on the street on other days I ride in.

I'm not sure how it works but I do believe that the city of Perth gives building/businesses some incentive to provide end of trip facilities for bicycles, but don't quote me on this.

What we are forgetting is to encourage bicycles into the city takes a lot of pressure of Public transport, carpark lots and road access. The Shires love it as it takes a lot of pressure of facilities they need to supply. This is why I believe state governments in some states are focusing negatively on bicycles because they don't need to deal with the day to day problems of CBD infrastructure challenges. The Shires have to deal with this and like the bicycle for these reasons.

Our work is designing end of trip facilities for a client. They are wanting to have 150 bike racks, does anyone have an idea of the ratio of bike racks to showers? Obviously 150 racks is a lot of space, so it's difficult to fit showers, lockers etc in the space given.

Red rider - not everyone arrives at the same time. We'd have 100 bike racks at work and there are 2 male, 2 female and the executive suite. I rarely have to wait

Thanks for the feedback Jason. Do the racks get full?

I found this document giving some guidelines on end of trip facilities:
Dot WA - Workplace Cycling Facilities
It gives a minimum of 1 shower for the first 5 racks, then 1 per 10 racks thereafter.

Yeah. I can take a photo of the racks next week for you when full

I'm "rather lucky" in that my EOT facilities are awesome.

Secure parking for 600 bikes, 30 male, 30 female showers and 900 lockers (50/50 split between male and female). Have never noticed the showers being full even at peak times. This is for a building designed for 4,500 people.

Only problem is that we had an equal number of male and female lockers whereas the proportion of males/females in the building is nothing like equal, so at peak times there can be a few weeks wait for a male locker.

In my case, we pay an annual fee (works out to less than a cup of coffee a month) for a locker, but anyone that works in the building can apply for access to the bike lockup and showers for nothing. I'd be happy to pay for the bike parking, but would expect it to be relative (in terms of space taken up) to car parking.

If my work didn't have end of trip facilities, I wouldn't have started riding back in March last year. If I were to change employers now, end of trip facilities would be high on my list of things for them to provide. I've lost 20-odd kg in the last 16 months, I'm not putting them back on!

F&O - If you find yourself in Docklands at some point, give me a shout and I'll give you a tour.