Bike shelters and lockers

A bike shelter is a structure designed for the outdoors to house bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, and their users. A covered bike parking serves three main functions: protecting from the weather, storing and parking bicycles, and securing bikes against theft.

The open bike shelters allow for the parking and securing of bikes in a self-service system.

A bike shelter concerns all societal actors responsible for mobility or supporting bicycle users. Four main categories of decision-making actors can be distinguished for the installation of bike shelters:

• Local authorities (to support residents in cycling practices and the development of soft mobility),

• Companies (to support their employees or accommodate customers and visitors),

• Service entities such as schools and educational centers, hospitals, or public service centers that will host both cyclists who are employees and visitors,

• Social landlords (for providing bike parking services for residents).

Note: The bike parking system is positioned as a factor for sustainable development in transport policies, a very promising sector for local authorities (metropolises and medium-sized cities) to support the goal of decongesting city centers and service or commercial areas, with the aim of improving urban circulation. Companies are also becoming requesters of outdoor 2-wheeled spaces, particularly to fulfill mobility plan commitments for their employees (for companies with more than 100 employees).

Local authorities and businesses represent a major portion of those concerned with the installation of bike shelters, but the list of interested parties is longer: schools, colleges, high schools, universities, hospitals, service centers, commercial areas, and cultural centers, all of which will have increasing needs to accommodate bicycle users.

The installation of a bike shelter aims to welcome and protect bicycles, but also to encourage future users who will feel supported in their efforts towards soft mobility. This type of outdoor bike facility indeed helps raise awareness about the environmental approach that is cycling mobility, which is rapidly growing in response to the downsides of car dependency. It is also evident that the more satisfaction among current bike users spreads, the more enthusiasm for cycling takes root among potential new users.

There are three main types of bicycle shelters:

• Open bike shelters, which have at least one open side providing free access to all users. These are ideal for short-term parking and encourage easy, self-service use.

• Closed, secure bike shelters, where all sides are enclosed and access is often restricted (e.g. to subscribers or selected users). These shelters offer high security and are more suited for long-term parking.

• Bike lockers or boxes, which are compact individual units designed to accommodate a small number of bikes of all types. These are also intended for limited-access use, offering a highly secure solution.

The choice of an outdoor bike shelter depends on several concurrent factors:

• The available floor space

• The required capacity for the number of bikes to be accommodated

• Aesthetic harmony with the surrounding environment

• The allocated budget

• The installation location (multimodal hubs, tourist sites, etc.)

• The target audience

• Compliance with legislation

• Eligibility for subsidies or not

• Accessibility to the general public or not

• For short or medium-term bike parking

The dimensions depend on external factors related to the installation site. Indeed, it’s important to consider not only the number of bikes to accommodate but also the space each bike occupies, the necessary distance between each bike, and the space required for movement (a person + the bike). From experience, Abriplus considers that an average spacing of 50 cm between each bike is needed for single parking per stand. However, there are more optimized storage solutions by opting for staggered vertical parking or even bilateral parking, which allows the spacing to be reduced to 35 cm. There are even two-tier parking solutions that double the capacity in the same floor area.

The installation of a bike shelter also depends on various external factors unrelated to the structure itself:

• local legislation

• ensuring there is no obstruction to pedestrian or vehicle traffic (unless specific authorization is granted)

• the external environment (e.g., a classified site)

In any case, these metal (or partially wooden) structures will be installed in high-traffic areas:

• multimodal exchange hubs (places where train, bus, metro, tramway services meet)

• tourist locations with an environmental policy

• commercial areas

• residential neighborhoods or inter-neighborhoods

• in a school, middle school, high school, or educational institution

• service or industrial activity zones

• healthcare centers

There is no specific regulation regarding the right to install a bicycle garage. However, it is generally understood that depending on the location, the installation of a bicycle parking is subject to local legislation for municipalities, in compliance with environmental or road standards. For businesses, the Loi n°2010-788, Article 57, introduced measures designed to facilitate the installation of a bicycle shelter: as long as a car parking space exists, cyclists must also have access to a secure parking space. Otherwise, the installation of these bike security structures is often subject to CSR (environmental policy) procedures, mobility plans, and subsidies.

Identifying the needs of users also means offering them services in return. Signage on the bike shelter will inform users that organized parking and the security of their two-wheeled vehicles are best ensured in a shelter. It is a space dedicated to identified services that helps prevent theft and disorderly parking, a place for exchange provided by an actor in the economic and social sphere, supporting the user’s approach by showing a commitment to serving cyclists. Furthermore, the signage can be used to communicate about access management, or even promote civility and solidarity for sustainable development through the use of soft mobility.

Depending on the needs and objectives, bike garages have varying potential to communicate about the facility’s services: indicating the service, supporting the cyclist, communicating about the provider, or even providing purely technical information (such as access management). For all of this information, Abriplus offers a large-format adhesive service that will coordinate the visual communication with the colors and logos of the requesting organization. Beyond respecting identification and the various communication wishes, the studio offers integrative solutions for the shelter itself, with a focus on harmonizing shapes and colors. Abriplus manufactures and applies the adhesives to the appropriate surfaces and dimensions that align with the structure, before proceeding with the installation of the bike shelter.