Hackney Bike Parklets - Reclaiming on-street parking spaces for active travel

We have recently rolled out a number of bike parklets in Hackney. The timber clad planters are painted a striking green colour, making it easier for them to be spotted by users but also to reflect the vibrancy of the borough. The modules, for the most part, take up 1 car parking space of 5m x 2m and are accessed from both the roadside and kerbside. These modules can, however, be doubled up to occupy the space of 2 car parking bays which in turn, doubles up the amount of regular, or cargo bikes that can be stored.

In the borough, 11% of residents were found to use their bikes five days a week for either leisure or work, and 16.1% rode three times a week. With usage so high, Hackney required a number of extra cycle storage spaces. Finding footpaths, pavement and other areas suitable for bike storage can be very difficult so our Parklets provide the perfect cycle storage solution, reclaiming on street parking spaces for active travel.

The installation of this infrastructure is supported by Hackney’s cycle training scheme. The council offers 2 hours’ free cycle training to everyone who lives, works or studies in the borough to encourage residents to cycle over the use of cars or other personal vehicles, which of course, in turn, has a positive effect on air quality. 

We have also installed cargo bike parking which is easily identified from regular bike parking with the use of graphic icons. Cargo bike usage is ever-increasing for both commercial use and personal use with Hackney also having recently launched a cargo bike hire scheme. These Parklets feature a lower mounting bracket which means that users can simply use a regular bike lock to lock their cargo bike safely. The Parklets are available with ramps and a whole host of other accessories to support users including graphics, signage and other modular designs. 

We continue to work with The London Borough of Hackney with green infrastructure and are working on more cycle infrastructure programmes going live in the very near future.