Byke Bins

[imellor]

I know a few members are in the South London area, so I thought I would mention the following, which others might find of interest....

I am a home worker, so don't have any commuting problems, however occasionally I have to attend meetings in various parts of the country. Normally the first leg of any journey is a bus ride to East Croydon station.

Ideally I would like to cycle to East Croydon, but have never felt comfortable leaving my bike at the station, for what could be 12+ hours. A mate alerted me to "bykebins" (I'm not sure if that is the correct spelling). However they have these in the Fairfield Multi-storey Car Park in Croydon. They are a big yellow box which you put you bike into, a bit like a large locker.

So one Saturday I thought I would give them a trial run before I use them in anger. The instructions are to find an empty bin and note the number, you then pay a £5 deposit to the C.P. attendant and then have use of the locker.

I asked the attendant for a key and he laughed, apparently people have paid their £5 and have kept the key for their use. He said that they renew them monthly, but there is not a very rigorous policing of the system.

Hence if you look at the BykeBins on any day at random, you will be hard pressed to find any in use.

I am now on the waiting list for a key, but it would seem to me, that they need to find another way of regulating usage, perhaps include a daily charge?

Ian

 

[flecc]

I didn't know they were there Ian, I usually park in the bike racks on the corner by the postal sorting office next to the station, but I'm only there for short stays occasionally.

From what you've said it seems a daily fee would probably be the best answer for key control, doing things on an account basis via credit card could work.

 

[RichieB]

Bykebins - councils and employers

I know this is an old post but I have a bit of an issue with councils and employers not providing Bykebins. The government's bike scheme is great and other initiatives to get more people to cycle to work are fine, but who wants to hook up a £500 plus bike to a bit of railing or a single wheel rack. It is well known that thieves fine this kind of thing a joke - witness the piece on the Guardian website.

The good thing with Bykebins is that the bikes are 1. out of site of thieves and vandals who target the high end bikes 2. they are padlock secure. I've done a blog piece on this that goes in to more detail at cycle to work

If baffles me why businesses and especially councils don't buy more of these - in some cases they can charge a daily fee and they can also advertise on the front doors and earn a return - but sadly, there are very few around. In my local towns of Grantham and Bingham there are exactly zero.

I hope some of the members of this forum can lobby their local councils and businesses to provide more bikebins to provide a service to those of us who want to get around without clogging up the streets with cars and not have our bikes stolen.

Thank you for your support and let me know how you get on...
Rich

 

[flecc]

Last year I had occasion to use the aforementioned Fairfield car park a number of times, often at a time when I'd be expecting people to be picking up their bikes after work. At no time did I see anyone near those bins, they sit there as if abandoned and unloved, so I assume it's unlikely there had been any improvement in the five years since Ian's post.

If so that's sad, since as Richie says, they are infinitely better at protecting bikes than any other method, not solely due to the locking but simply because no-one can tell if there's anything in a bin, or if there is, what it's value might be.

 

[RichieB]

Thanks Flecc - you're right about it being out-of-sight and therefore better protected. As the former bike thief in The Guardian article says, thieves know the good bikes to go for - so locked away and out-of-sight is about as good as it gets!
R

 

[HD462]

My worry would be if the keys were being kept, is are the council replacing the locks every month, or just the keys. If it's just the keys, what's to stop someone who's previously kept a key, from coming back and helping themselves to whatever bike is in the locker they've kept the key for?

 

[RichieB]

Thanks Mark for making this point. It has to be the case that the user of the Bykebin must provide their own padlock, or else, as you point out, someone could keep or copy a key and then come back at a later stage.

 

[ruy lopez]

There are four Bykebins at Bromsgrove, my local station, which is unmanned. They are the kind where you use your own padlock. I've never seen any of them without a padlock in place. The four padlocks are always the same ones. Last Friday evening I was there with my bike, not to travel but just to collect tickets from the automatic machine. As I was leaning on my bike looking at the Bykebins, a young lady got off a commuter train, unlocked one of them, took out her bike, relocked the now empty container, gave me a challenging look (as if to say 'No chance mate - I'm keeping this one.') and cycled off, presumably not to return until Monday morning for work. So there's the problem. Once selfish people get hold of the self-lockable Bykebins they never relinquish them.

 

[amigafan2003]

See if you can get one of your own padlocks though the clasp ;-P

 

[Scimitar]

Just for her sheer selfishness, I'd be inclined to superglue her padlock.