School bike sheds

The school I work at has recently had installed ?£15K worth of bike
sheds - a combination of secure and insecure Wardale units:

http://www.broxap.com/img/productImages/BROXAP.COM-WORK%20AREA/CYCLE%20PARKING/COMPOUNDS/Wardale%20Compound/Wardale%20Compound.pdf

Danny Colyer said:

But the sheds aren't lockable.

Then I'm sure most of us have seen this picture of Tom's shed:
<url:http://www.flickr.com/photos/71476254@N00/120403782/>

But that also looks like it's not lockable.

Any suggestions?

Danny Colyer said:

I'm after advice for anyone with experience of boosting cycling at
schools. Of course, I'm thinking particularly of Tom here.

My wife is currently involved in developing a travel plan for our
daughter's primary school. There is some pessimism on the grounds that
the head is known to be anti-cycling, but all the more reason to push
cycling hard and get plenty of good suggestions in.

At the moment she wants to know about secure cycle storage. The school
is new and not completely finished, so still has space for development.
Bike racks will need to be covered (natch), but also lockable. The
shed will be unlocked at the beginning and end of each day by the
caretaker, then locked again when kids have finished arriving/leaving.

One local school has had great success with these sheds:
<url:http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools///////////////////////////////////////////////library/gallery/library_gallery_detail.cfm?cat=2&id=36>
or <url:http://preview.tinyurl.com/3yhbmz>

But the sheds aren't lockable.

Then I'm sure most of us have seen this picture of Tom's shed:
<url:http://www.flickr.com/photos/71476254@N00/120403782/>

But that also looks like it's not lockable.

Why does a shed need to be lockable? Also why on earth does it need to
be locked when there are no bikes in it?

If you want secure cycle parking to prevent the little darlings
pilfering each other's bits and pieces what you want is a compound
that is locked after the chidren have arrived and unlocked before they
leave.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

Danny Colyer said:

I'm after advice for anyone with experience of boosting cycling at
schools. Of course, I'm thinking particularly of Tom here.

My wife is currently involved in developing a travel plan for our
daughter's primary school. There is some pessimism on the grounds that
the head is known to be anti-cycling, but all the more reason to push
cycling hard and get plenty of good suggestions in.

At the moment she wants to know about secure cycle storage. The school
is new and not completely finished, so still has space for development.
Bike racks will need to be covered (natch), but also lockable. The
shed will be unlocked at the beginning and end of each day by the
caretaker, then locked again when kids have finished arriving/leaving.
Any suggestions?

A couple, though I'd have to check manufacturers. Depends a bit on the
capacity you want.

The Mayor of London's school cycle parking scheme involved Broxap and
Cycleworks. Both do lockable versions.

For a small shed (up to about 5 Sheffield stands), the whole front can
open as two huge gates. With larger capacities, better to have a
central aisle with stands both sides - then you just need to lock the
ends (or one end can be against a solid wall).

If you have a shed with a door and a row of stands, you have to
enclose enough space to be able to get the bikes on and off the
stands, which is a bit wasteful.

Don't discount the idea of using a spare room in the building, if
there's a door to the outside.

Lockers are also a possibility, if the cyclists can't be trusted with
each other's bikes. Try Bikeaway.

If the school is new, the planners should have insisted on cycle
parking - but the developers will have interpreted this as meanly as
possible.

Colin McKenzie

--
No-one has ever proved that cycle helmets make cycling any safer at
the population level, and anyway cycling is about as safe per mile as
walking.
Make an informed choice - visit www.cyclehelmets.org.

Danny Colyer said:

Bike racks will need to be covered (natch)

OK, but why? It's not like they'll have a roof over them on the
journey to and from school ;-)

Quoted message said:

, but also lockable.

If it doesn't need to be a "building", why not a standard T-shaped
rack with a roof. I don't know what they are called, but we've got a
few of them in the car parks are work, just racks with two, well,
T-shaped roof supports and a plastic roof.

They could put a fence and with a lockable gate around them.

--
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labtech1 said:

The school I work at has recently had installed ?£15K worth of bike
sheds - a combination of secure and insecure Wardale units:

http://www.broxap.com/img/productImages/BROXAP.COM-WORK%20AREA/CYCLE%20PARKING/COMPOUNDS/Wardale%20Compound/Wardale%20Compound.pdf

Excellent, thanks. I've forwarded that.

--
Danny Colyer <URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/>
Reply address is valid, but that on my website is checked more often
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

Phil Cook said:

Why does a shed need to be lockable?

To stop the kids playing with other kids' bikes at break times.

Your post has jogged my memory and reminded me that the comprehensive I
went to didn't have lockable bike sheds (or any kind of bike shed, for
that matter), but what it did have was an area walled in by classrooms
on 3 sides and with a gated chainlink fence on the 4th. The 4 or 5 kids
(out of about 1200 on the main site) who cycled kept their bikes in
there, and the gate was locked. I shall suggest something similar as a
solution to the locking problem.

Quoted message said:

Also why on earth does it need to
be locked when there are no bikes in it?

Good question. My guess is that there's no good reason.

Quoted message said:

If you want secure cycle parking to prevent the little darlings
pilfering each other's bits and pieces what you want is a compound
that is locked after the chidren have arrived and unlocked before they
leave.

That's the idea.

--
Danny Colyer <URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/>
Reply address is valid, but that on my website is checked more often
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

"Danny Colyer" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Phil Cook said:

Why does a shed need to be lockable?

To stop the kids playing with other kids' bikes at break times.

Your post has jogged my memory and reminded me that the comprehensive I
went to didn't have lockable bike sheds (or any kind of bike shed, for
that matter), but what it did have was an area walled in by classrooms on
3 sides and with a gated chainlink fence on the 4th. The 4 or 5 kids (out
of about 1200 on the main site) who cycled kept their bikes in there, and
the gate was locked. I shall suggest something similar as a solution to
the locking problem.

Quoted message said:

Also why on earth does it need to
be locked when there are no bikes in it?

Good question. My guess is that there's no good reason.

Quoted message said:

If you want secure cycle parking to prevent the little darlings
pilfering each other's bits and pieces what you want is a compound
that is locked after the chidren have arrived and unlocked before they
leave.

That's the idea.

--
Danny Colyer <URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/>
Reply address is valid, but that on my website is checked more often
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

sadly the trouble is that after the first few weeks the caretaker will
forget to lock it --( or forget to unlock it at the appropriate time and the
kids will break in and retrieve their bikes) -- and bikes will "go".

Dependence on a "controlling authority" for security in these sort of areas
just does not work long term.

Better to have bike racks which are securable by the individuals in an open
well viewed position.

Then task the caretaker to do a random series of visits to help out ( but he
won't do it anyway)

--
Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
www.tapan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

Following on from Danny Colyer's message. . .

Quoted message said:

But the sheds aren't lockable.

There is a different (and IMHO far superior) approach to security that
doesn't involve whole-shed-lockability. Simply make sure the racks are
in a busy and overlooked place so that any miscreant can be spotted
having a [censored] (or whatever miscreants get up to.)

This should be a basic design criterion anyway.

--
PETER FOX
Not the same since the bolt company screwed up
[email hidden]
www.eminent.demon.co.uk - Lots for cyclists

Pinky said:

Dependence on a "controlling authority" for security in these sort of areas
just does not work long term.

Would it be better to try to teach children the importance of locking
up their bicycles? They could still be in some sort of 'secure' area
but at least if someone foregets to lock it then the bikes will still
be locked up. Also teaching the children that this sort of location
is a good place to leave a bike because it's being watched by other
people would be good.

When the children leave school, they probably won't have the luxury of
such a good facility and will be left on their own. That was
certainly the case when I moved from junior to high school.

peter

Phil Cook said:

Why does a shed need to be lockable? Also why on earth does it need to
be locked when there are no bikes in it?

School bike sheds aren't only used for storing bikes. Schoolkids have
traditionally found "other uses" for a discrete covered location,
anxious parents find out and demand shed is removed.

"Colin McKenzie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Danny Colyer said:

I'm after advice for anyone with experience of boosting cycling at
schools. Of course, I'm thinking particularly of Tom here.

[snip]

Quoted message said:

The Mayor of London's school cycle parking scheme involved Broxap
and Cycleworks. Both do lockable versions.

[snip]

As Colin points out, in the last few years London has been spending a
lot of money on school bike sheds, and their approach was to put in a
mass order for actual sheds, rather than just to hand out grants.

Presumably, therefore, they did some research first, and there ought
to be somebody at Transport for London's Cycling Centre of Excellence
who now is the world's expert on bike sheds. I don't know who that
somebody is [do you know, Colin?] but if you could phone up Transport
for London, and start asking around, that might produce results.
Start at Transport for London's web site, I guess, www.tfl.gov.uk

Jeremy Parker

POHB said:

School bike sheds aren't only used for storing bikes. Schoolkids have
traditionally found "other uses" for a discrete covered location,
anxious parents find out and demand shed is removed.

Many new style bikesheds are now of a clear plastic :-((

John B

POHB said:

Phil Cook said:

Why does a shed need to be lockable? Also why on earth does it need to
be locked when there are no bikes in it?

School bike sheds aren't only used for storing bikes. Schoolkids have
traditionally found "other uses" for a discrete covered location,
anxious parents find out and demand shed is removed.

Like I said you don't want a shed you want a compound with see through
railings.

--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

Pinky said:

Dependence on a "controlling authority" for security in these sort of areas
just does not work long term.

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Then task the caretaker to do a random series of visits to help out ( but he
won't do it anyway)

It worked at my school, but then the caretaker was a *very* keen cyclist.

--
Danny Colyer <URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/>
Reply address is valid, but that on my website is checked more often
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

Peter Fox said:

There is a different (and IMHO far superior) approach to security that
doesn't involve whole-shed-lockability. Simply make sure the racks are
in a busy and overlooked place so that any miscreant can be spotted
having a [censored] (or whatever miscreants get up to.)

This should be a basic design criterion anyway.

That's good advice. I can't think of anywhere on the site where the
shed could possibly be positioned so as /not/ to meet this criterion,
but I'll suggest that it be borne in mind anyway.

--
Danny Colyer <URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/>
Reply address is valid, but that on my website is checked more often
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

These: http://www.compbio.dundee.ac.uk/~dmamartin/sheds.html were
installed at the end of last summer and are an excellent design. They
currently house about a dozen bikes each on a workday with capacity
for 20 (nominally). This usage suggests they may well be bulging at
the seams after Easter.

The plastic on one was broken but is now repaired.

...d

Danny Colyer said:

Phil Cook wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Also why on earth does it need to
be locked when there are no bikes in it?

Good question. My guess is that there's no good reason.

It helps reduce the incidences of lung cancer, STDs and underage pregnancy.

David Martin said:

These: http://www.compbio.dundee.ac.uk/~dmamartin/sheds.html were
installed at the end of last summer and are an excellent design.

Looks good. Was it a custom build, or do you have a url for the
manufacturer? It looks similar to the ones manufactured by Broxap, as
posted by labtech1 (DW was very pleased with that recommendation, BTW).

--
Danny Colyer <URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/>
Reply address is valid, but that on my website is checked more often
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

Danny Colyer said:

David Martin said:

These:http://www.compbio.dundee.ac.uk/~dmamartin/sheds.htmlwere
installed at the end of last summer and are an excellent design.

Looks good. Was it a custom build, or do you have a url for the
manufacturer? It looks similar to the ones manufactured by Broxap, as
posted by labtech1 (DW was very pleased with that recommendation, BTW).

Tis indeed a Broxap one. There have been suggestions that it could be
dramatically improved by welding reinforcing mesh on the inside (the
stuff used for reinforcing concrete) to make it less easy to break in.

I have been tempted to park the trailer with a growbag or two and some
tomatoes in there..

...d