Ride and fly? London’s Heathrow Airport calls for Cycle Superhighway extension to encourage passengers to arrive by bike

I don't think airport staff would be persuaded to cycle in larger numbers than they already do, particularly given the local area and the predominant ethnic background of residents who tend to be under represented in active transport modes elsewhere.

An estimated 16,500 of the airport's 76,000 strong workforce live within 5km, and Heathrow estimates only around 800 employees currently arrive by bike (which is actually a lot more than I would have imagined). 

As for my own experiences, in the '90s I visited Heathrow frequently as a contractor to the communication department. Mostly I took the Express from Paddington, and occasionally I took the cheaper but much slower Piccadilly line. Most of the time, I chose the quickest option which was to drive (this was before the airport drop off charge was introduced).

Parking in the car parks really gives you a flavour of what the air quality around the airport is like. Most passengers arriving by tube wouldn't notice it so much, but it really is something you don't want to spend much time breathing in. On one occasion I took the local bus service from the airport to another HAL office nearby. It wasn't that far as the crow flies, but is a circuitous, traffic dominated route that would have been really unpleasant (noisy, smelly dangerous) to try and walk or cycle.

Having said that, a visit to Ho Chi Minh City last year was an eye-opener. Many of the runway apron operating staff, who in western airports would probably be zooming around in liveried vehicles, were making those journeys on bicycles.

Pootling over to London city airport on the bike before flying is one of life's little pleasures. It's not rocket science. 

I admire your optimism Clubsmed but we are talking about plans to be submitted by Chris Grayling, so.....
I absolutely agree that if they can get more staff to cycle in that is a good thing and anything that helps this is a plus. That said, the extension of Boris bikes has been very slow and at its current rate, it's unlikely to get out to Heathrow for a generation (you can't even take one near city airport currently).
My original post was more of a reflection of where we are and given the tunnel cycle closure, we live in hope as opposed to expectation !

As it is off the top of your head Clubsmed, i will fill in a few details
1 Boris bikes don't extend as far as Heathrow. Even if they did, a 10 mile ride on one would be very slow and sweaty.
2 and 3 have you seen the left luggage charges ? It's cheaper to park a car !
As things stand, it's not feasible on a practical or cost basis !

This is really interesting, the motivators for change are strong here, but they are also different to the usual council road improvements.  

Are we going to see major change to streets being forced through by a private corporation and if so how are they going to approach it?  Are LHR going to study what really works in terms of cycle infrastrucutre and then implement it?  Or in reality is this just noise made to placate the government and we are going to get a load more white paint on the roads for car tyres to wear out?  if it is the former then how are they going to placate the local community, they have already shown that they are prepared to make themselves extremely unpopular locally in order to get what they want.  

I wonder what proportion of LHR staff arrive to work by car?

I once got a minicab to the terminal with my bike in the back, left my bike in 'left luggage' for the day whilst i did a return flight to Germany - and then cycled home to north london along the canal towpath.     logistically possible, but never repeated.    

This is about the 55000 people who work at Heathrow, not about passengers. 

Sounds like a Chris Grayling idea because bikes reduce pollution and hopefully if enough people cycle to heathrow then it will offset all the pollution from the new runway. And if it doesn't work then it doesn't matter because business is booming 

It's possible if travelling light but what do you do with your bike at the other end ? Gift it to the local tea leafs and buy another one on return ? Hope that the airline will let you take it on ? I often use a Brompton around London and can readily carry enough gear for business trips but I have absolutely no idea whether the airline would let me take the bike on with me. As a result of this and no secure storage, it's a non starter (aside from them getting rid of the cycle lane through the tunnel).
I fear this will be more "gesture" politics with a lack of joined up thinking predetermining it's failure.

I have explored the possibility of a "travel bike" (Ritchey Breakaway or S&S couplers). But really, why make it so difficult & expensive for us? All they need is some bike parking in the cabin. Yes it takes up a little more space, but somebody taking their bike onto the aircraft is going to have very little other luggage (and no massive bike box in the aircraft hold).

RORO air travel. If I were king......

Much as I'd like to, it's a bit impractical seeing as how I live in South London. And I expect it'll be even more impractical for anyone not living actually in London, like  most people in the UK. If I lived near and was going for an overnight trip, which I do quite a lot of with work, then it might be feasible, but when I'm on a business long haul or a family trip, how much of my stuff could I carry on my MTB?

It might be good to encourage a lot of the Heathrow workers to cycle and I expect they'd like to do away with some of their parking problems. But trying to get them to go for it? well, let's just say it'll take some selling.

I often do work trips that mean I have to be at Heathrow very early in the morning for 6am flights. Since the tube isn't running at that time, it means I have to take a cab. Taking the caris not feasbile since the parking area is some distance away and my wife needs the car anyway. What would help though is if I had somewhere secure to park my motorbike close to the terminals. Now that would cut down on car transport to the airport and let's face it, a motorbike takes up a lot less space than a car. Cycling to Heathrow would not be feasible for me at all.

THEY TOOK AWAY THE CYCLEWAY THROUGH THE TUNNEL TO THE CENTRAL AREA.

It was there, they ripped it out. this is the their map of cycle facilities in the area- spoiler alert, a load of rubbish.

I can't find anything about how secure the parking is. Even if aiming at short haul business/short stay leisure, the parking better be damn secure.

For taking bikes on places, that would require some sort of parnership with a transport case lease firm?

Seems like they have good words but clueless about what they're providing or trying to provide?

They need to reduce pollution?  We are talking about an internatioonal airport here, where jet airliners take off and land.

Passengers cycling is completely missing the opportunity for cycling.

Over 70,000 people work at Heathrow. It's the largest single site employer in the U.K. 

Just naking it easy for people to cycle to work from the surrounding area would be s major improvement.

It is forbidden to cycle to Terminals 1 - 3.     Only motor vehicles are allowed in the tunnel.

This only makes sense for ferries, where you can park your bike normally. None of the airlines will allow the bike as baggage without it being in atleast a carboard box...Cycle to heatrow with a cardboard box on your back?

April 1st? either they need the airlines to be more bike friendly or they need somewhere to store bikes securely for days.

I can imagine employees arriving by bike, but passengers is extremely unlikely.

before even considering how I take my luggage by bike.

Maybe if they started a bike box hire faculty I could bike pack my holiday. That would be awesome. turn up / collect bike box / pack bike / fly