How to stop pavement parking? “Install bike racks”, say active travel campaigners

A local active travel group in Cambridge is arguing that installing cycle racks on the pavement would have the effect of solving two problems at once: stopping drivers from parking on the pavement and providing “much-needed” additional space for cyclists to park bikes.

Mill Road 4 People is a group of more than 900 local residents and traders based in the busy Cambridge street, aiming to make it an “attractive, safe and successful street”, with a focus on making it safer and more accessible, reducing traffic, and improving public transport as well as cycling and walking conditions.

One of the primary campaigns of the group has been against pavement and illegal parking along the road. It has called for stricter enforcement of parking regulations and better awareness amongst drivers for the last three years. The group is now saying that bike racks could be installed on wider sections of the pavement in order to block people from driving up onto the path.

At a meeting of the Greater Cambridge Partnership’s (GCP) joint assembly earlier this week, Tina Riches from the Mill Road 4 People asked whether the GCP would consider funding bike racks to stop people from driving up onto the pavement to park, reports Cambridgeshire Live.

She said: “Mill Road 4 People has been conducting a hugely popular campaign called 'PaveMeant for People', aimed at tackling illegal pavement parking. We are calling for individual bike racks to be installed at the pavement edge, parallel to the road, in all places where the pavement width is sufficient.

“This would both create a barrier to pavement parking and provide much-needed extra bike parking. Could you confirm that at least one of your ‘demonstrator projects’ will be aimed at tackling pavement parking on Mill Road, and that our proposal will be given serious consideration?”

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Peter Blake, the transport director at the GCP, said this could be something that was considered in the future. 

He said: “Cambridgeshire County Council is the lead agency on the Mill Road project. At the moment it is clearly going through a legal process, following the outcome of that legal process we will be happy to continue our dialogue with county colleagues on what happens next. Clearly if the assembly and the board support the idea of some sort of quick win list then that could be added to those considerations.”

Can bike racks stop pavement parking?

Mill Road 4 People is not the first organisation to come up with this strategy to deal with the issue. 

Back in 2018, Wandsworth Council implemented the idea by installing a number of bike racks near Earlsfield Station just over a foot from the road, not only preventing delivery lorry drivers from parking on the pavement but also encouraging more cycling.

In fact, the UK Government states bike racks as one of the “engineering measures”, along with other physical objects such as railings, plant pots “to stop people parking on pavements”. 

The Government’s 1993 traffic advisory leaflet on pavement parking also encourages the use of engineering measures to stop pavement parking. However, it adds that these objects may add to street clutter and recommends local authorities to judge whether any such measure would create a physical barrier for those with visual or mobility impairments.

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On the other hand, there have been a few cases where people haven’t taken to the idea very well. In 2018, a tattoo parlour owner in Portsmouth vowed to keep parking on the pavement outside his shop, despite the council installing bicycle racks along the path to deter parking

He said that his family was left feeling “victimised” after being handed a parking ticket, despite regularly using their forecourt as a car space for four years.

Meanwhile, Mill Road 4 People in Cambridge has argued that pavement parking is one of the biggest issues the street is facing in the city. However, GCP has previously been known to take a rather lenient approach towards motorists driving over the kerb to park their cars. 

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In 2017, the delivery body for Cambridge's City Deal said that cars should be permitted to park in a kerb-segregated cycle lane on Green End Road to help people access local businesses, much to the dismay of many cycling campaigners.

Cambridge’s cycling advocacy group Camcycle claimed that allowing parking in the cycle lane undermines the entire scheme. A spokesperson for the group said: “The GCP must do better for the large number of people who cycle on Green End Road. Winding in and out of cycle lanes on busy roads is also unsafe, so many people cycling will make the logical decision to avoid the cycle lane entirely and to hold a safe and primary position in the lane as encouraged by the Highway Code.”