Wheeling all the way to Wembley: Cycle parking at football grounds
Jonathan Oldaker from Modeshift partner Turvec share’s his thoughts on Cycle parking at football grounds.
In the UK, hundreds of thousands of people travel most weekends to see their football clubs play. But, currently, only a small percentage cycle. What are the reasons for this?
On the face of it, more cycling to football stadia can only bring positive benefits. Lower air pollution, lower congestion levels, health benefits, and less street-side car parking on match days.
Cycle parking may offer the most cost effective thing football grounds can do. While safer cycling routes require road changes, planning, and many years of work, cycle parking is a straightforward answer to get more people cycling on matchday.
A small footprint with a big impact
Website Pedal to the Pitch identifies safe cycle routes, infrastructure around the stadium, and cycle parking as the core barriers preventing more cycling to matchdays.
In a nutshell, these are the reasons preventing active travel from expanding further in the UK, full-stop. If people don’t feel safe and welcomed to cycle, they’ll use a car instead.
But major events like football matches, concerts, parades, and exhibitions are slightly different. Whereas cycle parking at your local supermarket requires short-stay spaces for a gradual flow of customers, larger events need hundreds of spaces for one allocated time slot.
This is the area that has prevented even the most cycle-dependent football fans from using their bike to travel to more games.
Even with the right cycle routes, fans will be put off if they’re left looking for a spare railing or fence to lock their bicycle to.
Harnessing the pre-existing security
When installed strategically, cycle parking at football stadia can help pull in hundreds of local fans.
Racks can be powder coated in club colours, and used a strong marketing tool to change fan behaviour.
Active travel even counts towards football clubs’ sustainability ranking.
Crucially, many football grounds have a high level of natural surveillance, especially close to car parking areas.
As we’ll see at the modern Brentford G-Tech stadium, the cycle parking area is patrolled by security cameras and staff throughout the build up, during, and after the match.
The cycle parking will have thousands of fans looking for a pre-match pint or pie, further increasing the ‘natural’ surveillance.
That results in building fans’ trust in cycling to the ground, with the snowball effect of more bikes meaning better security.
Case study: Brentford Football Club
In 2021 we were involved in the development and installation of 300 cycle parking spaces for the new G-Tech community stadium now used by Brentford Football Club.
With our two-tier bike rack we were able to put the spaces in a relatively small space, with Wave cycle shelters protecting the bikes from the rain and weather.
The racks are directly outside the turnstiles, and mean fans don’t have to queue for buses and train stations.
Calls for more spaces suggest that the bike racks regularly fill to capacity. It is expected that these numbers will grow over time and as London cycle infrastructure continues to improve. Therefore, more shelters with more racks seems likely.
We are currently involved with projects at the Etihad Campus and the new Everton Stadium, with both grounds substantially increasing and investing in active travel.
Perhaps it won’t be long before fans pedalling to the pitch becomes the norm every Saturday.
