Liverpool , where is one allowed to chain a bike?

[boris]

where can one chain a bicycle?

I went to Liverpool last week along the TPT and up the mersey promenade from Garstang. When I got to the ACC /museums/ Albert dock area I looked for a place to tie up and after 15mins found a security man who said I must not leave it anywhere around there or it would be taken away and confiscated asap. He directed me to some sheffield stands on the river side of the ACC. Otherwise all I could find were the hire-bike stands, which I used occasionally, but they are not well designed for use by normal cyclists. A lot of walking had to be done. So provision for cycle parking was very poor ( the whole city centre is so) and I was forbidden to leave it ad-hoc or the council would steal it.

I saw no signs informing us of anything to do with cycle parking. Along the riverfront you could chain 10 000 bikes easily provided it is not the council's intention to steal them,; and of course the city is full of lampposts , which are far from ideal but could be used. Scarcity of sheffield stands is not a disaster provided you can use lamp-posts and council fences, as I would do practically anywhere else..

There are some vague words on the council website about how very pro-cycling they are but no actual instructions.

At the Cunard building after two days of irritatingly finding hardly any cycle parking I found a tourist information desk . The boss there knew nothing about cycling , told me to ask 'the council' somehow. Her junior at my insistence that there must be a city cycle map rummaged in a drawer and found one (which is actually a very good map paid for by the bus company).

Where can we park in Liverpool centre?

[MikeF]

There are some vague words on the council website about how very pro-cycling they are but no actual instructions.

I don't know Liverpool so I can't help. Email the Council??

Unfortunately all councils are very pro-cycling until they realise they have to actually do something to making it happen and then excuses abound in plenty.

[mjr]

Look for blue dots or blue C squares on https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/5 ... 5&layers=C but there's really not as much as you'd hope for a city that size.

[Syd]

Having lived in Liverpool for 18 months I personally wouldn’t leave a bike locked up anywhere in the city.

It either would not be there when you get back because of the council or the unfortunate proportion of low life that had helped themselves to it.

[Jon Lucas]

Although the route along the Mersey estuary is lovely, particularly for its views along the river, of all the cities I know, Liverpool has the largest gap between the dearth in cycling and its potential. This is due to a woeful lack of investment into much cycling infrastructure, including cycle parking, and a historic willingness to pander to the motoring lobby.

It was built with grand wide streets but historically had very low car ownership, and much of it is reasonably level. Had someone grasped the opportunity 30-40 years ago, when there were plenty of people cycling to work, it could have become Britain's cycling city. Instead it went in the opposite direction, full of streets designed just for maximising car use, a lot of one-way streets that give no options for cyclists, and a level of car use that has now probably passed many richer cities.

And to answer the OP, there are few cycle parking places. When I was last up there for a conference, I had to walk a long way to find anywhere I could reasonably leave the bike, and found no sign of any cycle parking. Later I heard the venue did have cycle stands, hidden away in the worst of all possible places, which nobody there even knew about.

[boris]

Thankyou for these responses, which confirm what I found. It is one of those places that has a few patches of really quite good (or at least expensive ) cycle track and a few good parking hoops and even a special bike parking facility inside at L1 shopping centre; but such things are so sporadic and unconnected and of variable quality that as a newcomer one has to really ignore their existence or spend all day trying very slowly to navigate on them. And if you cannot leave your bike chained to a lampost or fence the trip may not be possible at all.

It is a shame, because I was very impressed by Liverpool centre for a day out.

For the cost of a thousand sheffield stands , which could be placed near and financed by the cafes shops and museums etc., and a few signs indicating that cycles can be chained to lampposts and riverside fences for up to 7days at a time, the attractions of the city for cyclists could be transformed.

[Cyril Haearn]

Is Manchester miles better?

[John Holiday]

A friend of mine has recently been appointed Cycling Officer for Liverpool & when I mentioned this post to her, she stated that secure cycle parking was something that needed looking at urgently.
It may be a good idea to take up your concerns with the department within Liverpool City Council.