Rotterdam's bicycle parking strategy goes into practice

Explosive growth of bikeparking

This year there will be created 1,500 to 2,000 extra places to park your bicycle in the city center of Rotterdam. Around summer there will be 1,100 bicycle parking spaces near the Central Station. In addition, more than 200 temporary places will be added on a feew streets in the center. In an empty shop, a temporary parking facility with space for 450 bicycles will open in June. All plans are in the Bicycle Parking Strategy adopted by the Commission.

However, bicycle use in Rotterdam is also growing rapidly. With the growing number of cyclists in the coming years, more than 60,000 bicycle parking spaces will be needed in 2030, and even nearly 75,000 in 2040. That is why Rotterdam is going to expand the number of bicycle parking spaces in order to meet this increasing demand. Alderman Judith Bokhove of Mobility, Youth and Language: “To seduce people to get on a bicycle, you need more than good cycle paths. It is important to be able to park your bike safely, close to where you want to be. To make cycling to the city center even more attractive, extra parking facilities are needed in many different places. ”

Indoor bicycle parking facilities are being investigated and realized if possible at several locations. This involves 8,000 to 10,000 bicycle parking spaces. Additional places to park your bicycle indoor will be on mainstreet Coolsingel and under the Schouwburgplein in the car park. It will probably be ready from 2024. In addition, in (new) construction projects, the developers will realize a total of more than 10,000 bicycle parking spaces for residents and employees up to 2025. On the street, a mix of bicycle parking facilities will be used: bicycle “staples”, bicycle racks, bicycle drums and temporary bicycle platforms on carparking spots, which, if successful, will become permanent bicycle parking spaces. In addition, pilots are being set up with bicycle parking spaces and pop-up bicycle parking facilities.

More efficient use of bicycle parking spaces

Rotterdam is investigating ways to make better use of bicycle parking facilities. Attention is also paid to better signposting to bicycle parking facilities, registering the occupation of parking facilities and informing cyclists about this, other forms of parking policy (for example free bicycle parking for the first 24 hours), a recognizable design and layout of parking facilities and enforcement on wrong and too long parked bicycles and mopeds.

More information on Rotterdam's bike parking strategy here (only in Dutch)