Case study Park+Bike in Leeuwarden

What is the objective of this programme? Achieve one thousand rush-hour journeys avoided by the end of 2017. The Park+Bike Leeuwarden scheme contributes to this.

Leeuwarden wants to use Park+Bike to tempt commuters to park their cars on the outskirts of the city and cycle the last part to work. More information about the different systems can be found in the Park + Bike fact sheet. For this purpose, the municipality of Leeuwarden has installed bicycle lockers and boxes for five bicycles in five existing car parks around the city. They are the Wiarda, Hemriksein, Kalverdijkje, Goutum and WTC car parks. There is now room for about eighty bicycles in total. There is a possibility that the municipality will increase the number of bicycle spaces to 150.

The project

Employers who are affiliated with the Work Smart, Travel Smart programme can rent Park+Bike spaces for their employees, which may include a Batavus city bike. Alternatively, employees may store their own bike there. They can park their car free of charge at the participating car parks. Most sites also have a bus stop in the immediate vicinity.

A space including a bicycle costs the company €400 per year, a space without a bicycle costs €300. In principle, employees pay nothing, unless the employer and employee agree otherwise. The municipality of Leeuwarden is the owner of the bicycle lockers and boxes and the associated city bikes.

The municipality also takes care of management and maintenance, including the rental and issue of keys. There are also agreements with local entrepreneurs regarding the provision and maintenance of the bicycles. A flat tyre, for example, is repaired extremely quickly. Park+Bike is partly paid via the Optimising Use programme. If all costs are factored in, including the efforts of the municipal organisation, the business case is not financially balanced.

Implementation

The scale of the city of Leeuwarden lends itself to Park+Bike. The city centre is easily accessible by bicycle from all five locations, both in terms of distance and the quality of the bicycle facilities. Furthermore, cooperation with the business community is an important feature of this project. Major employers such as Friesland Campina are closely involved in Park+Bike.

As such, the project is in line with one of the conclusions of a literature review of bicycle-sharing systems. They are most likely to be successful if they are aimed at a specific group of users in a smaller area and solve concrete accessibility problems.

Leeuwarden also experimented with transferring from car to bus, but this proved much less successful here. Park+Bike also fits in well with the overall bicycle policy of the municipality of Leeuwarden.

Together with employers, the municipality wants to promote commuting by bicycle in order to reduce pollution, increase the accessibility of the city and contribute to the health of the working population. Leeuwarden, for example, already provides the option of buying an e-bike or e-scooter on attractive terms. There are several free supervised bicycle parking facilities in the city.

Results

Approximately sixty commuters are currently using Park+Bike. As a result, the measure is now making a substantial contribution to the objective of Work Smart, Travel Smart. Scale plays an important role in this. Destinations in the city must be within cycling distance of the Park+Bike sites on the outskirts of the city. At these distances the bicycle quickly outperforms public transport in terms of speed and flexibility. The measure is also expected to function well in larger cities, but more so at district level.

Considerations in the event of re-use

Park+Bike is perfectly suitable for use in other areas. Cities or regions that are considering implementing a similar project should take two main concerns into account:

• The municipality of Leeuwarden is currently responsible for the management and maintenance. This demands a lot from the organisation. The municipality opted for a pragmatic approach to the issuing of locker and bicycle keys. Meanwhile there have been many developments in the field of shared bicycles, smart locks and booking and payment systems. Which is why the municipality is exploring the options for outsourcing management and maintenance to the market. And possibly the ownership of the bicycles and storage facilities as well. The municipality of Leeuwarden sees itself primarily as a director.
• One of the most important success factors for Park+Bike in Leeuwarden is that participants have their own bicycles at their disposal. They don't have to share bikes or the parking facility. This is a crucial difference between Park+Bike and shared-bike schemes. And that is reflected in customer satisfaction. Participants like the fact that they have a bicycle at their disposal all day long, that they do not have to adjust the saddle height for every ride, and that they have a lot of influence on the condition of the bicycle.

Would you like to know more about this specific project?

On the www.vrij-baan.nl/park-bike web site you can read all about the Park+Bike scheme in Leeuwarden.