‘A simple solution: dockless bikes can and should be parked in the road, at the kerb’

• I WRITE with reference to Cllr Paul Dimoldenberg’s letter on the subject of dockless bikes, (We are taking action on e-bikes, January 27).

At Westminster Cycling Campaign we welcome the fact that Westminster City Council has been broadly supportive of these schemes and has been working with operators to improve them.

But we would encourage the city council to go further, especially on the matter of parking. We do not doubt that the parking of these bikes can sometimes be a problem (albeit one that is often exaggerated on social media).

But there is a simple solution. The bikes can and should be parked in the road, at the kerb. In a borough where the majority of people don’t own a car, this would be a far more equitable and efficient use of public space than the monopoly of that space by private motor vehicles.

We would therefore urge the council to negotiate temporary arrangements with the dockless operators (pending the government’s delayed transport bill) to make kerbside parking a condition of use. This would remove the problem of pavement parking overnight.

If, however, the bikes are to be restricted to designated parking bays, as Cllr Dimoldenberg suggests, then it is vital that the network of bays is sufficiently dense that the bikes are always within quick and easy reach. In practice this would mean a bay on almost every street.

This would also honour the pre-election pledge to bring micro-mobility schemes to within easy reach of every home. The benefits of dockless bikes are numerous and their downsides are easily managed.

And London and Westminster have some demanding targets to meet over the next few years with regard to pollution, congestion and net-zero, which are not going to be met without a significant reduction in motor vehicles.

For these reasons, we hope the city council will continue to work with the operators to encourage uptake of what is, and should remain, a vital part of Westminster’s transport mix.

MARC ROTHMAN
Westminster Cycling Campaign