Tell town planners where cycle parking is most needed

Mayor Boris Johnson at the launch of the Barclays cycle hire scheme in London. Its huge uptake has demonstrated the latent demand for cycling in the capital. Photograph: Matt Crossick/Empics Entertainment

Something wonderful is happening in London every weekday: something that should be indicating to politicians and civil servants that they'd be mad to cut cycling expenditure now.

Each morning, thousands of commuters pick up what's been dubbed a "Boris bike" from the outskirts of zone one, to ride into the city centre. Within walking distance of Euston, Waterloo, or King's Cross, and the racks are empty.

During the evening rush hour, the signature flashing lights of hire bikes head back the other way, emptying the docking stations in commercial districts such as Mayfair, Soho and Farringdon and filling those near mainline stations.

To cope with demand, Transport for London is even shuttling trailer-fulls of hire bikes in the opposite direction.

We at the London Cycling Campaign think it's fabulous that thousands of people have chosen to add cycling to their commute, demonstrating the vast latent demand for cycling in London and, dare we suggest, in many other British cities and towns.

It's not hard to find Londoners who had never used a bike previously doing it so regularly now. Tanya Gudgin, who commutes to Soho by picking up a hire bike from Victoria, told us: "I'd never ridden a bike in central London before, but now I do five days a week."

Judging by the staggering number of cyclists seen on the capital's roads in recent weeks, it's not too fanciful to suppose that a large number of the 20,000 cycle hire journeys per day are new ones.

One thing that makes the hire bikes so popular with commuters is that once they dock them in the station they can relax: there are no thieves to worry about, and no massive locks to carry.

At peak times the scheme is running to capacity, but none of the solutions mooted (more docking stations, free minutes for going against the flow) is as satisfying or as logical as the most obvious answer: make it vastly easier for thousands of people to bring their own bikes into the city by providing places to store them safely.

At the Guardian Media office in King's Cross, one-quarter of the staff cycles to work. This has been achieved by filling the basement with racks, and providing showers and lockers.

At London law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, an entire former car park is now decidcated to cycle parking. Space taken by a dozen cars now hosts 150 bike spaces in a secure compound. There are lockers, showers and a vast drying room, and even bike-servicing facilities. Not surprisingly, more than one in 10 Freshfields staff cycles to work.

Yet many central London workplaces provide little or no secure parking places, meaning cyclists must choose either to leave their bike unattended for many hours during the day (if they can find a space), or to leave it at home. With bike theft at record levels, many potential cycle commuters are forced to choose the latter.

No branch of government has yet grasped the solution: convenient and secure public parking in central London and around transport hubs (like that found in Surbiton) needs to be the rule not the rare exception.

Cycle parking standards for new buildings are far too low or not enforced. In Cambridge the regulations demand one bike space per university student; in London it's one for every eight. The new Shard skyscraper near London bridge will have just 250 cycle parking spaces for up around 6,500 potential workers.

To counter inadequate provision of cycle parking at thousands of popular destinations, the London Cycling Campaign is launching a Cycle Parking 4 London website so cyclists can tell decision-makers where cycle parking is most needed. To cope with current demand, the capital needs tens of thousands more stands in and around public buildings, stations, offices and people's homes.

The fact is (as has been shown elsewhere) that if you build great cycle facilities in the right locations, people flock to them. To those of us who want to see cycling grow in London, with all its benefits to public spaces, health and the economy, that is truly wonderful.

Tom Bogdanowicz and Mike Cavenett work for the the London Cycling Campaign