Starting next week All you need to know about the new bicycle car park in Beuel
Beuel · The new bicycle car park at the railway station has been inaugurated. The city and municipal utilities want to use it to promote cycling in Bonn even more. How the new system works, how it is operated and what it costs.
The new bicycle car park at Beuel railway station was officially opened on Tuesday afternoon. Lord Mayor Katja Dörner and District Mayor Guido Pfeiffer presented the new system together with the Chairman of the Management Board of Stadtwerke Bonn, Olaf Hermes, and the Managing Director of SWB Bus und Bahn and SWB Mobil, Anja Wenmakers.
According to Mayor Dörner, the multi-storey car park in Beuel will be opened on 20 December and the second bicycle car park on Konrad-Adenauer-Platz should be available by the end of the year. The bicycle car parks are managed by the Stadtwerke subsidiary Bonner City Parkraum (BCP).
Clean and safe bicycle parking
Mayor Dörner described the opening of the car park as a "milestone for the mobility revolution". District Mayor Pfeiffer said that the bicycle car parks enable "safe and clean parking" for various types of bicycles. Stadtwerke Managing Director Hermes added that the bicycle car parks improved the offer for intermodal mobility, i.e. the use of different means of transport during a journey. Gerhard Baumgärtel, transport policy spokesman and parliamentary group leader of the Beuel Green Party, said: "This is an attractive offer, especially for expensive e-bikes or pedelecs, when people commute to the station and change to the train there."
Representatives from the city and municipal utilities have announced that a new cycle path will soon be created that runs past the multi-storey car park. To this end, the two parking spaces between the bicycle car park and the street "Beueler Bahnhofsplatz" will be rededicated. "What is still missing is an attractive exterior with greenery on the façade, photovoltaics and a cycle logo on the tower," said Rolf Beu, mobility policy spokesperson for the Green Party parliamentary group. "We are relying on the promised improvements from SWB Bus und Bahn."
Further details on the new facilities
Intelligent multi-storey car park system: The modern parking system was developed by the Swiss company V-Locker AG. It consists of mechanical lightweight modules and a digital operating platform that are in constant dialogue with each other. Within each tower module, the bicycle lockers move vertically in a paternoster lift system.
Secure bicycle boxes: The bicycles are stored in theft-proof and dry boxes. In addition to the bicycle parking rail, each box also has a storage compartment with space for a helmet, rain cover and rucksack. During the booked period, the customer can access their box several times, for example to put shopping in the bike basket. In addition, family members and friends can also be given access to the box via a sharing function. The bicycle car park's eight access gates prevent long waiting times at peak times. The actual parking in the box only takes a few seconds.
Dimensions of the boxes: For a bike to be parked in one of the boxes, it must not weigh more than 30 kilograms. It is also important that the handlebars are no wider than 73 centimetres. Overall, the bike should be no higher than 113.5 centimetres and no longer than 190 centimetres.
Booking in advance: It is possible to book a space in one of the bicycle car parks in advance via an app while on the move or at home. Opening, closing and cancelling the rental process takes just a few clicks. Users must register beforehand, and V-Locker offers its own app for this at https://v-locker.ch/app/. The app also shows whether boxes are currently available for the respective location. Stadtwerke plans to integrate the booking function into the SWB app BONNmobil at the beginning of 2024.
Rates as in the bike boxes: The prices are the same as for the bike boxes. The shortest rental period is the daily rental, which costs one euro. A week costs five euros, a month 15 euros. If you book the box for half a year, you pay 60 euros. The annual rate is 90 euros. The booking can be paid for by credit card, GiroPay and PayPal.
Locations and parking spaces: The bicycle parking facility is designed to accommodate as many bikes as possible in as little space as possible. There are 96 parking spaces available at Beuel station and 72 at Konrad-Adenauer-Platz. In total, bicycle car parks with a total of 280 lockable boxes will be built at four central locations in Bonn. The modular parking systems for two-wheelers are also to be installed at Frankenbadplatz and Stiftsplatz in Bonn by the end of the year. They are due to go into operation in January.
Financial support: The project is part of the "Emission-free city centre" funding project, a joint project of the Federal City of Bonn, Energie und Wasser GmbH and Stadtwerke Bonn Verkehrs GmbH. It is financially supported by the European Regional Development Fund and the NRW Ministry of Economic Affairs.
More bicycle boxes: The bicycle car parks complement the range of bicycle boxes. The federal city has had 30 mobile stations since 2022. There are 21 bike boxes at three of these stations: six at Elisabethkirche, ten on Kaiserstraße and five on Wilhelm-Levison-Straße.
(Orig. text: Sascha Stienen / Translation: Mareike Graepel)
