I’ve seen a lot of backyard bike sheds over the years. And even a few folks who’ve installed steel bike staples in their yard. But the small metal shed in the driveway of Sam Balto’s house in northeast Portland is something different. Balto recently installed a “Bikehangar” from a London-based company called Cyclehoop and invited me over to take a look. It’s the first one of its kind being used in Portland.
“We don’t have a garage and we like to ride our bikes a lot, and having to move them in and out constantly really becomes a deterrent to riding,” Balto said, as he unlocked and opened the wide steel door, revealing several bikes inside. “So being able to have secure bike parking in front is really nice and convenient.”
Balto has the Cargo Bikehangar, one of three models offered by Cyclehoop. He said it cost about $5,000 to get bought, shipped, and installed. It’s an interesting solution that could expand beyond the use of a single family if the city embraces the concept.
While Cyclehoop started in the United Kingdom, they spun off a separate entity in the United States in 2022. Cyclehoop US has a warehouse and fabrication shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Cyclehoop US CEO Andy Lambert says they’ve worked on installations with the City of Minneapolis, and the Minnesota Twins and Vikings (pro baseball and football teams).
“The response has been really positive from public and private sector customers, including residential homeowners,” Lambert shared with BikePortland today.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) has hundreds of “bike corrals” in parking spots adjacent to businesses citywide. But they don’t have something similar for neighborhood streets. It makes sense in some ways, because business customers usually fit under the definition of short-term parking, which is two hours or less according to PBOT guidelines. And bike corrals in commercial districts have a much higher demand than most Portland neighborhoods. Even so, Balto sees a future where these hangars are shared by several neighbors.
“I was in London a couple years ago and saw them all around the city,” he said. The City of London has contracted with a third-party vendor to manage thousands of Bikehangars. People on a block get access via a secure code on a smartphone app and pay a small fee for the service. In areas with apartments and multi-family dwellings, the hangars have been especially popular, Balto says.
Getting these hangars off private property boundaries and into the street, where PBOT already allows people to park private automobiles, is the next step. Right now that would be illegal without a permit.
Security will also be a big concern if these are to be taken seriously in Portland. Traumatized by years of rampant and brazen bike theft, many folks will be wary of leaving bikes on streets or in front yards in a metal shed. But Lambert says his company does third-party testing and receives the highest ratings. “The testing company uses all of the same power tools that bike thieves commonly use, including angle-grinders, reciprocating saws, crowbars, and anything else you can think of.”
Lambert added that Cyclehoop has 6,000 bike hangers serving 20,000 users in the U.K., and since 2012, bike theft has occurred in less than 1% of all use cases. “We’ve also had hangars on the streets of San Francisco since last June with no problems,” he said. The company recommends locking bikes inside the hangar and is testing a lock that would attach to the racks inside the hangar. They also offer a lock ring anchored to the ground (as seen in video above).
Balto isn’t worried about theft. His day job is to promote and advocate for bike buses and he sees the Bikehangar as a powerful way to get more kids and families riding.
“We want to make it easy for people to bike and store their bikes and lock them up when they go to friends houses, and our current system doesn’t offer that,” he said. “I’ve had students who we’ve been able to give them a bike, but their parents say, ‘we can’t accept it because there’s no room in their apartment complex.’ One of the biggest barriers to communities being able to do bike busses is secure bike parking, and so this is a super easy, affordable way — with some municipal support — to be able to remove barriers to make it easier for children and families to choose biking and instead of driving their kids to school.”
Balto thinks the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) could be a perfect source for funding bike hangars citywide. He wants to do a pilot project this summer where a network of hangars are purchased and installed in a neighborhood and then ridership numbers are tracked. Balto is confident more people will ride with convenient, weatherproof access to their bikes.
What do you think?