The City of Ghent in Belgium wanted to offer visitors and employees a total solution in terms of bicycle parking, where all the luxury for bicycles can be found. Think of charging points for electric bicycles, racks for scooters and bicycles, lockers for folding bicycles, and a bicycle maintenance station where you can inflate your tire. But also extra space for cargo bikes.
A real innovation in this bicycle parking facility is the extended charging point with a locker for chargers and e-bikes. This idea originated with the metal worker Erwin Rogiest from the Ghent City Office. The City Office included his idea and prototype in the tender, with VelopA's design being the best fit. VelopA has taken the Fourchet+ bicycle rack as a starting point for this, with the standard charging points being extended with lockers and and lock attachment rings. There are several advantages of the charging points combined with lockers. You can easily access your locker, store your e-bike charger in the locker and secure the bicycle with your chain lock at the same time. All the cables and chargers are not lying around on the floor either.
Ghent City Office is very satisfied with the solution. The bicycle parking facility is always filled with bicycles and all parking spaces are well used, including the charging points. In the meantime, the City of Ghent has also equipped all the city's carpool locations with these racks and charging points and there are still some projects to come.
“It was a new collaboration between the City of Ghent and VelopA. There were some teething troubles in the beginning, but VelopA resolved the problems quickly. We have achieved a good result, the end result is impressive," says Christine Droesbeke, Purchasing and Logistics Department, Fleet and Bicycle Management Department, Ghent City Office.
Amsterdam’s largest and world’s first underwater bike garage opened its doors on January 25
In the heart of Amsterdam, the Dutch capital spent € 50 million to create a parking structure that can store 7,000 bicycles in a submerged facility at the city’s central train station. It is the world's first underwater bicycle parking facility.
Official opening
The Stationsplein bicycle garage at the front of Amsterdam Central Station was officially opened on the 25th of January 2023 by Vivianne Heijnen, State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management. Architectural firm wUrck was responsible for the design of the bicycle garage, which was realized by contractor Max Bögl on behalf of the Municipality of Amsterdam. In addition, wUrck supervised the architectural components of the entire entrance, including several bridges.
Next-level cycling infrastructure
The garage is part of a sophisticated infrastructure project to modernize the station in the Dutch capital. As well as the bike garage, there is also a new metro station, which quickly transports travellers to the city’s outskirts, and a tram stop nearby can take you all around Amsterdam. The next-level cycling infrastructure project in Amsterdam has been in the works for four years.
A solution for its messy, overflowing bicycle parking facilities
The new underwater garage for 7,000 bicycles makes an end to the messy and overflowing bicycle parking facilities in front of the Amsterdam central station. It’s tucked away out of sight beneath the clear waters and pleasure boats. Bikes can be parked freely for 24 hours and then at a cost of €1.35 for the next 24 hours.
The bicycle detection technology uses optic sensors and a smart software algorithm that is able to simultaneously detect up to 20 bicycle parking slots. The system will detect available spaces. Green and red lights are shown to indicate if parking spaces are available or not.
Two-tier bicycle racks by VelopA
VelopA - European market leader in bicycle parking - supplied the two-tier bicycle racks, CapaCITY, for this project. The CapaCITY allows to store bicycles one above the other, thus doubling storage capacity at a stroke. The system uses integrated gas springs to provide assistance when lifting bicycles to the upper level.
Projects in Europe
As cycling becomes more popular around the world and particularly in Europe, it is expected that similar projects soon will be realized by our distributors in Romania, Poland, Denmark, Spain, France, UK, Germany, etc.
Port 7, a former factory for prefab concrete panels, offers not only modern office centers but also high-quality amenities, including shops, restaurants, daycare centers, hotels, and temporary housing. Surrounding the complex is a spacious two-hectare public area filled with greenery, featuring a riverside promenade, seating, and sports facilities. Everything has been developed as energy-efficiently as possible to minimize the ecological footprint.
For this impressive project, VelopA has been selected as the supplier of bike parking solutions. The new and innovative VelopA-Up bike rack was chosen for its quality, sleek design, and user-friendliness. The decision was also influenced by the need to maximize the use of available space, with the double-layer racks providing an efficient solution. In total, 84 bike parking spots have been created for this unique project.
If you want to learn more about the VelopA-Up, please get in touch with our advisors to explore the options.
The design of this Pixel bicycle shelter was made by Oomen Architecten. In terms of design and material, the bicycle shelter fits in well with the business premises. Construction company Heerkens van Bavel Bouw installed this bicycle shelter at QNP, an IT solutions company.
The Austrian Bundesbahn (ÖBB) was looking for a bicycle parking system which could accommodate as many bicycles as possible in a limited space. A sustainable dual-level bicycle parking system which is reliable and easy-to-use. The Easylift+ has been installed on a floor with a 7% gradiënt. It has a total of 616 bicycle parking spaces.
A dual-level bicycle parking for the employees of Michelin. Our distributor Abri Plus provided constructor Dumez Lagorsse with the Easylift+ for this project.
The horrible war in Ukraine has been going on for longer than a year, and despite the fact that many children's playgrounds have been destroyed, our Omnistadium sport cage in Uman in Ukraine (installed in 2020) has survived the bombings.
A quote from our local partner in Ukraine:
“Our area is safe, but some of our playgrounds have been destroyed. Mariupol city on South-East of country is globally destroyed and the playgrounds also. Some equipment was also stolen and moved to Russia.”
We are proud to announce that we have been able to contribute to something positive for Ukraine. We are also in a process with our partner to start new projects in Ukraine. In parts of the country where it is relatively calm and where children can and should be able to play outside.
The Omnistadium is suitable for all sports all year round and gives children an opportunity to play freely with others.
The mountain railways have collaborated with the Cerebral foundation to offer proper seating for the elderly at numerous places around Zermatt. They chose the Vivanti bench of VelopA as it is especially designed with the elderly in mind. They have placed these benches in town but also along the hiking paths high up in the mountains.
We are proud to have been able to contribute with our CapaCITY double-layer bicycle parking system to The Green Revolution Association's initiative to encourage participants of the international ITU PP Conference in Romania to use bicycles as a means of transport. During this three-week event The Green Revolution Association made bicycle sharing systems and the necessary infrastructure for bicycle parking available free of charge to more than 4,000 participants.
"We strongly believe that alternative transport is an essential condition in ensuring sustainable urban mobility. We are glad that we could be part of the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2022, an event of major importance for the IT&C sector worldwide, and for the opportunity to contribute to its sustainability component both through the electric car charging stations and the existing bicycle infrastructure at The Palace of Parliament which, together with our partners from the Green Revolution Association, we made available to the 4,000 participants," Alexandru Tanase, Head of Department of the Technological Development Center, Chamber of Deputies, told Green Report.
The VelopA CapaCITY two-tier bicycle racks were installed at the central station to offer a parking space to everyone who arrives there by bicycle. Bicycles are stored on top of one another in the two-tier bicycle racks, which doubles the bicycle parking capacity.
We have several two-tier bicycle racks in our product range. View our product range here.
Officially opened on 26th March 2015, this cycle hub will prove itself to be a priceless asset to the station with the building itself being a multi-use communal area. This bike storage was designed to Southern Rail's specific needs.
The entire ground floor of the Cycle Hub is full of Easylift+ two-tier storage. Our two-tier was the ideal product for this kind of project due to the need to be as space efficient as possible! Our Easylift+ was the first in the UK with gas assist upper arms. This makes lifting and lowering the upper arms both easier and safer. Further improvements include having the lightweight aluminium arms on casters so cyclists aren’t dragging metal along metal. Once drawn out, the upper arms of the Easylift+ don’t come crashing down which means they are easy and safe to use. Combined with all of this, our Easylift+ is still the only two-tier in the UK market whose upper arm reaches all the way to the floor. This means that cyclists are not required to lift their bikes to load them on to the upper tier. Other models require lifting the bike to either knee or even waist height. This might be okay for a super fit cyclist with a carbon fibre bike but to encourage casual users, the unfit or those with little upper body strength or with Dutch style bikes to cycle you need the upper arm to reach the floor.
On 18 January 2014, the first Cruyff Court in the United States was opened in Montverde, Florida. This Cruyff Court is an initiative of the Montverde Academy and the Cruyff Foundation. The Montverde Academy community outreach program uses the Cruyff Court to give children and young people from the Orlando area a chance to become more active, play together, and use football as a means to personal development. This is the third time the VelopA Omnistadium has been used as a model for Cruyff Court. The other two Cruyff Courts are in The Hague and Hoorn.
In the covered bicycle shelter in Maastricht, several bicycle racks were installed so that a variety of bicycles can be parked safely and easily. With the CapaCITY two-tier rack, the bicycle parking capacity has doubled because bicycles can be parked on top of one another. The Fourchet bicycle rack with charging points is suitable for cyclists wanting to charge their e-bikes. But we also thought of cyclists with cargo bikes; they can stow these in the Variant+ single-sided racks for cargo bikes.
Would you like to know more about the bicycle parking facilities we offer? View our product range here.
Cyclepods was invited to tender for the Provision of Enhanced Station Cycle Facilities which involved 10 railway stations in the Southern area of a new franchise. Cyclepods was successful in its bid and is now providing 350 new cycle parking spaces at the 10 stations with a public use pump and repair stand at each. They were also awarded the contract to supply cycle hubs at Dorking and Hove stations for up to 400 two tier spaces. Therefore we are putting the CapaCITY two tier bicycle parking system into all 10 stations and will use the Easylift Premium in the Dorking & Hove Cycle Hubs.
Cycling’s popularity is growing. The bicycle parking capacity at the train station didn’t fulfil the needs anymore. Therefore Southern Rail searched for extra capacity and found the solution in the two-tier bicycle parking Easylift+. Our distributor Cyclepods provided 300 extra bicycle places spread over four different train stations. These 300 bicycle places are almost all filled directly. Southern Rail is very pleased with the user friendliness and the looks of the products.
