Bike parking: the secrets of the world's largest. Utrecht has it all: free racks, a repair shop, and rentals.

The place dreamed of by cyclists of the entire planet is open, under the eyes of the two-wheeled people: it is the largest parcheggio to the world for bicycles which could not fail to arise in Netherlands, the international home of this very waste-free form of mobility. A country where the bicycle is defined as "an intangible heritage of every citizen" and there are 1,3 per inhabitant.

THE WORLD'S LARGEST BICYCLE PARKING

The maxi bike parking lot (12,500 spaces, three floors all monitored, a short distance from the train station) was created in Utrecht, the fourth largest city in the Netherlands, and has already become a model for the new sustainable mobility in two-wheeled form.

What matters, in fact, in this infrastructure whose dimensions (17 thousand square meters (of space) are not easily seen even when it comes to cars, it is the entire system of operation of the service. First piece: the parking for cyclists in Utrecht and the surrounding area is Free in the first 24 hours and only after that a fee is applied 1,20 euros per dayIn practice, the parking service is tailor-made for anyone traveling within the Netherlands for a day, departing and/or arriving at Utrecht train station. This is consistent with a sustainable mobility paradigm: the integration of various means of transport, possibly alternatives to the car. Providing secure parking for your bike for free for 24 hours and at very low rates for the following days also means protecting cyclists from the scourge of theft and once again encourage the use of bicycles. Safely.

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WORLD'S LARGEST BICYCLE PARKING IN UTRECHT

The second aspect of the gigantic Utrecht car park is that it also houses a series of collateral services, which are very important for the two-wheeled community: workshop, assistance, sale, rentalFinally, a third point that makes the project truly unique: it's a parking lot designed by a prominent architectural firm, Hoogstadt of Amsterdam, also presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Sustainability, when it works, permeates all fields, and from a bicycle you go to a parking lot, and from a parking lot you go to an architectural work of great urban value.

(Photo credits cover image: Petra Appelhof – Gemeente Utrecht)

CYCLING: ALL THE ADVANTAGES

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