Velopark.be is a digital platform that makes information about bike parks in Belgium accessible to all. All useful user information is gathered at one central location: www.velopark.be. This makes bicycle parking data immediately accessible as open data for websites (public transport, trains, towns and municipalities), apps and online applications (digital maps, journey planners, etc.). The information is always up to date, any time, anywhere.
It’s the work of a moment to find an easy, secure spot for your bicycle in a guarded bike park. You can check the opening hours or whether there’s a bicycle pump or electric cycle charging station present. You can also see immediately how many spaces the bike park still has available.
The groundwork performed by Velopark.be offers a solid foundation for innovative applications. Smart, uniform information structuring (see page on open data) facilitates the development of applications that enable more secure and efficient cycle parking. The website can serve to inspire many useful applications. Examples include theft reduction or the assurance of a free spot, for instance.
Are you part of an organization that wants to add bicycle parking to Velopark? Create an account at admin.velopark.be - if you have any questions or problems, please contact info@fietsberaad.be.
The Velopark project is an initiative of Fietsberaad Vlaanderen, in partnership with Imec, Nazka and MORE LION. The project is supported by the federal Belgian government through the Smart Mobility Belgium fund.
Fietsberaad Vlaanderen supports the development of cycling policy through knowledge and research. To that end, they performed several studies investigating which factors could encourage cycling and overcome the barriers. These revealed that in Belgium, bicycles are not used nearly as much for commuting or in combination with public transport as in the Netherlands. One factor holding people back is the lack of reliable bike parks. Cyclists want efficient ways to find an easy, secure place to park their bike. Therefore, Velopark has collected relevant data for all the bike parks and is working on applications to increase security and make it easier to find a spot quickly.
Velopark’s initial focus is on public bike parks, as in combination with public transport, these are the most vital in facilitating people’s commute. Therefore, the first parking spots to be included will be those by train stations or bus and tram stops, neighbourhood bike parks, bike lockers and bike parks run by municipalities.
Ultimately, the towns and municipalities decide which parking spots to include on the platform, maintain an overview and ensure the data remains current.
The operator of the bike park provides the data. This can be a private party, non-profit association, transport company or a municipality. Towns and municipalities may add bike parks or amend the data by creating an account at admin.velopark.be. Municipalities have the best overview of bike parks in their area and carry the ultimate responsibility for the data on Velopark.be.
Cyclists who cannot find a specific bike park on Velopark may propose the addition of a bike park through the website. This message will be passed on to the town or municipality where the bike park is located. The town or municipality can then add to this information.
If you work for a municipality or a parking operator, you can create an account at admin.velopark.be. You can identify a missing bike park on the map to notify the town or municipality in question. They can then add all relevant data for this bike park to Velopark.
At the top left of the page with details for the individual bike park is a button ‘Propose changes’. Use this to indicate which data is in error. Your message will be sent to the bike park’s operator along with a request to check the data.
Each operator, municipality or transport company is responsible for the management of their own bike parks. The page for the individual bike park should contain the operator’s contact details.
Velopark can be linked to a counter at the bike park to show how many spots remain available. However, this is only possible if the bike park has such a system in place and has linked to Velopark. Velopark has created a standard that enables bike park manufacturers and operators to easily link and share data about available spaces.