Is the latest generation of cycle parking too clever?

How's this for an imaginative take on street furniture design - kerbside bollards to which you can lock your bike for a small fee that includes cycle insurance against theft.

The ShareLock bollards have been installed in France and offer the first 15 minutes parking for free then €0.50 per hour. If the bike is stolen while locked to the bollard, the cyclist can claim €200 - although this amount can be topped up for an additional fee. It's a clever concept, but is it too complex for areas that are crying out for cheaper, low-tech solutions?

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The pressure on parking space is most acute in cities, despite these areas housing the highest proportion of people without access to a car. In common with other boroughs in London, Islington is blighted by dangerous air pollution from traffic. In response, the council charges residents to park based on the emissions of their car. For example, it costs nothing to park an electric car, £104 for a the permit to park a Range Rover Evoque eD4 (130g/km CO2) and over £500 per year to park the biggest gas guzzlers.

However, the council charges an annual fee of £107 (plus £25 as a key deposit) to park a bicycle in one of its on street bike hangers - more than it costs to park a Range Rover.

Charging someone more to park a bicycle than an SUV is clearly back to front, but are attitudes to urban cycle storage too prescriptive?

The absence of parking as a reason to avoid cycling

When the Guardian asked its readers what put them off cycling, reason number five was lack of facilities. "Lack of showers at work was an issue that came up again and again, as did frustration at a lack of space for cycle parking at home, at work, and at stations."

Bad driving and road danger topped the list, and are entirely understandable given conditions here in the UK, but surely absence of workplace showers is a specious excuse for not cycling. A genuine lack of space for parking a bike is a legitimate hurdle to overcome - it would be unfortunate if a desire for secure and weather-proof solutions resulted in the best becoming the enemy of the good. Especially when many pro-cycling countries make do with open-air, low-tech solutions.

When we visited Amsterdam to film our documentary about road danger, we were not confronted by streets lined with bike hangers. While it's true that there's a legal requirement for certain types of housing to include secure cycle parking, many residential streets are lined by hundreds of bicycles locked to conventional open-air bike stands.

High-tech solutions such as ShareLock and secure on-street parking like bike hangers are interesting additions to the urban landscapes, but the growth of cycling should not be viewed as dependent on them.

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