Secure bike parking for students at Imperial College London

Imperial College London has a 10-dock Bikeep smart bike parking station on Exhibition Road at its South Kensington campus. Bikeep's UK partner Cyclepods delivered it. Students park free of charge, and since the station went in, no bike parked in it has been reported stolen.

Why a campus in central London needs it

Bike theft is one of the biggest reasons students stop cycling. A bike locked to an open rack on a busy London street is an easy target, and a stolen bike usually means a student going back to the Tube.

The station gives students a place where the bike is held by the dock itself, not only by their own lock.

How it works

• A locking bar holds the frame. Riders don't need to bring a heavy lock.
• Two ways to unlock. Students use the Bikeep app or a contactless card.
• An alarm on every dock. If someone tampers with a locked bike, the dock sounds an alarm and local security gets an alert.
• Free to use. The point is to keep students cycling, not to charge for parking.

Where it sits

The station stands on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, in the middle of the campus and close to the museums. Students arriving by bike can lock up near lectures and labs without hunting for a free rail.

Part of a growing UK network

Cyclepods supplies Bikeep stations across the UK, including at the University of Hertfordshire. More on how campuses use secure bike parking is on the universities page.