Leuven (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – In Leuven, street-side bicycle parking is overcrowded, with 3,476 bikes in 2,760 spots. Alderman Dirk Vansina plans 800 new spaces. N-VA councillor Zeger Debyser criticised past delays.
As VRT News reported, street-side bicycle parking spaces in Leuven are overcrowded almost every day. City figures show that nearly 40% of these facilities exceed their capacity. Residents often see bikes packed tightly in the racks.
“This confirms what we’ve been seeing for a while: Leuven is a true cycling city, but space in the city centre is scarce,”
Says alderman Dirk Vansina (CD8V).
“During the week, there are many more student bikes in the city centre, which is when the pressure is highest. That group decreases on weekends, freeing up more capacity.”
What is Leuven doing about 3,476 bikes in 2,760 parking spots?
Bicycle parking in Leuven is facing serious pressure. Many facilities are full, and illegal parking has become a major problem.
“This causes disruption on sidewalks and in shopping streets,”
Said Vansina.
“So we must continue to invest in additional and better-organised bicycle parking.”
The city plans to add around 800 new bicycle parking spaces during the current legislative term. While the new spaces could reduce overcrowding in numbers, officials note that the problem is not easy to solve.
“Demand remains high,”
Says the alderman.
“We’re considering bicycle parking in buildings to alleviate the pressure, but so far we haven’t found any suitable locations. Furthermore, bicycle parking has been made mandatory for new student projects. This prevents students from having to park their bikes on the street.”
The city also removes abandoned bicycles through organised cleanups and provides extra parking during busy events. Authorities are focusing on bike-sharing services in areas where parking is limited. They review data and collect feedback from residents and business owners to decide where new spaces are needed.
The opposition party N-VA said the shortage of bicycle parking has been a problem for years.
“There hasn’t been enough space for bicycles in the city for years,”
Says Zeger Debyser.
“New bicycle parking facilities were promised during the previous administrative term, but they never materialised. Hopefully, the administration can now deliver on those promises. We’ve been advocating for a dense network of shared bicycles for years. But the council only cared about expensive e-cargo bikes, and that company even went bankrupt.”
“New bicycle sheds were promised in the previous legislative term.”
Zeger Debyser N-VA
Leuven has been dealing with the issue of bicycle parking. In 2013, the city started to develop new on-street and underground bicycle parking at important locations across the city, including large projects at the train station and Rector De Somerplein. After investing in this parking, demand outstripped supply, as it had in the past. Daily flows of students to the university and commuters made parking in the city centre an issue for parking capacity before investing in this bicycle parking.
The situation drew renewed attention in 2023, when the city centre had 2,760 on-street bicycle parking spots. This number does not include underground parking at the train station or at Rector De Somerplein. Despite the available spaces, the city counted 3,476 bicycles parked in these street-side facilities during the day. That is more than 700 bicycles above the official capacity.
The issue is more visible when bicycles are parked outside the racks. The city found an additional 284 bicycles chained next to the facilities. In total, 2,598 bicycles were counted outside the official parking spots.
