Residences

Most bicycles are still stolen from private residences. Nothing remarkable in that, since that is where these spend most of their time anyway. Yet this is often considered to be less unavoidable and even less acceptable: particularly in your own home your bicycle should be safe. This implies in practice that presence, size and accessibility of sheds and storage areas are important issues.  And in recent years another negative factor has been added to the equation: requirements for presence and size of storage sheds are no longer legally prescribed. See Quick-scan bike parking facilities near private residences (Quick-scan fietsenstallingen bij woningen) and Sheds no longer legally required. This causes acute problems for storing bicycles safely, particularly in apartment buildings: Better quality wanted instead.

Older residential neighbourhoods in major cities, with 3 or 4 floors of apartments, often have no means of bicycle storage at all. There used to be neighbourhood parking facilities in these areas. Many of these have disappeared, although everywhere attempts are being made to stem the tide (particularly in Amsterdam: History with a future (Geschiedenis met toekomst)). With some success. Generally somewhat less successful are the smallish, new types of neighbourhood parking facilities: ‘bins’ shared by a few neighbours, usually meant for 6 bicycles (Battling with bins and neighbourhood parking (Tobben met trommels en buurtstallingen)).  In cities like Den Haag and Amsterdam attempts are being made to provide various types of parking facilities suitable to older residential neighbourhoods: As different as night and day.