Figures provided by Victoria’s Department of Transport show a 35 per cent increase in registered users of the ‘Parkiteer’ cages over the past year, although a recent Public Transport Victoria survey found just one per cent of commuters who make their way to train stations each day ride their bikes.

Seventy Parkiteer undercover bicycle cages, each holding up to 26 bikes, have been installed at Victorian train stations since 2008, mostly at outer metropolitan Melbourne — or Zone 2 — stations. A further 650 individual bike lockers are located on platforms, taking to almost 2500 the number of bikes able to access secure parking.

The Parkiteer scheme, which is managed by Bicycle Network (formerly Bicycle Victoria), is adding another seven cages this year. This includes cages at all new train stations, as well as at station upgrades.

Bicycle Network spokesman Garry Brennan said the organisation hoped to continue installing cages wherever demand required them. “We are on a mission to convert people from driving to the station to riding to the station,” he said.

More than 6700 cyclists are currently registered for Parkiteer, compared to 5000 a year ago, with about 10 per cent of registered users accessing the cages on a typical weekday. In February, a record 728 people parked their bikes in Parkiteers across the state in a single day.

Although this amounted to less than half of Parkiteer capacity, Mr Brennan said usage was uneven across the rail network. Some of the cages were full every day with Bicycle Network having stopped issuing access cards for the two cages at Laverton Station due to overcapacity, but all other cages were currently accepting registrations.

Mr Brennan said popular cycling stations such as Laverton and stations in Melbourne’s growing west, such as Williams Landing and Point Cook, would need the equivalent of four or more Parkiteers to meet demand.

According to a 2012 Public Transport Victoria survey of train station arrivals, 5000 people arrived by bicycle on a typical weekday compared to 140,000 by car and 412,000 on foot.But despite the scheme’s success, cycling to train stations remains a niche mode of transport.

 “We are on a mission to convert people from driving to the station to riding to the station.” — Garry Brennan

“Most people live within three kilometres of railway stations and they drive,” Mr Brennan said. “Some people are driving less than one kilometre.”

In fact, a 2010 survey by the Victorian Department of Transport found more than 60 per cent of weekday car trips to train stations were less than three kilometres, and 10 per cent were less than one kilometre.

Dr John Stone, a public transport planning expert at the University of Melbourne, said even more people would be within easy cycling reach of a station when Zone 2 fares were abolished for city commuters later this year. As a result, people would no longer need to drive extra distances to get to cheaper Zone 1 stations.

Many train station car parks are full before 8am on weekdays, and a 2013 RACV members’ survey found the single biggest difficulty for train travellers was finding parking near stations. The RACV has called for more car parks to be built at train stations.

But Mr Brennan said car parks were uneconomic because the cost exceeded revenue from tickets, and Victoria was “unique in the world” because authorities continued to build car parks at train stations.

Four new train stations have opened since 2012: Cardinia Road, South Morang, Lynbrook and Williams Landing. Combined, they have parking for 1736 cars and approximately 150 bicycles.

Where Parkiteers are . . . and how commuters get to a station  

The State Government is also expanding car parks at existing stations, including a 250-space multi-story car park at Syndal station on the Glen Waverley line at a cost of $10.1 million, or $40,000 per car space. By contrast, Mr Brennan noted that a Parkiteer cage for 26 bikes cost, on average, $50,000 and would occupy an area equivalent to three car spaces.

Public Transport Victoria has projected a doubling of train passengers between 2011 and 2031. Dr Stone said the extra passengers were unlikely to be able get to a station by car. “There isn’t the space around the stations and if you are wanting to make the stations social, community, economic hubs … then filling them up with cars isn’t the way to do it,” he said. “So, it’s going to have to be by bus and cycling.”

“I think the reason that we haven’t been doing as well [as Europe] with cycling is that once you take your bike out of the cage and get onto the road, most people don’t feel safe.” — John Stone

Dr Stone said that to encourage people to leave their car at home, governments would need to “make sure there is nowhere to put it at the other end”.

He said some of the massive bicycle parking facilities in Europe were “inspiring”.

For example, a single train station in the Dutch city Groningen, population 200,000, offers underground parking for 10,000 bicycles.

Dr Stone said Parkiteers were “one step on the way”, but added: “If we are going to have cycling in the numbers we need, then Parkiteers for every cyclist are probably going to be prohibitive.”

He also said secure parking was not the primary issue influencing people’s decision about whether to cycle. “I think the reason that we haven’t been doing as well [as Europe] with cycling is that once you take your bike out of the cage and get onto the road, most people don’t feel safe,” he said.

Parkiteer cages were introduced in 2008 after the State Government controversially banned bicycles on peak hour trains, a measure that lasted less than two months. The cages can be accessed by a swipe card that is obtained from the Bicycle Network with a refundable $50 deposit. Cards can be used to access any Parkiteer cage.