Help out with Shop by bike Belfast 2018 survey

Can you spare a few minutes while doing your grocery shopping to help out with an important cycling study?

In 2015 NI Greenways / Bikefast surveyed 40 supermarkets around Belfast to gauge how customers who arrive by bicycle are catered for. We found a paltry 100 bicycle racks across the whole city, with only 23 of the 40 supermarkets providing any dedicated parking spaces.

Three years on we’re running the survey again to see what’s changed, and we’re expanding to 74 supermarkets and convenience stores across the greater Belfast area.

Running a new and expanded "Shop by bike" survey across Belfast – 74 supermarkets to visit and rate, and newcomers around the @abbeycentre complex are already in the conversation for the top facilities in the city 🙂 #shopbybikebelfast pic.twitter.com/WXkR4TklDC

— NI Greenways (@nigreenways) August 8, 2018

We’re looking for help to complete the survey, crowdsourcing our research and getting real life cycling customers to input their views. To take part all you need to do is consult the map below for supermarkets not yet surveyed (we’ll update as results come in) and do the following:

• Take a picture of the exterior (including bike racks if any exist)
• Count the number of dedicated racks
• See if it’s sheltered (whether a dedicated shelter or under the supermarket roof)
• Note the quality of the racks (i.e. sturdy rack such as a Sheffield stand is good, wheel-bender or badly positioned rack bad)
• Look for obvious CCTV coverage of the cycle parking
• Judge the distance to the store entrance
• Look for addtional services (lock hire, bicycle pump etc)

This should take little more than a minute, and it would make a huge difference to the survey. Tweet us @nigreenways with your picture and info, or email us at nigreenways at gmail dot com.

If you don’t see a supermarket on the map, it’s already been surveyed, so there’s no need to survey it. We’re also sticking to the bigger chains, and adding some new ones this time:

• Asda
• Co-operative (new)
• Dunnes Stores
• Iceland
• Lidl
• Marks & Spencer
• Sainsbury’s
• Supervalu (new)
• Tesco

So no Centra, Mace, Russell’s, Spar or Vivo, just to keep everyone sane.

We’d also like to hear from you using the Twitter hashtag #shopbybikebelfast – which supermarkets and convenience stores do you cycle to? Which ones are you put off visiting because of a lack of facilities? What are your gripes, suggestions for improvements and things that really make a difference?

Let’s work together to make Belfast better by bicycle!