Toulouse. What are these strange cages that have appeared near the metro, in Marengo?
By Guillaume Laurent
Published on
They do not pass in the glimpses… and do not fail to intrigue passers-by. Several metal cages, hidden behind wooden siding and sealed to the ground, appeared on the public highway, opposite the Marengo-SNCF metro station, in Toulouse. And these are neither luggage drop-offs nor any kind of rabbit cages, but equipment never seen before in the Pink City: a cargo bike station.
Park your cargo bikes safely
Toulouse Métropole wanted here to “experiment with new solutions to facilitate mobility, especially around stations”, relates the company Nielsen concept, who produced this equipment, made available by the Métropole, and financed by EIT Urban Mobility.
This new station has a dual purpose: to provide a solution for secure parking to users, and make available a free-sharing cargo bike.
On the left side, the station therefore comprises a shipping container installed behind bay windows, and intended for secure parking for classic bicycles“with battery charging and small repair tools”, says Nielsen Concept.
On its right side, the famous “cages” in question: four boxes for bicycles cargo. Three of them are intended for parking Toulouse residents’ cargo bikes. And in the fourth, a family cargo bike was made available in free-sharing.
How to access the service?
To access this new service, the user must connect to the site mobypod.app, and follow the instructions for use on the velostation. He must therefore create an account, send an identity document, but also provide an initial contribution to access the service. This allows, according to Nielsen Concept, to access the rental of the cargo bike, during all the duration of the experiment, i.e. six months.
Once the registration fails (within 48 hours), the user can open the box assigned to him via the application, and either take advantage of his parking space, or have the cargo bike in free-sharing…
This new service is obviously paying for the user, who must pay 24 euro, for unlimited use of the station for six months.
And also… charging stations for electric bikes
Note that this is not the only novelty of the moment in Marengo, since right next to this cargo bike station, charging stations for electric bikes have also appeared. Again, this is a first in the public space in Toulouse.
“We want to encourage cycling and facilitate its use”, had hammered Thursday, September 15 Jean-Luc Moudenc during its back-to-school press conference, discussing this new equipment. Announcing the “concretization” of the famous REV (the Express Bike Network) and the revolution that awaits VélôToulouse, the mayor (LR) of Toulouse had hammered home his desire to “move up a gear” on the bike.
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