Motorcycle and powered two-wheeler parking requirements

There is no national motorcycle parking planning requirement in England. No Approved Document covers it, the National Planning Policy Framework does not set a figure, and the Building Regulations requirement for electric vehicle charging infrastructure applies to car parking spaces rather than to powered two-wheeler bays. The requirement, where one exists, comes from the local planning authority's own parking standards, usually in a supplementary planning document rather than in the plan itself.

Which is why it gets missed. An architect checks the local plan, finds nothing on motorcycles, and submits a layout with no provision. The highway authority picks it up on consultation and the scheme loses three weeks.

Ratios in local standards

Authorities express the requirement in three ways.

As a proportion of car parking, commonly one powered two-wheeler space for every 20 or 25 car spaces, with a minimum of one or two spaces for any scheme above a stated size.

As a ratio to floorspace, for employment and retail development, set per 1,000 m² of gross internal area.

As a ratio to dwellings or bedrooms on residential schemes, usually at a low rate and sometimes only on flatted development.

Take the figures from the authority's current standards document, not from a neighbouring borough and not from a previous scheme. The ratios differ considerably, and some authorities set none at all, in which case the sensible approach is to provide a modest allocation anyway and say so, because an unprovided-for motorcycle parks on the footway.

Where a parking stress survey supports a reduction in car parking, the two-wheeler allocation usually survives the reduction intact, which makes it proportionally more important on a low-car scheme.

Bay dimensions and layout

A single motorcycle bay is commonly drawn at around 2.0 m by 1.0 m, with 2.5 m by 1.2 m used where an anchor point and some manoeuvring room are included. Grouped bays work better than isolated ones and need a manoeuvring strip of 1.5 to 2.0 m in front of them.

Those are the dimensions most standards documents use. Confirm them against the authority's own figures, which occasionally differ, and draw them to scale rather than annotating a note on the layout.

Surface matters more than it does for cars. A motorcycle on a side stand sinks into soft tarmac in summer and slides on a smooth resin finish in the wet, so specify a firm, level, textured surface and a fall that does not run across the bay. Block paving laid on a proper base works. A gravel margin does not.

Mark the bays. An unmarked area set aside for motorcycles becomes a car space within a fortnight. Thermoplastic markings plus a low kerb or bollard at the open end is the arrangement that survives.

Anchors, lighting and security

Theft is the reason riders care about this, and the provision that gets used is the provision that is secure.

Ground anchors rated by a recognised security standard, set into a concrete base rather than bolted to a slab, let a rider secure the machine to something immovable. One anchor per bay.

Lighting designed to the road lighting standard, with the bays within a lit area rather than at its edge. A dark corner of a car park is where machines get taken.

Natural surveillance, meaning overlooked by windows or by the main pedestrian route, and visible from the building entrance. The police-backed design guidance on designing out crime covers the principles, and the authority's crime prevention design adviser will comment if asked.

Cover where the layout allows it. Riders will use a covered bay in preference to an open one, and on a residential scheme a simple canopy costs very little when it is designed in rather than added.

Where the bays sit relative to cycle and car parking

Close to the entrance, near the cycle parking but not inside it, and never in the same enclosure.

The reason to separate them is practical. Cycle stores are often secured by a fob and sized for handlebar widths, with narrow doors and tight turns that a 200 kilogram motorcycle cannot negotiate. Riders also need to wheel a machine in and out under its own weight, so the route has to be level and at least 1.2 m wide with no step.

Keep them away from the accessible bays as well. The reasons that drive accessible parking dimensions, numbers and distances also mean those bays need clear transfer zones that a motorcycle parked across the hatching defeats.

The location question has more to it than dimensions, and where powered two-wheeler parking belongs in a layout deserves its own look, particularly on mixed use schemes where the visitor and staff demands differ.

Converting car spaces to two-wheeler bays

One standard car space will take three motorcycle bays, or four in a well-planned layout. That arithmetic is useful in two situations.

Where you are seeking a reduction in car parking and want to show the space is doing something. Converting two car spaces into six or seven motorcycle bays and a cycle stand reads as a reallocation rather than a loss.

Where the authority asks for provision late in the process and the layout is fixed. A single car space at the end of a run converts without redrawing anything else.

It also works alongside other reallocations. The arguments for car club bays and keeping them viable draw on the same reasoning: a space given to shared or small-vehicle use carries more people than a space given to one private car.

Conditions and what gets secured

The usual mechanism is the approved drawings condition, which means the bays have to be drawn properly or they are not secured at all. Some authorities add a specific condition requiring the parking to be provided before occupation and retained thereafter, and that wording is worth accepting because it protects the provision from being paved over by a future management company.

On larger schemes, the commitment can also sit in the Travel Plan alongside cycle parking and car club provision, with a monitoring obligation. That is weaker than a condition but it does capture the softer measures: a secure storage arrangement, information for new occupiers, and a review of how much the bays are actually used.

Avoid a condition requiring details to be submitted later. It adds a discharge application and a fee for something that could have been drawn at the outset.

What to put in the submission

• A parking schedule listing car, accessible, cycle, powered two-wheeler and service provision against the authority's standards, with the standard quoted.
• The bays drawn to scale on the layout, dimensioned, with markings and anchor positions indicated.
• A note on surface specification, lighting and cover.
• Manoeuvring and access route widths where the bays are in an undercroft or enclosure.
• A short paragraph in the Transport Statement explaining the provision and the reasoning, including any reduction sought and why.

The whole thing is perhaps half a page of drawing and a paragraph of text. It is omitted from a surprising proportion of applications, and and it is one of the least costly items on any validation list to get right.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Parking standards vary by authority, so check the current standards document with your local planning authority before relying on these figures.

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