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400 places to pick up your hired bicycle, but not one at rail stations
Katharine Barney27.04.09
The locations of 400 pick-up points for a new cycle hire scheme were revealed by Boris Johnson today.
The Mayor intends to introduce 6,000 bikes onto the streets of London by May next year in a move modelled on the Vélib scheme in Paris.
But there will be no docking stations outside Network Rail stations and the bikes will not be provided with a lock - factors which could restrict their popularity.
A City Hall source said Network Rail, which manages the major overground stations, had been uncooperative but it was still hoped some docking points could be agreed within station boundaries.
The sites, which are being put forward for planning permission, include some Tube stations and points outside major rai stations, such as Waterloo Road outside Waterloo station, and Albert Embankment outside Vauxhall station. A Network Rail spokesman said: "Stations in central London are very busy places and accommodating parking points is our biggest challenge. However we will work with the Mayor and are monitoring the situation."
Other locations include Sloane Square, Kensington and Chelsea town hall, Notting Hill Gate and Pall Mall. There will also be pick-up and drop-off points in the Royal Parks.
The 400 cycle stations will be about 300 metres apart, although less frequently within the Royal Parks. Users will be encouraged to bring their own locks to chain the bikes elsewhere. However anyone leaving a bike anywhere other than a docking station faces losing the £150 deposit if it is stolen.
The first four planning applications are being submitted to Camden council, and the remaining applications will be submitted over the spring and summer.
A contractor to implement the scheme is to be announced in June, although sources have said there has been trouble attracting enough interest.
Mr Johnson said: "I pledged to deliver a cycling revolution across the city, and there is now a growing excitement about our cycle hire scheme, which will give all Londoners the opportunity to hop on a bike and experience the joys of cycling. Much like hailing a cab, people will be able to pick up one of 6,000 bikes, and zip around town to their heart's content."
David Brown, managing director of surface transport for TfL, said: "The cycle h ire scheme will be the most sustainable, environmentally friendly form of public transport ever seen in London. Available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it will help to alleviate congestion hotspots on Tubes and buses. It forms a key part of the record £111million the Mayor and TfL are investing in cycling this year." TfL is funding cycle training and will carry out audits at docking stations to ensure safety for users.
The £57million London Cycle Hire scheme is expected to generate an extra 40,000 cycle journeys every day in central London. It will be based in Zone 1 in the boroughs of Camden, Hackney, Lambeth, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and City of Westminster, as well as City of London.
Reader views (24)
Tony Snow, you get it exactly. £60 million for 6,000 bikes. Or £10,000 per bike. And it will cost £17 million per year to run. A huge self indulgence by Boris, and a failure of those around him (Kit Malthouse for one) too weak kneed to say "NO". There has been no consultation and pork barrel politics with the key Conservative boroughs of Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea mean no opposition from Councillors there either. Even though the cycle racks in Kensington & Chelsea, in converted parking bays, will mean £500k per year lost revenue from the parking account.
There has been no market research and TFL is blind to the fact that all the bikes will be stolen as they were in Cambridge and Amsterdam. The huge infrastructure cost (vans to return bikes to station, expensive docking installations) is a waste of public money. This type of business is for "mom and pop" operators in Portobello Road, renting out second hand bikes.
A huge breakdown in democracy, a waste of public money, and a gypsy warning about entrusting Boris with high political office.....
- Donald Cameron, london
When Boris installs the cycle pick-up points, perhaps he could also install water fountains alongside them at the same time. More water fountains in London would reduce the need to buy plastic water bottles. This would tie in nicely with the Evening Standard's "Water on Tap" campaign. The same could be done for the electic car charging points that a number of London councils have started installing.
- Paul O'Connell, London
It's a good idea but it sounds expensive at £57 million.
Where is the money going?
You can get a pretty decent bike for £400, buying 6000 of those will set you back £2.4 million, not including negotiating a discount for bulk buying, which could easily reduce that by 25% - ie £1.8 million.
So where is the other £55 miilion going? On the 400 cycle stations? What are they made of, Gold?
Unless the reporting of £57 miliion is misleading in some way - if so, please somebody explain - it sounds like poor value for money.
For £57 million, it might be better value just to give bikes away - that's 142,500 bikes @ £400 each.
- Tony Snow, London
How about building some more cycle lanes before this scheme gets going. I don't want to sound pessimistic, but the roads in London can be very dangerous to cycle around indeed and I speak as an experienced cyclist approaching middle age. I fear fatalities of inexperienced cyclists.
- Mat Whitaker, London UK
This scheme will fail. In the 1960's they introduced FREE (white painted ) bikes to the bike loving people in Amsterdam and these even got stolen.They repeated the experiment in 2000 with the same result. They had no locks and could be picked up,left anywhere in the city. One can pick up a good second hand bike for £ 30 so why rent one and may be responsible for a £ 150 replacement cost?
link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_bicycle_program
- Adrian, London
There is something I don't get about this scheme.
For argument's sake, say you have 10 bikes on each station. I suspect that commuters will pick up the bikes from residential areas and leave them in commercial areas.
Does that mean that if someone tries and pick up a bike at say 10am from a residential area there won't be any available?
Would there be someone in charge of making sure the stations all have the same number of bikes by the next day?
Or else inevitably some stations will have no bikes at all while others will be overcrowded.
- Marco, Notting Hill
Of course they wont be left outside stations - they'll get nicked!!
- Barbara, Sydney Australia
You can buy your own bike for less than £150: and its there for you whenever you want it.
As to docking stations for hire bikes; you will need them on almost every corner for people to find and use them etc; which if spread out wide and far; it would be like trying to find a parking meter free etc.
We thought about this 20 years ago; mind you local councils would not allow docking stations then.
As to paying £150 if the bike is stolen etc; that is a sure bet renting your bike could run into thousands of pounds on your credit cards over a year; London bike thieves are good at cutting off locks; and even just stripping down any bike they can’t hack the locks off; look at the number of bike frames chained to lampposts; minus wheels etc.
Buy a bike and know exactly what it will cost you; and never give a company your credit cards; they will asset strip you to be sure.
I bet this scheme doesn’t last long in London; France and Holland are not London; and their thieves are not as good as our thieves.
- Mickyinlondon, london
I used the Paris velib system over Easter and it's a really good idea. The £150 deposit isn't taken from your card, but if you fail to return the bike it's taken out of your account - a good incentive to put the bike back into a docking station! The bike is essentially your responsibility (and, therefore, your cost) from when you pick up the bike to when you click it back into a docking station. Also, if the London bikes would be anything like the Paris ones, you won't have to worry too much about people nicking them - they're not brilliant - very heavy and only have 3 gears. Besides, they're so recognisable that thieves would never be able to sell them on. What's the point when you can pick up one for free around town? London vandal scum could still cause problems though.
The only thing that I said that I was sceptical for the scheme's transition to London is that central London is much bigger than central Paris, so don't know if they'll be able to have enough docking stations to make it convenient enough - but 300 sounds like a good start!
Also - I hope London can improve on the bike seats - I kept falling off mine in Paris!
- Liz, London
I bet there will be an increase of bikes for sale on E-Bay !
- Linda Cliff, London
Cambridge tried out a similar scheme a few years ago with no charge involved. I think it lasted two weeks before every bike in the system had disappeared never to be seen again.
- Scotty, Cambridge UK
Rob, London - Exactly, you're not supposed to lock these bikes to railings and use them for the whole day or longer. The idea is that you use them for short rides and re-dock them at the nearest docking spot for the next person rather than chain them to a railing or lampost. I assume that as long a the bike is not docked, you will be paying an hourly rate anyway, so lockimng it to a lampost will just cost you.
This is definitely a good idea. Certainly no worse than Brown and Blair pushing through privatisation of maintanence of the Tube through Metronet which promptly blew up costing the taxpayer billions. However I am concerned about vandilism, however if the deposit is £150 then it's surely less likely they will be stolen.
- Mcw, London
I hope the mayor has thought about security otherwise the bikes will end up for SALE in the sunday market at Brick Lane.
- Jo, london,uk
You don't pay a 150 pound deposit at all, the hire company have your credit card details and only if you lose the bike or have it stolen will you be charged.
- Sally Pearsehouse, Bethnal Green
we recently spent a weekend in Paris and used their hire scheme extensively - it was pretty fantastic.
if we emulate this, then the scheme will be a huge success.
the lock thing is a bit mad, the Paris ones have a lock built in.
- Craig, London
It seems some people are deliberately missing the point. The article says there is a £150 deposit, presumably linked to a credit card like in Paris, so people won't just be able to steal bikes from the system. If the deposit system works then this has the potential to be a really successful idea. The Paris one is great and at least London has had time to learn from Paris's mistakes. Can't wait!
- Alex, London
So the train stations have room for Tie Rack and untold numbers of sandwich bars, but not these bikes? Are TFL paying for the sites or expecting them to be free? I agree that the idea is not to take a bike and keep it all day so locking it is not so necessary as long as there are enough points and maps provided so journeys can be planned.
- Mark, London
£150 deposit?!
They're not exactly encouraging people to use them, are they?
In comparison, the one in Copenhagen costs 20 Danish Kroner (about £2.40). What a rip off!
- D-Notice, E1
It's astonishing how ready so many people are to dismiss this idea and pick up only on what they perceive to be the faults. Thankfully, the silent majority are almost certainly all looking forward to taking advantage of this potentially wonderful scheme. I can't think of a better way to get Londoners exercising.
Good work Boris, I'll be using one of the bikes as soon as they're available.
- St, London
One of my sons thought of doing that 20 years ago; but we all knew the bikes would be stolen in no time at all.
Good Luck Boris; you will need it.
- Mickyinlondon, london
There are a lot of vandals in london, but hopefully with decent security at the drop off points, this should be economically feasible. I've now moved out of central london, but when i make the trip back in, i'll be sure to use these bikes as a more pleasant alternative to the overcrowded tube/bus! I agree with Rob regarding the use of these bikes too. With 400 drop off points theres no need for a lock.
- Cyclist, london
Clearly there's a mindset thing that some people haven't got the hang of yet! This is NOT an 'all-day bike hire scheme. Users are NOT being encouraged to 'bring their own locks'.
The idea is that you take the bike to the nearest docking station to your restaurant, pub, shop or work or whatever, and re-dock it for someone else to use. Having a bike locked up is a waste of the bike - just as, when you get off the tube at the station nearest to the pub, restaurant or whatever, you don't expect the train to stop and wait for you while you're in there.
- Rob, London, England
On paper this is a great idea. However, its doomed to failure because of all the thieves and vandals in London. You can see people nicking them to get home after a few beers, or just smashing them up 'for a laugh'.
- Michael, Finchley
Great news, finally an official response to the cycling explosion in London. Since we know more cyclists= safer roads because drivers become more accustomed to cyclists and may indeed cycle themselves, this is a major step forward in making London a safer, more civilised place. As an aside, it also means more tanned lovelies on London's roads, many wearing those lycra pants that show a perfectly delightful bulge of calf muscle. Is nice, I like.
- Sally Pearsehouse, Bethnal Green
