In just a few days will be unveiled, in London, the Barclays Cycle Hire (or whatever it's called ). I don't know if you guys had heard of it before but I wanted you to know that the concept is from Montreal, from a company named Bixi. It's a huge success over here and we have already sold the idea to several other cities. I hope it will be as successful for you guys as it was for us Barclats Cycle Hire Here is a map of all the Bixi stations in Montreal. It gives you a good idea of how successful the projet has been.
It seems like a good idea, although I'm a little skeptical about the increase in numbers of cyclists in London. I've nearly been run over by a cyclist about three times in the last year- many just ignore traffic lights. And I'd assume that less experienced cyclists would tend to use it, as others would have their own bikes. That said, they do seem to be putting in enough to get it to work; they're all over Bloomsbury.
One of the great things of a Bixi is you're not afraid to have it stolen. It's also cool to be able to rent one whenever you need, which can be very useful. Of course experienced cyclists won't ditch their bike for a Bixi (they're quite heavy) but those who need one only once in a while will be pleased
Congrats on exporting something useful, i was beginning to think the only thing that came out of Canada was crap pop stars and syrup The Guardian has some fairly extensive coverage on it, http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/20/london-bike-hire-scheme-paris-velib
According to wiki, bixi was launched in 2009. I remember being in Lyon when they had bike hire in 2005.
If it gets stolen while you're using it dont you become liable for the non return fee which is £300 here? Also what happens if you get to your destination and all the bays are full (i.e. you cant dock the bike), do you just have to cycle to the next nearest docking bay and hope there is a space there free? sounds like an arse ache.
It's not cheap though! Easy enough to buy a bike for £50 rather than join this for a year. I suppose it's 'easy', could be a pretty good idea for city types but then how many of those want to cycle to work?
Weird. All I know is we were the first city in canada/usa to have this kind of service. I also know it's Bixi themselves who 'sold the system' to London and Boston last year (and maybe some other cities since). In Montreal there are Bixi employees that move bikes (using a trailer, not by actually riding them ) from one station to another to make sure there are no empty/full stations. It's especially necessary for the south because people who live in the north of downtown use Bixis to go downhill but will take the subway to go uphill . This resulted, obviously, in empty stations uphill and full ones downhill
Too expensive for everyday use. I currently cycle to work and it takes about 50 mins each way. If I were to use the scheme, it'd cost me £49 a year just to have access to the service, then £2 a day in hire costs. Assuming I work 260 days a year, that's £569 a year. Could get a half decent bike for that, or an even better one under the cycle-to-work scheme! And of course you get to go door-to-door, not door-to-cycle bay-to-cycle bay-to-work. Good scheme for the casual cyclists I suppose - it's certainly quicker to cycle in zone 1 that get the tube so most journeys would be free... assuming they are happy to stump up the annual charge in the first place.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha, awesome. Simple but brilliant. I'd assume the same (by which i mean the trailers to ship the bikes around) will have to happen here otherwise places like the major stations will just get overfilled in the evening when everyone heads home. Can anyone else just see bunches of thugs just vandalizing all the bikes tho? All the bikes are just gonna be lined up and i just cant help think kids will go along kicking them.
It'll be very interesting to see how this pans out. There's a load of them outside work but I've not seen anyone actually using one yet. Lots of people looking out of curiosity then moving on. I'm not sure of how it works but the 1st half hour is free so I take it if you always make journeys of 30 mins or less then the system is entirely free, which is awesome! Agree with material though, I am surprised that they chose wheels with spokes and also chain drives - presumably shaft would be a lot less likely to go wrong! Edit: didn't realise there was an access fee as well as a usage fee
