Cycle hire scheme

[ffutures]

Three or four weeks ago a yellow "parking bay suspended" sign went up over three car parking spaces next to the place where I usually park my motorbike at work, saying that the work would start at the beginning of last week

Comments

[coth]

That's a classic 'pay attention / get the point?' charging structure - we really would like you to use this bike by actually riding it point-to-point and giving it back so someone else can do likewise, and we really don't want you to take it for long rides out of range of the docking stations, and we really really don't want you keeping it all day or taking it home with you, and we don't think those last two are things you want to do either. Charging structures for car parks - cheap for the first couple of hours, then rapidly getting much more expensive per hour - are very similar for very similar reasons.

This scheme is about having the freedom to actually ride a bike without the worry involved in looking after it when you're not riding it. My guess is when electric cars become economic they'll do something similar with those too, for similar reasons.

Similar bike schemes are now in operation in a number of cities - Paris went first a few years ago - and they've got a pretty good idea what the problems are overall. There is no particular reason why it shouldn't work in London. The bikes themselves are specially designed to be good workhorses and unattractive toys. I also expect that when they find they've got a docking location wrong for some reason they'll move it, but they won't necessarily see making the road narrower as a problem because it will slow down traffic overall and that is probably seen as a good thing in the wider view.

The bikes are also part of an overall strategy (which I broadly support) to reduce carbon emissions and other vehicle pollution in London and improve the health of its citizens, and sits alongside various other measures for winkling people out of their cars. It doesn't have to please everybody all the time, only some people some of the time.

I look forward with interest to the results.

[ffutures]

Don't get me wrong - I hope that it works, but I'm just not convinced that they've selected the locations well, for any of the ones I've seen so far, and a couple look barking mad. I would have thought near hotels, near stations, etc., but that doesn't seem to be what they're doing.

[the_magician]

400 docking stations in zone 1 (about every 300 metres), with just over 10,000 spaces ... is what it says on their website
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/12445.aspx

[ffutures]

OK - obviously I've only seen the tip of the iceberg. 400 stations does make more sense if at least some of them are where tourists etc. will be able to find them.

[robertprior]

Charging structures for car parks - cheap for the first couple of hours, then rapidly getting much more expensive per hour

That's not the case in Toronto. The first time period is the most expensive, it then gets cheaper up to the daily maximum. The cheapest thing to do is get there early (most lots have early-bird specials) and stay all day.

(I'm actually at the situation where it's cheaper for me to drive than take public transit, as the three transit fares (each way) a trip downtown costs me are more expensive than parking downtown, especially on weekends.)