First impressions of using a Mayor's Hire Bike on London streets

[Speshact]

Drivers still slow down and pull alongside to swear at you for cycling in the middle of the street - but you can ignore them now because you're clearly a tourist so don't speak English.

Taxis still park in the cycle lane but, like all the other tourists, you can celebrate not having to use their stinking services and that they'll soon be out of business and their taxi out of the lane.

The security guards on the wide More London boulevard all around the Mayor's City Hall tell you that it's private property and you aren't allowed to cycle there. You're a tourist on one of the Mayor's bikes so have no idea what they are on about and saunter gaily on.

 

ICMFP for being the first person to be told off for riding a Mayor's bike on the hallowed ground outside his office 


(PS This was a sneak preview ride; they aren't on general release yet!)

[PaulF]

Are those the white bikes that were zipping around Westminster yesterday evening?

[Speshact]

No they're blue with a TfL roundel in green on the frame. They're quite nice to pootle around in town and have three gears, dynamo lighting. They have a kind of basket device at the front with a bungee strap. Odds on they're okay for holding a briefcase but no use for a kilo of loose apples. There's no pannier rack.

[Zoidburg]

Prize for the first person to ride one down the escalators at a certain tube station - captured on youtube of course.

[teethgrinder]

FNRTTC?

[TimO]

FNRTTC?

We've suggested this before, but the last time I looked at the pricing, this could be expensive.  I don't think they've revealed exact details of the cost, but the costs I've seen are not dissimilar to Paris' Velib, and that costs €151 for up to 20 hours, which would probably be the time you'd need to do a FNRttC.  At a guess it looks like the London scheme would be at least £150 for a similar period of time.

I imagine the best way to go about doing a FNRttC on them would be to contact the scheme bods, and see if they'd be interested in doing some advertising using them.  It probably wouldn't be a bad idea, since both the FNRttC and the scheme would gain from it, and newspapers, local TV etc like a suitably light story like this.

Personally though, I don't think I'd want to have to haul one of these up Ditchling!

[spindrift]

The advert's pretty good, warning Boris content:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/12449.aspx

I like the chap waiting for the tube, that's packed, so he gets on the bike.

[bobb]

I hope it works, but when you consider in Paris:

As of August 2009, of 20,600 bikes initially, about 16,000 bikes have been replaced due to vandalism, including 8,000 stolen and 100 pulled from the Seine River.

What the hell will London be like?!!

[Cudzoziemiec]

Ł150 to hire a bike for 20 hours?!!! That can't be right. What is that actually the price of? Or is there a missing decimal point?

[Speshact]

It will be free or very cheap for the first half hour. The intent is that people make short journeys - for example using a hire bike rather than using a bus for two or three stops. They then dock the bike and someone else can use it. Hiring the bike for the day is seen as hogging it and priced accordingly as i understand it.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Not really aimed squarely at tourists then, I thinks, as they'd likely want the bike for a whole day to see many sights. How easy and expensive/cheap is it to hire a bike in London apart from this, if say you're a tourist wanting to bike around for a day?

[rogerzilla]

I hope it works, but when you consider in Paris:

As of August 2009, of 20,600 bikes initially, about 16,000 bikes have been replaced due to vandalism, including 8,000 stolen and 100 pulled from the Seine River.

What the hell will London be like?!!

From Wikipedia:

In one program tried in 1993 in Cambridge, United Kingdom, the overwhelming majority of the fleet of 300 bicycles were stolen, and the program was abandoned.

Brings a patriotic tear to your eye, doesn't it?  We still lead the world in some things, like bike theft and serial murder.

[ScumOfTheRoad]

How easy and expensive/cheap is it to hire a bike in London apart from this, if say you're a tourist wanting to bike around for a day?

Very good bike hire at On your Bike at London Bridge. The figure of 25 quid a day comes to mind - I might be wrong.
But you could buy a bike in Decathlon for 80 quid. The hire scheme is aimed at hop-on hop-off type rides.

[Regulator]

From Wikipedia:

In one program tried in 1993 in Cambridge, United Kingdom, the overwhelming majority of the fleet of 300 bicycles were stolen, and the program was abandoned.

Bloody students!

[nuttycyclist]

Not really aimed squarely at tourists then, I thinks, as they'd likely want the bike for a whole day to see many sights. How easy and expensive/cheap is it to hire a bike in London apart from this, if say you're a tourist wanting to bike around for a day?

The idea is that as a tourist you get on the bike, ride 20 minutes to a sight, dock the bike and walk around.  When it's time to move on you go and get a fresh bike for the next 20 minutes.

That way you're only using the bike for 20 minutes at a time so it's free (from the Paris/other schemes).


We tried this in Copenhagen, but it failed because the bikes were non-existent having all been vandalised/stolen. 

[Tourist Tony]

These are the free bikes in Frederikshavn. The girlin the tourist officetoldme they had "lost" a lot, but mainly to school children who used them to get to school and back, and shoppers. Only a few had been written off, largely by kids jumping them.


These ones are the Viennese hire bikes.

[nuttycyclist]

Irony today.

I was in London and cycled back through Holburn.  I saw where the new stands are being constructed, thanks to the labels on the safety railings.


Those were the railings that the contractors had placed in the road blocking the cycle lane 

[Zipperhead]

Irony today.

I was in London and cycled back through Holburn.  I saw where the new stands are being constructed, thanks to the labels on the safety railings.


Those were the railings that the contractors had placed in the road blocking the cycle lane 

They did that on my way to work, and put up this sign:



After a couple of complaints to TFL, they responded with....

The signage used for the site in Queen Victoria Street was indeed incorrect. Upon receipt of your email and noticing this error we had contacted the company responsible for implementing the London Cycle Hire scheme, Serco, to request removal and replacement of the sign.

The sign was, of course, there until the work was finished

[Andrij]

There were signs like that on the A118 through Newham.  They kept disappearing, not a clue as to how that happened... 

[Tourist Tony]

Saw one on the FNRttC to Southend.

[Speshact]

I had a SERCO moment. You can read about it here
Real cycling: More bike lane mental blocks
 

[Andrij]

Saw one on the FNRttC to Southend.

A ride which uses the A118 through Newham.

[clarion]

Well, they're getting on with the installation near work, which is nice.  With the exception of a bit of cutting, which they did outside surgery times, it's been pretty quiet.

Cables pretty much laid, concrete in place, a series of diagonally-set square bases being bolted in ( ), and some paving slabs already been replaced.

I'm not sure of how long the work is planned to take.

[clarion]

Well, they got the underground bits done, and removed the railings.

Now it's being used to park cars

EDIT: Just checked the new markings (done last week).  There's renewed & extended double yellow lines, and the subtle

--- CYCLE HIRE ONLY ---