One of our members was recently asked their opinion on whether a particular cycle hire scheme should be approved for use in Hillingdon, and we discussed the issue at a subsequent meeting. As you can imagine most of us were in favour of cycle hire schemes in general but there were reservations about which particular firms should be allowed to operate and how.
Background
Although it is entirely possible that you may never have personally hired one, you cannot have failed to have seen hire bikes being ridden across our fine city. Transport for London (TfL) kicked off the whole thing with what we used to call “Boris Bikes” which came to our streets during Boris Johnson’s time as Mayor of London. Initially sponsored by and branded with the logo and colours of Barclays Bank, these more recently have been rebranded in the colours and logo of another bank, Santander. They are a familiar sight in Inner London but are not available for hire outside the confines of the North Circular and South Circular roads. These bikes are usually found outside tube stations and are very handy for completing “last mile” type journeys to a final destination not directly served by the tube or bus network. The bikes can be hired using a mobile phone app, or by using a bank card at a touch screen terminal or using a keycard that can be ordered from TfL. The cost is £1.65 for 30 minutes hire. Monthly and annual subscriptions are also available at a reduced cost.
A crucial factor with these bikes is that the bike has to be collected from a docking station and returned to one. The journey begins when the bike is unlocked and detached from the docking station, and ends when the bike is locked back into another docking station.
Lime
More recently, private companies have also been allowed to operate cycle hire schemes. These are approved to operate by individual London boroughs, and one of the first to allow such bikes was Ealing. As the TfL bike scheme wasn’t being introduced in outer London boroughs, a private company, Lime, was soon operating throughout Ealing. The bikes offered by Lime were eBikes, i.e. had a motor to assist the rider, which appealed to the casual rider, especially in areas with hills. Lime also introduced electric scooters for hire at the same time. Other companies also emerged as competitors to Lime and TfL, including Forest, Voi and Dott. eScooters were to be allowed on a trial basis whilst the cases for and against were made.
Issues
Lime bikes and scooters quickly became popular, especially with young people, as a quick and cheap way to get around. As privately owned battery powered scooters are illegal to ride in public, for many young people the novelty of being able to glide down the road at up to 15 mph was irresistable (even though there is technically an age restriction, many youngsters find ways around it). Scooter riders in particular seem to spend a lot of time on pavements and inevitably there have been collisions and injuries. Lime have come in for a lot of criticism for the design of their bike, which is heavy and has parts in places that can cause severe injury to the rider and others. One horrific incident highlighted the poor quality of insurance given to riders who find themselves injured whilst riding Lime bikes.
What has infuriated most people has been the fact that most of the private companies operate what are known as “dockless” parking. This means that they can either be parked anywhere, or within a designated general parking area. Inevitably, this has led to cycles being parked haphazardly, and cycles falling over on pavements potentially creating a hazard for the visually impaired. Some boroughs now insist that bikes are parked properly within marked cycle bays and this has improved matters somewhat. However, since some boroughs don’t approve cycle hire schemes at all, there are often bikes littering the pavements at borough boundaries. This is highly evident in Hillingdon where the borough meets Ealing, for example in Northolt or on the Uxbridge Road in Hayes. Some bikes found well outside the boundary zones are discovered abandoned in parks or dumped in canals.
Benefits
Like many innovations, once people get used to being able to do something, it is difficult to turn back the clock. There is no doubt that cycling as a whole has increased massively in Inner London as a result of cycle hire availability. Some of those casual cyclists might have taken taxis, or driven cars. During the recent underground strikes, huge numbers of commuters got onto bikes to complete their journeys to work.
If someone is able to make a trip quickly and cheaply using a hire bike surely that is something to be encouraged?
Ways Forward
One unique situation in Hillingdon is that of Brunel University. As stated earlier, TfL bikes don’t operate in Outer London but Brunel is an exception. As a result of a competion run by Santander, Brunel and Swansea Universities were provided with docking stations and bikes. Docking stations at Brunel, Hillingdon Hospital, West Drayton and Uxbridge allow students, staff and visitors to make the short journey between campus and local amenities.
Cycling Hillingdon has been in discussion with Brunel recently about supporting students and staff who want to make use of the scheme, and we will share some exciting news about a replacement scheme with you as soon as we are able to.
Our position as a group is that we want to encourage cycling across the borough and cycle hire schemes should be an important part of that. However, we would like there to be high standards for operators and some coordination across boroughs, perhaps through the Greater London Authority (GLA) which is probably best placed to coordinate such activity and is also closely integrated with TfL.
Solutions Elsewhere?
I recently returned from visiting a friend in Japan and was impressed by a local company called LUUP. Their model is interesting in that bikes must be collected from and parked inside marked bays, which are generally quite small and don’t take up much space. Each bike has to be parked inside a marked rectangle within a bay with each rectangle having only enough space to fit one bike. They are dispersed across the cities in which they operate so there is always a bike fairly close by. Crucially, when you rent the bike, you must specify in the app a place where you will return the bike. The app will only allow you to return it to that spot if there are enough parking spaces available. This avoids the problem of parking sprawl and fallen bikes.
What is your preference as a Hillingdon resident? Should we allow a variety of competing cycle hire schemes in a free for all as in other boroughs, or is there a better way? Please let us know in the comments or via email.