Thursday, September 2, 2010

Cycle Hire Update

The perfect day. Not too cold, not too hot, but sunny, and the kids aren't back at school yet so traffic still at summer levels. Cycling in, I saw hire bikes being moved. In Black Prince Road, I saw that the docking station was completely empty, and there was a van with a trailer loaded with bikes. My guess is that this docking station is a popular start-point for people riding to work in the West End and City - it's a very short ride - and they were about to 'restock'.
As I rode along Tufton Street, I saw another van with hire bikes, and a group of bikes on the pavement. I'd noticed a few weeks back that the Smith Square docking station is full in the morning, and I've read elsewhere about areas where all the docking points saturate in the morning. Have they created a temporary drop-off point on Tufton Street?
It rather looks like the scheme is beginning to be a victim of its own success. The question is, can this success be scaled up? Clearly, more capacity is needed. The problem may be financial. It would be a great shame if the scheme partly fails because users can't rely on getting a bike when they need one.

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