Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Bike Hire: Casual Use

Currently London's Bike Hire scheme is only open to registered users who have a key to release the bikes and are later billed for their use. TfL has announced that casual users will be able to hire a bike from December 3 this year.
That means anyone in possession of a full set of limbs and a credit or debit card (although not an Oyster card) can hire a bike, opening the scheme up to what is effectively a new market of occasional visitors to London, tourists and the 'impulse' rider.
As I suggested yesterday, there's a danger that this new market consists of people less skilled in the arts of riding a bike safely in London, and the casualty rate could rise as a result, given TfL's failure to provide any sort of safe cycle route network in the Cycle Hire area.

No comments:

Post a Comment