|
|
 |
| |
Bike hire racks to be rolled out
Cycling scheme pick-up points revealed
STREET corners that will offer cheap bikes for hire across the borough have been selected.
The Town Hall received 18 applications this week from Transport for London (TfL) to install 650 new bike racks, which will provide pay-as-you-go pedal-powered
journeys across the capital.
Among the sites chosen are Charlotte Street, known for its busy restaurant trade, while another could be installed by the famous Drury Lane Theatre.
The racks, which TfL hope will in place by the summer of 2010, will also spring up across the university quarters of Bloomsbury and Holborn, near King’s Cross and St Pancras train stations and outside the art-deco Black Cat building on Hampstead Road.
The scheme, backed by the London Assembly and due to be managed by TfL, is based on a model piloted in Paris.
Although details are yet to be finalised, users will be given a swipe card which will allow them to unlock a bike.
After leaving the bike in a rack close to their destination, users will then be charged for the time the bike was used.
A TfL survey estimates there will be around 10,500 racks across central London and that there could be as many as 55,000 journeys each day.
A TFL spokesman said: “We’re excited about the scheme, and are presently discussing the finer details.
“But the general idea is that you will register your card and then there will be something like an hourly or half-hourly charge, with the first half-hour possibly being free so as to encourage a higher usage.”
But the scheme, which will have no pick-up points north of Chalk Farm, should be rolled out away from central London to encourage commuters to get on their bikes, according to the Camden Cycling Campaign’s Jean Dollimore.
She said: “I think it’s a great idea.
“However, I don’t think it will really encourage people to cycle to work as there aren’t any docking stations in places like Kentish Town.”
Kentish Town Lib Dem councillor Paul Braithwaite, the Town Hall’s “bike csar”, said: “The more cyclists we have swarming about the city, the safer it would be.” |
 |
|
|
|
Your comments:
SHARING bikes is a great idea. For those who want to commute on their own bike, I'd suggest a full size folder such as the Montague or SwissBike (www.montaguebikes.com or www.swissbike.com). Both can stow easily in the boot until such time as you choose to ride. And if it's raining, well, just leave them there.
J. Pointer
|
| |
|
|
|
