In message of Wed, 7 Nov 2012 19:23:38 in
uk.railway, Mizter T writes

On 07/11/2012 19:16, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at
18:30:09 on Wed, 7 Nov 2012, Arthur Figgis
remarked:
There was some fuss a while back about Boris Bike usage being
dominated by the kind of people who are found in central London, need
to get around that area and who are able to use conventional bikes.

I've never stumbled over a Boris-Bike rank on my various recent trips to
London[1], nor of course would I impose a bike on my fellow travellers
on the train to London.

Official (TfL) live map of docking stations (with availability):
https://web.barclayscyclehire.tfl.gov.uk/maps

Unofficial live map:
http://cyclehire.eu/main/

There is also http://bikes.oobrien.com/london/. Its use of colour
gives a good flavour of the distribution of empty and full stations.
On weekdays, the centre tends to be empty until about 0700 and full from
about 0900 and again empty from about 1900. Bike shuffling by Barclays
Cycle Hire seems to have little effect.


PDF map of current docking station locations:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/roadusers/cycle-hire-phase-2-map.pdf

I find that many journeys between an intended origin destination station
pair are problematic. Either there is no bike to start the trip or no
empty slot to drop it.

In July, when I last looked, the local maps at each station did not
reliably show local stations. (I was told the status of local stations,
but not told how to find them.) It was intended to fix the maps by the
end of August. I have not checked this has been done. Intelligent phone
applications probably address this problem. e.g. the map at "Bayswater
Road, Hyde Park" did not show "Lancaster Gate, Bayswater" and
"Kensington Gore, Knightsbridge" did not show "Prince Consort
Road, Knightsbridge". [I went between Royal Albert Hall Prom concerts
and Lancaster Gate Station.]

There is also a problem that the system sometimes ignores attempts to
dock a particular bike. A "hook" on the bike does not fit an "eye" on a
dock. I can coax a match, now I understand the problem.

I find a need to feed back on about half my hires. The most common fault
is a dead empty slot.

I will probably pay 90UKP for a year. I would probably not pay 250.

Casual usage is very tedious to drive and I can't recommend it.
--
Walter Briscoe