The Mayor's new cycle hire station at the east end of Southwark Street
looks complete, if anyone's interested.

On Jun 22, 12:35*pm, Basil Jet wrote:
The Mayor's new cycle hire station at the east end of Southwark Street
looks complete, if anyone's interested.

It is - it's the one outside the new-ish Blue Fin building. I went and
had a look at it last week. There's another one just the other side of
Blackfriars Road on Stamford Street, outside King's Reach Tower, that
also looked finished, but was surrounded by fencing, so perhaps not
quite there yet. In several other locations the preparatory work has
been done, resulting in there being metal base plates ready and
awaiting the next stage of installation of the docking station.

No bikes yet of course - they'll come later, and the system goes live
on 30 July. I've a more lengthy post gestating in my head about the
Cycle Hire scheme - must get on with putting fingers to keyboard and
post it soon!

On 22 June, 14:36, Mizter T wrote:
On Jun 22, 12:35*pm, Basil Jet wrote:

The Mayor's new cyclehirestation at the east end of Southwark Street
looks complete, if anyone's interested.

It is - it's the one outside the new-ish Blue Fin building. I went and
had a look at it last week. There's another one just the other side of
Blackfriars Road on Stamford Street, outside King's Reach Tower, that
also looked finished, but was surrounded by fencing, so perhaps not
quite there yet. In several other locations the preparatory work has
been done, resulting in there being metal base plates ready and
awaiting the next stage of installation of the docking station.

No bikes yet of course - they'll come later, and the system goes live
on 30 July. I've a more lengthy post gestating in my head about the
CycleHirescheme - must get on with putting fingers to keyboard and
post it soon!

I've noticed some Things in Tavistock Place. The first I'd noticed,
but I probably hadn't been paying attention. No bikes yet.

They aren't covered (and apparently people have been mistaking them
for parking meters).

In article
,
(MIG) wrote:

On 22 June, 14:36, Mizter T wrote:
On Jun 22, 12:35*pm, Basil Jet
wrote:

The Mayor's new cyclehirestation at the east end of Southwark Street
looks complete, if anyone's interested.

It is - it's the one outside the new-ish Blue Fin building. I went and
had a look at it last week. There's another one just the other side of
Blackfriars Road on Stamford Street, outside King's Reach Tower, that
also looked finished, but was surrounded by fencing, so perhaps not
quite there yet. In several other locations the preparatory work has
been done, resulting in there being metal base plates ready and
awaiting the next stage of installation of the docking station.

No bikes yet of course - they'll come later, and the system goes live
on 30 July. I've a more lengthy post gestating in my head about the
CycleHirescheme - must get on with putting fingers to keyboard and
post it soon!

I've noticed some Things in Tavistock Place. The first I'd noticed,
but I probably hadn't been paying attention. No bikes yet.

They aren't covered (and apparently people have been mistaking them
for parking meters).

Most I've seen so far have nothing above the ground but I saw one this
week with a full information point which makes the purpose pretty
unambiguous. Not sure but it could well have been Southwark Street.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

I wonder how long before some adolescent and his mates come along and
start destroying them.

wrote:
I wonder how long before some adolescent and his mates come along and
start destroying them.

Can I put it on record now that I do not expect vandalism to be a
serious issue for the scheme - it's too well built and generally in
areas with decent CCTV coverage, plenty of passing traffic on foot and
no particular gang or vandalism problem. I can't see it being much fun
to smash up, basically.

Tom

On Jul 19, 11:12*am, Tom Barry wrote:

wrote:
I wonder how long before some adolescent and his mates come along
and start destroying them.

Can I put it on record now that I do not expect vandalism to be a
serious issue for the scheme - it's too well built and generally in
areas with decent CCTV coverage, plenty of passing traffic on foot and
no particular gang or vandalism problem. *I can't see it being much fun
to smash up, basically.

I'm sure there will be some instances of it though - mindless tyre
slashing and the like - plus other issues like stolen bikes (despite
the deposit - card fraud and the like), and perhaps some 'cycle-
jackings' (hire bikes stolen from users who are on them - i.e. mugging
of sorts). But despite all this I broadly agree with your proposition,
I think it'll basically be respected. I suppose such potential issues
might be more likely to arise if there were to be a future expansion
of the scheme further out from the centre, but I can't imagine that
happening until the existing scheme has bedded down properly. (I can
imagine expansion being something that could come up in the next
Mayoral election, should the scheme be successful which I think it
will be.)

On Jul 17, 10:27*am, MIG wrote:
On 22 June, 14:36, Mizter T wrote:





On Jun 22, 12:35*pm, Basil Jet wrote:

The Mayor's new cyclehirestation at the east end of Southwark Street
looks complete, if anyone's interested.

It is - it's the one outside the new-ish Blue Fin building. I went and
had a look at it last week. There's another one just the other side of
Blackfriars Road on Stamford Street, outside King's Reach Tower, that
also looked finished, but was surrounded by fencing, so perhaps not
quite there yet. In several other locations the preparatory work has
been done, resulting in there being metal base plates ready and
awaiting the next stage of installation of the docking station.

No bikes yet of course - they'll come later, and the system goes live
on 30 July. I've a more lengthy post gestating in my head about the
CycleHirescheme - must get on with putting fingers to keyboard and
post it soon!

I've noticed some Things in Tavistock Place. *The first I'd noticed,
but I probably hadn't been paying attention. *No bikes yet.

They aren't covered (and apparently people have been mistaking them
for parking meters).- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

What about the requirement to wear a helmet? I would have thought that
with the generally aggressive driving in London that wearing a helmet
might have been the compulsory. CJB

In article
, CJB
writes

What about the requirement to wear a helmet?

Maybe you could point to the relevant legislation.

I would have thought that
with the generally aggressive driving in London that wearing a helmet
might have been the compulsory.

You would have thought wrong.
--
congokid
Eating out in London? Read my tips...
http://congokid.com

On Jul 17, 1:01*pm, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Sat, 17 Jul 2010 02:27:45 -0700 (PDT), MIG
wrote:

On 22 June, 14:36, Mizter T wrote:
No bikes yet of course - they'll come later, and the system goes live
on 30 July. I've a more lengthy post gestating in my head about the
CycleHirescheme - must get on with putting fingers to keyboard and
post it soon!

I've noticed some Things in Tavistock Place. *The first I'd noticed,
but I probably hadn't been paying attention. *No bikes yet.

They aren't covered (and apparently people have been mistaking them
for parking meters).

Ha, yes, I hadn't thought that that might happen, but the "Things" -
the 'payment column' unit - do look a bit like parking ticket
machines. Once the bikes themselves arrive on the racks then perhaps
the potential for such confusions might be lessened.


I have yet to see a parking bay and totem for the scheme with my own
eyes. However I do keep seeing them in the background of Flickr photos
or on the telly.

There's a number around, not sure of what percentage has been
completed yet. There are also several sites where the groundwork has
been done, and there are metal 'base plates' awaiting the installation
of the racks themselves, and the 'payment column'. I know there are
some planning permission issues with regards to some of the sites, but
there are also other sites on which work has only recently begun, and
I *think* some others where nothing on the ground appears to have
happened yet - but I suppose if that may be explained, at least in
some cases, by the location only being a provisional one or the
information I've looked at being out-of-date.


I did see someone riding past 55 Broadway yesterday lunchtime on one of
the new bikes. It did make me pause and think as to whether the scheme
was live yet.

No, the system goes live on Friday 30 July, just under two weeks away.
Meanwhile the first two "Cycle Superhighways" officially 'open' this
Monday (19 July). I'll try and write something about them shortly.


I still can't my head round the charging model although I've not devoted
a lot of brain power to understanding it. [...]

It's not really all that complicated - see the fees and charges on
this page:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/12444.aspx

First off you need to pay an "access fee" to be able to use the system
- this is £1 for 24-hours or £5 for seven days, or else £45 for a
year's membership. Then you pay for how long you use the bike - no
charge for up to half an hour, £1 for up to an hour, then it starts to
jump up somewhat at £4 for an hour and a half etc etc (see the table
for details).

The thinking that users will only borrow the bikes for a short period
of of time (to make a journey across central London), and will return
them to a dock once they get 'there' - the charging model is thus
intended to ensure that bikes stay in circulation and remain available
for other users. All the other bike hire schemes in major cities (of
which there are now several in Europe and around the world) seem to
broadly follow this principle.

The cycle hire scheme only really covers zone 1 plus a little bit
extra in parts so hirers should be able to get from one side to the
other within an hour (it'll be interesting to see how many might
'split their journey' though and return and then re-rent a bike at an
intermediate docking station so as to remain within the 'free' half-
hour!)

[...] It's going to be very
interesting to see how it goes. I'm still not sure whether I think it is
a good idea in principle or just a waste of money scheme from a Mayor
who loves cycling.

I basically think it's a great idea for lots of reasons, and I don't
think it being something of a pet project of Mayor Boris invalidates
it either! FWIW, I think that Ken was warm to such an idea too, and he
was generally pretty keen on cycling measures even if he wasn't
himself a cyclist.

The fact that many other cities now boast similar schemes would, I
think, inevitably have meant that a cycle hire scheme for London is
something that would have been seriously considered before too long,
were it not for the current Mayor taking it forward now. And in a
sense, the fact that it's being taken forward by a Tory Mayor could
work in its favour, by defusing some of the inevitable criticism that
will come its way.

Lastly, I'm pretty sure that TfL wouldn't have been faced with a
totally blank sheet of paper when the edict came down to implement
such a scheme - I'm sure some preliminary investigations had already
been done.


A recent press release was very careful to mention the possibility of
"teething problems" which is a subtle way of trying to defuse the
inevitable furore when a journalist can't get a bike out of a rack or
finds a rack full and has to cycle to the next one to end his trip.

I think it's just an honest take on all the various teething problems
that I think will inevitably occur - and one can easily imagine a
whole gamut of them. In a sense I suppose that's spin through honestly
and lowering expectations that all will be perfect from the word go,
but with something so novel I think it'd be rather foolish to promise
everything would be hunky-dory right from the beginning.