Registration for the cycle hire scheme was today launched and if you want to be one of the first to use the scheme you need to register. Registration for the year costs £45 which is generally considered the best value for money. Otherwise you can also choose weekly and daily plans.
This can be completed via: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/14808.aspx
Upon entering your name, date of birth, relationship status, what you had yesterday for breakfast you’ll be sent a key that you then need to activate.
They key itself costs £3 and the obvious criticism is why couldn’t this have been integrated with that other famous key we have to London. The Oyster card.
Generally, the £45 plus £3 key is the only thing you’ll end up paying for. This is because most people will be aiming to stay within the half hour free limit. Thus it does make this one of the cheapest forms of transport around London (and most eco-friendly).
Some crazy rumours had been flying around that there would be volunteers redistributing bikes during the day. I don’t know who started that rumour but it is of course false.
In fact yesterday on my cycle home I saw the little vans that will be re-distributing bikes around the docking station. I was going too fast to take a picture and they were stuck in the traffic jam so you’ll have to imagine what they looked like!
So, will you be registering for the cycle hire scheme? and Why? Can you see yourself using it? Are you happy to pay the £45? Any problems registering? Opinions please..
Cycle hire scheme coverage:
- Test riding the cycle hire bike
- Announcing the Barclays Cycle Hire
- Delays to the Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme
- London Cycle Hire locations revealed
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I’m glad to see that most people are positive about the scheme. I also think it’s a great addition to the London transport network and I think Boris and his team have done a really good job on the roll out, installation and design.
I was particularly impressed by the speed at which my key was issued (arrived in 2 days) and with the design of the station towers. They have gone so far as to orientate the maps differently on each side of the tower depending upon which way you are facing up the street. Now that is genius!!!
I used it for the first time when I dropped my bike off at Condor for a service. The bike to the office in the morning was fine but obviously felt heavy having just ridden in on my Fratello. The docking station was full near my office so I had to pull out the iPhone and used the free app to locate another station. Easy.
The bike to get back in the evening was suffering from the stiff front wheel problem, badly!! I was in second gear and pushing hard to move at a snails pace. In future I will definitely be checking the bike for a free running front wheel before undocking it.
Good job TfL.
M
Well done .. a positive move for London. 140 million!! well spen. lets hope for more.
Bike users should be aware that
1. the bikes are numbered
2. that number is linked to them (and their credit card)
3. there are many many cameras watching at traffic lights and juctions.
wait and see how many red light jumpers start to receive penalties in the next few months…
car drivers will surely put forward the case that the riders can be easily identified.
If we did have a license for riding… how many points would you be on??
Ed,
You’re just winding us all up and fair dues, we can take it. I pay no attention to the road traffic act. I just watch out for trouble, try to be as considerate as possible to other road and footpath users and go where ever I please and consider safe. I go on roads, footpaths, up wrong way streets and am totally colour blind on red. I’m having fantastic fun, having some great conversations with other road and path users and have not brought my STRIDA to town since I registered. To answer your question read the wall-art “One Nation Under CCTV”
I wonder if anyone has thought of turning the B-Bikes into a one-make racing series ?
Work out a point-to-point where the built in logging system is the timer, with 2 or 3 pickup/dropoffs on the course Start>Pickup1>Pickup2>(opt Pickup3)>Back to Start.
With the forced 5 mins between bikes, it would be like a series of madly-spinning sprints
Perhaps round Hyde Park might be a good one
Hey Matt, I know the lovely people at the Fullcity cycling cafe are planning an alleycat involving the Borisbikes, though I don’t think there’s a date set yet. I’ll post here if anything firms up that I hear about. Also, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t organize something…
Hey Elena…. what’s an alleycat ?
Pretty close to what you’re proposing
Wikipedia’s explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alleycat_races
That does sound fun…. really must get out more
)
Liking this idea a lot!
Well I managed to register and even received my key, but with the website out of action I can’t get my key activated, and having phoned the customer service number several times all that happens is they take my details and tell me someone will call me back – which has not happened in several days!
SO PLEASE SORT OUT THE I.T. PROBLEM TFL!!
luckily i have my own bike, but i wanted to use the hire bikes for going out with cycle-less friends, or for emergencies such as punctures etc..
There is an ongoing problem with o2 broadband dns servers and accessing the secure part of the website. I changed my dns server to google dns @ 8.8.8.8. and that fixed it.
“Jon 08. Aug, 2010 at 9:42 am #
Not family friendly for occasional use – if I want to add keys for my kids, who are not old enough to register in their own right, I get charged an access fee for each keys regardless if I am using a bike just for myself or all of us on a given day. What is the best advice if I want to use scheme myself once a week and with the kids once a week?”
In regards to above post I have same problem. If you have more than one key you will be charged regardless if that key is used. So if you signed up for 4 keys and only one is used in a day, you’ll be charged 4x?!? Nuts!!
I was advised to sign up again and have seperate accounts for me and misses. So ill do this then de-activate key from original account. So the only point of getting more keys is if you know they will be used at the same time. STOOPID?!
Just discovered the flaw about multiple keys and multiple charges. My suggestion for jonno is if he has more than one bank card use a different card to set up a seperate account for each of the kids, then every account will only have one key.
Martin, cheers
Thats exactly what i have done, and will de-activate key on primary account. But I would still love to know the logic behind multiple keys. So a family / friends wants 4 keys, they better make sure they are all cycling at the same time, everytime??!?! That aint gonna happen, is it?
Very nice cycle app
http://mbarclay.net/?p=734#more-734
Well I managed to register and even received my key, but with the website out of action I can’t get my key activated, and having phoned the customer service number several times all that happens is they take my details and tell me someone will call me back – which has not happened in several days!
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