Old Moaner Travel
I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list
London Getting Around: Bicycle Hire "Boris Bikes"
London’s bike hire scheme was introduced when Boris Johnson was Mayor of London, as result the scheme is nicknamed “Boris Bikes”, although to be fair the scheme was mooted by his predecessor Ken Livingstone.
The scheme is very simple, across the capital there are 37,000 bikes, kept at 839 docking stations.
Anyone can hire a bike, using a debit or credit card or by becoming a registered member of the scheme, by paying an access charge of £2, valid for 24 hours.
The first half hour of hire is then free, any subsequent use is charged at a rate of £2 for each half hour.
Bikes can be picked up at one docking station and returned to any other, so it is great for one way trips.
Regular users are advised to actually register. For example if you plan to use the bikes more than 45 days a year an annual membership of £90 will cover you access charge for a full year. There is also a smart phone app, which is well worth downloading. You can pay for hire using the app, and , very usefully, it will tell you where the nearest docking station is tell you how many cycles are available at the location. Similarly when dropping off it will locate the nearest station and if that is full you'll be guided to the nearest station with spaces.
That said the system does not provide cycle helmets, so those using the system need to bear that in mind. It also needs to be remembered that cycling in London can be quite a hairy experience, although interestingly the number of incidents involving the hired bicycles is statistically lower than with other cyclists. It could, in part, be due to those hiring the bikes being more careful and partly to drivers giving a wider berth to the hired cycles.
There are also seven cycle super-highways in central London, which are dedicated cycle lanes to make cycling safer more details here
TFL also have a number of suggested routes for cyclists, details here
The scheme is sponsored by Santander bank and all the cycles are painted in their red livery.
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