Vicious Cycle: Ringing the bell on the Boris Bikes

Adam Bienkov | Sunday 5 September, 2010 20:36

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The most remarkable thing about Boris Johnson’s “cycling revolution” is that there doesn’t appear to have been one. Despite millions of pounds of investment, reams of publicity and a high-profile cycling mayor, the amount of journeys taken by bike is low and is expected to remain so.

Just two per cent of journeys are currently made by bike and at most Boris’s “revolution” is only predicted to increase that to five per cent by 2026.
Hopes of London becoming the next Amsterdam, where 38 per cent of journeys are made by bike seem fanciful and even Munich where 12 per cent are cycled looks like an impossible dream.

Boris’s new bike hire scheme is proving popular but it’s on a frustratingly small scale with fewer than a third of the number of bikes as the Paris Vélib’ scheme covering less than half of the area.

And while lots of Londoners are using the new bikes, multiple software faults and delays to open registration mean that many more have chosen to keep away for now.

The Mayor’s other big initiative the ‘cycling superhighways’ are costing vast amounts in Barclays-blue paint but it is not yet clear what impact if any they are having. And while Boris promised to encourage thousands of new cyclists onto the roads, his guided cycle ride scheme “Cycle Fridays” was cancelled recently after just five people took part in one week.

And yet all of these grumbles seem to fall away as I climb aboard a “BorisBike” and pedal across a city I have lived in for most of my life but seen only in isolated snatches as I emerge from one tube station or another.

Because despite all of the problems, the high set-up costs, and the small scale, the scheme is undoubtedly changing the way many people see London and the Mayor. For seemingly the first time and to widespread shock, Boris has finally done something to improve life in London. And the scheme has improved London in ways that even his biggest enthusiasts couldn’t have foreseen.

Journeys that Londoners would otherwise have taken at great expense and discomfort by tube can now be taken with great ease and pleasure by hire bike. And while London streets remains one of the least friendly and most stressful places to leave your own bike, the hire bikes can be left worry-free at the docking stations and forgotten.

Yet despite this, after an hour of cycling you will still probably see more people on a single bendy bus than you will have seen on all other Borisbikes put together. Because great as the bikes are, cycling will never be a form of mass transportation in London as long as the motorcar is allowed to rule supreme.

Other cities have realised this and in Paris roads along the Seine are closed to cars once a week whereas in London this only happens once a year. And while in other countries cyclists ride safely along segregated bike lanes, in London cyclists are protected only by a line of blue paint.

And while Boris is encouraging a few thousand extra cyclists into the centre of town, the vast majority of these have come not from cars but from other forms of public transport.

And at the same time he’s about to encourage plenty more cars back into the western extension of the congestion zone.

So while in many ways Boris’s bike hire scheme is a fantastic addition to London life, those looking for a “cycling revolution” will unfortunately have to continue to look elsewhere.

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One of the sadder sights I see in London today; a line of tourists excitedly standing at the hire bike terminal only to discover that they can’t use the bikes. I mean I suppose they might understand that effectively the scheme is still under trial but they’ve probably come from a city where their scheme is up and running for all. this can’t look good.

That and of course the less people use the bikes the less they are distributed around which is causing problems for the “pioneers”.

It was also sad to see lines and lines of Boris bikes unused during this weekend’s sky ride.

I’d like to think Livingstone would have done all this so much better, but have no evidence to show this!

By prj45 on Mon 6 September 2010 09:51

The London Mayor under spent his cycling budget by £54m last year and £10m the year before that. Whilst it is good to see the superhighways and cycle hire implemented, the big expansion in cycling needs to be in outer London.

The London Mayor and Transport for London have issued press releases announcing “record” levels of investment in cycling this year and in the previous two financial years. In 2008/09 ten million was added to the cycling budget by the current Mayor, but actual expenditure was the same as that allocated by the previous Mayor. In 2009/10 the budget was £111m, but actual expenditure was just over half of that at £57m.

London’s cycling revolution has been stalled for the last two years as the Mayor failed to finish the London Cycle Network, which would have created hundreds of linked up cycle routes throughout London. The Mayor has talked about record levels of expenditure on cycling, but his main achievement in the first two years was to cancel the one big project that was on the verge of delivering a huge advance for cycle safety, especially in outer London. Expenditure on cycling has gone up, but with the exception of some good work by a few local authorities, little extra was acheived in the first two years.

By Jenny Jones on Mon 6 September 2010 11:40

Hi Adam,

Interesting article but I don’t believe it reflects what is happening in London at all. Boris’s bikes are just a tiny drop of activity in all of this growth. It certainly helps to get the Mayor of London to promote cycling, and to open an cycle hire scheme but there is a real trend happening.

All indications reflect that bike use is exploding in London and in major cities around the world. There are more bike commuters, greater take-up of leisure cycling with families, more bike safety programs for kids, more older men replacing their golf clubs to buy expensive road bikes…and on and on.

The demand for good bikes is at an all time high. Bike manufacturers are having a tough time getting bikes to sell, especially the better brands. The new e-bikes that every major bike manufacturer is announcing at Eurobike, and soon, Interbike in Las Vegas, indicate that manufacturers see traditional and non-traditional forms of cycling on the rise.

These e-bikes will open up new demographic groups to cycling, including commuters and older non-cyclists who want the cycle experience but not the sweat or effort that goes with it.

Government initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint, lower obesity in children and adults and increase alternate forms of commuting all help to increase cycling use. In ten years London has seen a 10 fold increase in bike use and this trend is expected to keep growing.

We’re a bike registration and recovery service and we see the ugly side of cycling. There are more bikes being stolen than ever before as more new bikes are coming on the market and being put onto the streets. Its a feast for the bike thief and bike thefts are at an all time high, hence the creation of the Cycle Task Force.

Statistics indicate many more people would take up cycling but don’t due to concerns of having their bicycle stolen while away from home. This number will drop as the police tackle bike related crime.

Unfortunately cyclists/automobile related injuries are also on the rise as more cyclists take to the streets and interact with cars.

The good news is there are more cycle sportives and events, more bike lanes, bike storage locations and companies offering their cycle commuter employees secure bike storage and shower facilities at work than ever before.

As more people look for alternative means of getting around and to/from work, and more facilities and infrastructure is built to support this form of transport, more cyclists will take to the streets. We may not be Amsterdam or Munich when it comes to bike use, but we’re well on our way.

The cycling revolution is upon us and it won’t be going away anytime soon from where I sit.

Briand Beausoleil
Director
Bike Revolution.org

By Briand Beausoleil on Mon 6 September 2010 12:30

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