The Scoop

Boris Johnson's cycling revolution gets another puncture

Adam Bienkov | Wednesday 25 May, 2011 07:57

Despite millions of pounds of advertising and masses of local, national and even international publicity, less than half of one per cent of Londoners say they regularly use Boris Johnson’s cycle hire scheme.

A survey of Londoners commissioned by the Mayor confirms the tiny impact the hire scheme is having, with less than 7 out of 1406 respondents saying they use the bikes at least once a month.

The number of people saying they regularly use their own bikes in London has also fallen from 10 per cent prior to Boris’s “cycling revolution” to 4 per cent now.

Figures released to the London Assembly this month show that the number of journeys on the hire bikes is growing but is still well below the amount predicted in the scheme’s business case.

And whilst the Annual London survey suggests that the number of journeys is going up, the number of people making those journeys remains a tiny and very elite fraction of Londoners.

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