No locks ‘will be key’ to cycle hire project’s success

01 April 2009

Transport for London (TfL) has revealed it will not fit locks on the bikes used for the London Cycle Hire scheme.

It announced that locks would not be fitted on purpose because it wants to keep them in ‘constant use’, but said the use of locks would not be banned, contrary to a report in The Times newspaper.

A TfL spokeswoman said: ‘There will be a docking station around every 300m in the cycle hire scheme area, so people who want to use or lock up the bikes will not be more than 150m or a two-minute walk from a docking station at any time.’

The Times reported that TfL would ban the use of locks because ‘they would spoil the appearance of the street’. However, the spokeswoman said locks would not be fitted in order to encourage ‘constant use’ of the bikes.

The TfL scheme will be launched next May, with 6,000 cycles and 10,500 docking points at 400 locations.

It intends to mirror the success of the Paris scheme, which has ‘expanded greatly’ since its introduction.

The London operation will cover an area equivalent to the size of fare Zone 1 in Central London (Surveyor, 20 March 2008).
The Environmental Transport Association claims the Velib scheme in Paris has lost 100 bikes a week since its launch in July 2007.

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