Comments on: A trip on the London Barclays Cycle Hire thing

By: simon

simon — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:12:17 +0000

Hi there, the bike scheme is proving very useful for me, especially as I sometimes need to drop off dj equipment in town at a moments notice! One quick question: I didn’t get the multiple keys thing either. If you take out four do they charge you four pounds each time, even if you only hire one bike??? Surely not, but can anyone verify this please??

Thanks!

Simon

PS I just came back from Paris having last been there three years ago when the Velib was still pretty new. A lot of the bikes are in crappy condition, with loose handlebars that don’t steer at all, loose saddles and warped mudguards that stop the pedals rotating. The phone line went down so I couldn’t hire on the spot in one particular area of stations. Other than that, they’re still going strong, with most docks almost empty all day long.

By: Pay-as-you-Go Biking: Commuting The Barclays Way « Total Fitness Music Blog

Pay-as-you-Go Biking: Commuting The Barclays Way « Total Fitness Music Blog — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:06:43 +0000

[...] really. No one knows quite how it’s going to go down. Most reviewers (such as that nice chap James Cridland) think it works pretty well, with the most frequent complaint being that the basket is too small [...]

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:39:44 +0000

Flashing lights were permitted by regulations which came into force in October ’05: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2005/20052559.htm (section 6)

By: James Cridland

James Cridland — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:14:07 +0000

Kevin, that’s really useful, thank you. I wonder when that changed; certainly I know that flashing lights weren’t allowed a while back. (Notable that the flashing lights are always on.)

By: Lewis

Lewis — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:06:09 +0000

I managed to hire out three separate bikes on three occasions but then my key would not work even though I tried it in three different docking stations. Called TFL and they said some keys are having problems but they are trying to fix it. A shame but overall a very good scheme to introduce and riding the bikes was fun, if a little slow.

James to answer your question, if you log in on the TFL website it shows where you undocked the bike and where you docked it, the times it was docked / undocked and how much you were charged.

By: kevin king

kevin king — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:47:49 +0000

HIGHWAY CODE 60

At night your cycle MUST have white front and red rear lights lit. It MUST also be fitted with a red rear reflector (and amber pedal reflectors, if manufactured after 1/10/85). White front reflectors and spoke reflectors will also help you to be seen. Flashing lights are permitted but it is recommended that cyclists who are riding in areas without street lighting use a steady front lamp.

By: james

james — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:09:37 +0000

Thank you for the clarification – it’s most informative, and makes the whole idea much more palatable.

The ‘four keys’ thing was what confused me.. when they did write:

“If you want to use more than one cycle (up to a maximum of four) you will need to pay an access fee for each cycle”

I couldn’t tell whether they meant ‘at a time’ or ‘over the course of a day’. You’ve set my mind at rest. I am tempted to force my children to ride bikes, now. If there are enough of them (bikes, not children).

It’s interesting that you can’t disengage the dynamo.. I guess that’s another anti-vandalism facet… thanks again!

By: James Cridland

James Cridland — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:57:46 +0000

Oh, and you can get up to four keys on the same account so that you can take your family cycling with you.

By: James Cridland

James Cridland — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:57:03 +0000

The key is just a token which tells the system who you are. You stick it in (and take it out again) when you grab the bike; cycle to your destination, and then when you find a spare slot, just push the bike in again. As long as the light comes on to show the bike’s correctly docked, that’s your ride over.

You can bike-hop across London without paying for anything, but you need to wait 5 minutes after dropping a bike off before the system will let you take another.

By: james

james — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:37:40 +0000

Thanks for the review.

It’s not clear on the website whether you can just dock the bike in a spare slot at your destination and retrieve your plastic key when you reach your destination (which makes me wonder why one would need ‘up to four keys’) or whether the key remains in the original slot until you take the bike back, which would mean a maximum of 15 minutes radius (and no shopping) before you had to come back (which just seems daft).

The former would make sense, but would mean one could ‘bike hop’ across London without paying anything, but the latter means.. yeah.. more money for The Man (insert incredulous and raving mention of Hitler etc here).

Can you clarify this for an eejit like me, please?

Thankoo