London’s cycle hire scheme to increase in size and become more tourist friendly

New developments to the Mayor of London’s cycle scheme have been announced.  At present the cycle scheme, whilst considered a success, has been criticised for not being easy to understand for tourist.

 Changes to the hire rates are due to come into play in early 2015 which will mean that there will be a simple £2 daily fee for the first hour of bike use and then a further £2 for every 30 mins after that.  It is hoped that this will make hiring the ‘Boris’ bikes for sightseeing much more straightforward for those visiting the city.

The TfL are also looking to expand on their 100km² coverage by working with London boroughs and landowners to seek out locations for new docking stations and it is hoped that as many as 1000 new docking stations could be added to the scheme

 Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “This has been a fantastic year for Cycle Hire, hitting record numbers of riders and increasing the number of bikes and docking stations we have. We’re looking forward to another bumper year ahead, as more people reap the health and convenience benefits of jumping on to one of our bikes to get around the capital.”

For bike scheme members who pay an annual charge, the tariffs will remain the same and scheme statistics show that 97 per cent of member journeys remain within the 30 minute period, which will remain free.