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Barclays/TFL cycle hire scheme in London

Iv just signed up for this, Im quite excited about it, im sure me and my g/f will use it occasionally around town. Dunno what the bikes look like though, anyone got any photos ?
 
it wont let me sign up. keeps say there is an error and i should try later.
Ihave tried hitting the side of the monitor but this hasn't really helped
 
I have signed up as a member.

You have to pay a one-off £3 for the "key" that you use to release the bikes.
 
I've signed up, process was easy enough apart from the stupid password requirements (8+ characters, with at least one capital letter, one lowercase letter and a number). I'm sure no one cares that much.

I'm a little confused by the 'access fee'. Is this is separate to the actual hire fee? I've paid for the £1 day fee but there is a £45 yearly option and I presume that doesn't give all you can eat access :confused:

I've had a go on these bikes before and they are nice enough. They seem totally over engineered when compared with the ones in Barcelona and I have a feeling that they are going to be more prone to failure.

The one thing that concerns me a little is getting blamed for damage after it gets returned to the stand.

Overall it's a good thing though and I'm looking forward to using it. A real shame it couldn't be integrated into the oystercard system though. For the price of the system you'd think that would be possible.
 
well, I've signed up for a key, will be interesting to see how it all works out.

basically, you get charged your fee if the previous period has run out. So the £1 plan gets charged to your account when you unlock the bike. Any 30 min rides in the next 24h are free. Longer rides attract charges. You don't pay anything else until you next unlock a bike on another day, at which point you get charged £1 and get another 24h period

The 7-day plan means that you could undock the bike on monday, then all 30 minute rides that week are free. The yearly plan makes all 30-min rides all year free.
 
I've signed up for a 24 access membership and got two keys (one for Mr Pat24) - I'll have a go as soon as I get them and if i think i'll be using it loads I will go for the full year membership. :)
 
Velo Charges

it looks pricey for anything over 90mins. Perhaps that's the intention. Definitely no good if you're a tourist and want one for a whole day.

A load of docking stations just installed this morning by LSE.
 
if you're a tourist, you won't be leaving the central zone, so you just dock at your location and get a new one when you move on. no worries
 
I signed up to it to see how simple it all was and on the off-chance I may need to use it in central London. If they extended it further out of the centre like Paris seem to have managed to do, then I may have even gone for a year's access. Anyway...

I ended up having to use Mastercard in the end. Very annoying given that for every other means of transport I can use Amex. Also very annoying is the fact it's not integrated in any way with your TFL account through Oyster, so you have to create a new account, with a new complicated upper case, lower case, containing one number must-be-over-8-characters-long password :rolleyes:

I still can't see any answer the question as to if people will get charged if someone comes along and trashes the bikes after you've hired and returned one to the docking station. This seems to be a fundamental flaw to the system? How do they prove whodunit?
 
skyscraper101 said:
I still can't see any answer the question as to if people will get charged if someone comes along and trashes the bikes after you've hired and returned one to the docking station. This seems to be a fundamental flaw to the system? How do they prove whodunit?
Click to expand...

Non-Return Charge and Damage Charge

If a Cycle is lost or stolen during the Period of Use, we may charge you the sum of £300 for each Cycle that is lost or stolen within this period ("Non-Return Charge").
If a Cycle is damaged during the Period of Use, then depending on the extent of the damage to the Cycle, we may charge you a sum up to the maximum sum of £300 for each Cycle that is damaged within this period ("Damage Charge").
If you are liable for the Non-Return Charge or Damage Charge, you may not be required to pay the Usage Charges or Late Return Charge for the Cycle.
We will exercise our rights under this paragraph 11 in accordance with the Non-Return/Damage Policy.
Click to expand...

They would have to prove that the damage occurred during the time you were using the bike. Given that the bikes are stored in the open I think it would be pretty hard to make a case against you that you had caused any damage, unless they had specific evidence.

I reckon the cost of vandalism is factored into the cost of the scheme. It'll probably be pretty rare that they'd take the £300 off people except in cases of non-return.
 
But what's to stop them charging you anyway, and then when you protest, they insist that YOU have to prove you didn't cause the damage in order to be refunded? It's still pretty ambiguous.
 
teuchter said:
They would have to prove that the damage occurred during the time you were using the bike. Given that the bikes are stored in the open I think it would be pretty hard to make a case against you that you had caused any damage, unless they had specific evidence.

I reckon the cost of vandalism is factored into the cost of the scheme. It'll probably be pretty rare that they'd take the £300 off people except in cases of non-return.
Click to expand...

CCTV.
 
I was wondering about punctures . . . I'm not sure what though.

I suppose you just walk it to a docking station - assuming you know where the nearest one is - and just dock it. But then the next person comes along and undocks it without checking and . . . I suppose they can re-dock and pick another . . . . maybe.
 
I agree that the damage issue is a little shortsited. I think legally it would be difficult for them to charge it and I'd be surprised if they took the money from your card without warning (would lead to lots of chargebacks which the credit card companies will have to deal with and kick up a fuss).

It won't put wanton vandals off as they don't need to hire the bikes to damage them. Wear and tear needs to be factored into the general cost of the scheme as that obviously can't fall on the back of the last person to hire which leaves what kind of damage? People hopping them off kerbs or doing stunts? Which I can't be a major factor.

So the only thing I can see it doing is to plant the seed in peoples mind that they might be liable depsite having no control over the bikes after return which is obviously a bad thing. They should be shouting from the rooftops that it's a worry free way of cycling.

I suppose if the stands all have CCTV then damage issue should be easier to prove/disprove but I'm surprised they are being so coy about how it works in practice as it seems to be an issue that lots of people are curious about (judging by their stand that the Camden Green Fair and various comments online)

The other thing I find interesting is that there is no provision for helmets which goes against everything that has been drummed into us over the years by cycling organisations. I understand that requiring helmets would make the system unworkable and broadly support the scheme (I generally don't bother with a helmet myself and find it interesting that very few people wear helmets on the continent either) but it'll make for interesting media when the inevitable happens (that + the bikes being very distinctive = perfect front page photo opp). Hopefully people will understand that it's just one of those things.

Also didn't realise that non-members could hire using a credit card. A very good idea, I wanted to use the Barcelona one before and was disapointed to learn that I couldn't.
 
I think there is a button to press when you return it which allows you to report a defect, in which case it'd get taken out of service until the van next comes around.
 
Kanda said:
CCTV.
Click to expand...

teuchter said:
In which case there would be specific evidence so as long as you hadn't caused any damage you'd have nothing to worry about.
Click to expand...

Yes but there aren't purposely installed CCTV cameras at all the stands.

The green button thing is a good idea but how then does that stop people hiring a bike, wrecking it, and then returning it with a push of the button saying it was 'broken' when they hired it. It still seems flawed.
 
skyscraper101 said:
Yes but there aren't purposely installed CCTV cameras at all the stands.

The green button thing is a good idea but how then does that stop people hiring a bike, wrecking it, and then returning it with a push of the button saying it was 'broken' when they hired it. It still seems flawed.
Click to expand...

Would someone pay £1 for the pleasure of vandalising a bike? I think most vandals prefer to pursue their sport for free, and with less effort than hiring a bike, taking it somewhere, breaking it, and then returning it would entail.
 
teuchter said:
Would someone pay £1 for the pleasure of vandalising a bike? I think most vandals prefer to pursue their sport for free, and with less effort than hiring a bike, taking it somewhere, breaking it, and then returning it would entail.
Click to expand...

But...

a) You don't need to hire a bike to wreck it in its docking station
b) I don't buy it that people wouldn't hire it with the best intentions, then act irresponsibly with it and return them damaged saying that they were broke when they got it. With way to prove otherwise, who cops the bill?
 
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