sleaterkinney
Well-Known Member
Well in what way are they connected to bikes and transport?. it just seems a bit cynical - no purpose besides branding.
Barclays/TFL cycle hire scheme in London
- Thread starter se5
- Start date
skyscraper101
0891 50 50 50
The difference with cars is that they're not a public service sponsored by a banking giant which has insisted on turning everyone into a mobile advertising service.
People don't regularly smash up banks in the high street true, but remember the G20 riots last year? Banks within the riot zone were fair game and got targeted for vandalism despite the seriousness of the crime and the amount of police in the area. I don't think it impossible to imagine that a few half arsed people will target the plastic barclays logo on the bikes knowing that the likelihood of being caught is a lot less and the consequences of being caught are less serious. All it would take is a facebook campaign and enough willingness to stick it to the banks by smashing off their logo.
At the very least I expect people to start adbusting them within weeks of the scheme coming into effect. It'd be very easy for a flyering crew to make their own fleet of mobile bike ads for a club night or whatever.
Black Halo
Well-Known Member
Are you trying to suggest that mindless vandalism is actually driven by a deep-rooted anti-commercialism? Or are you telling us that you plan on trashing as many bikes as you can find in retaliation for TfL's need to get a private firm to sponsor the scheme? Mindless vandalism is just that mindless, it has no ulterior motive other than boredom (possibly). From my experience Dublin is worse for that kind of damage, I'm unsure what you and your "anarchist" friends get up to or how much damage* you will be able to inflict but keep us updated please.
*I don't think ad-busting is mindless vandalism but actually funny and making a point but you seem to be suggesting smashing up the bikes purely because they have Barclay's logos (or that someone will)
Cool, thanks.
skyscraper101
0891 50 50 50
Neither. Actually I don't think there will be much in the way of mindless vandalism of the bikes (we've had a very crappy bike rental thing around Shep Bush in the past and the bikes seemingly didn't get trashed). However, I do expect that come the next big demo which targets the banking sector, there will be a few hundred easy targets symbolising corporate greed which will be easy pickings for demonstrators.
Feel free to tell me exactly where I have suggested that I intend to smash up these bikes. If you actually bother reading back a few posts you'll see that I said, and I quote:
skyscraper101 said:
Moi? An anarchist? Lol as if.
Indeed. Someone will. Not me. As I said, I'm not going to intentionally cause any damage to them. I likely won't even use them that much - but you can't say that it's impossible to imagine that a barclays branded bike wouldn't at some point be considered an obvious target for wreckage, or at the very least some kind of adbusting hijack. Last year one person caused £40,000 of damage to RBS's branch in Threadneedle St in protest during the G20 riots many others were witnessed smashing up symbols of banking. I'm not advocating it. I'm just saying is all.
DJWrongspeed
radio eros
Because that has been the experience in Paris although the scheme is much bigger and well established there. I believe the scheme loses quite a few bikes. Link .'Losing' as in ending up the Seine.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
My understanding is that there were a lot of bikes lost/vandalised in the Paris scheme but that was mainly period soon after it was implemented. They made some changes to the docking stations as far as I recall, and the rates of loss/damage have now settled down to a significantly lower level.
Ted Striker
Foot's on the other hand
Did I read correctly that there's a £250 charge if you bring it back after 24 hours? (and £300 if you lose it forever)
An expensive mistake to make! (and sounds like a revenue generator rather than a traditional fine/cost approach)
An expensive mistake to make! (and sounds like a revenue generator rather than a traditional fine/cost approach)
co-op
But....but cLoWnFiSh....
Barclays are obviously completely and utterly ignorant of anything to do with cycling; they published a 2-page advertorial for their various cycling ventures (the really totally bollocks "cyclng superhighways" are also sponsored by them) in the middle of Lambeth Life a couple of weeks ago. It had a series of statements about cycling that included this one, under the heading "cyclists have every right to be on the road"; "cyclists do not pay road tax as their vehicle does not cause wear and tear"...
This is so facepalm it's sad...one of the great stupid claims routinely made by the anti-cycle lobby is that cyclists 'don't pay road tax'. Er, no one does, it was abolished in the 1930s. Local roads are paid for out of Council Tax, major roads out of central govt tax. Anyone even half aware of the issues to do with cycling would know this - it's one of the hoary old cliches of what passes for debate between cyclists and motorists. For Barclays to repeat this bullshit is extraordinary; they can't even be bothered to get someone with a little knowledge in to right their ad copy. Pathetic.
But riots like the ones you described bring together people in an angry mood, many who have come to smash up something.
Do most of even these people go around breaking and destroying symbols of corporate power every day, or just when they have come together for a protest once every few years?
Giles..
Do most of even these people go around breaking and destroying symbols of corporate power every day, or just when they have come together for a protest once every few years?
Giles..
skyscraper101
0891 50 50 50
People don't go about smashing bank windows because the consequences are serious and the effect of doing so is to bring immediate attention onto oneself as a potential bank robber or something. I'm not surprised that people don't regularly go about doing it.
However, a bunch of barclays hire bikes - sat in the street after dark and a particularly bored, anti banking type person deciding to take out his or her frustration on the plastic logo on the back? I could see that happening. Easy to do, petty crime, hardly worth the police bothering with.
If they were thoughtful enough they could just damage the logo and still leave the bike free to use.
However, a bunch of barclays hire bikes - sat in the street after dark and a particularly bored, anti banking type person deciding to take out his or her frustration on the plastic logo on the back? I could see that happening. Easy to do, petty crime, hardly worth the police bothering with.
If they were thoughtful enough they could just damage the logo and still leave the bike free to use.
toblerone3
Grrrrr
Just applied for my key. Wonder how long it will take to arrive.
sleaterkinney
Well-Known Member
There's a reason why signs are on banks etc, but that is no reason to stick a sign on everything else. Is there nothing that shouldn't be branded in your opinion?
Well, most forms of public transport carry advertisements - buses, taxis, trains and trams. The money raised from the ads presumably helps to reduce the cost of travelling.
This is not a new phenomenon, or a particularly controversial one - buses have had adverts since the 1920s at least.
Why should these bikes be exempt?
Giles..
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
skyscraper101
0891 50 50 50
Paris and Dublin have managed fine without a major sponsor slapping a big logo on each bike. Why should the people of London be turned into mobile bank adverts?
ETA. Got my key today. Guess whos logo is on it.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
For me, it is the intrusiveness of the branding that is the difference.
The barclays branding is too closely intertwined with the London Transport branding. Even to the extent that the corporate Barclays colours have been used for the cycle hire logo. The impression created is not that it is a TfL scheme which gains advertising revenue from Barclays, but that it is a scheme run jointly by TfL and Barclays. To me that is a significant difference and it seems to me without precedence on London's public transport system. It compromises the whole notion of what "public" transport is about.
Pat24
Brixtonian
TitanSound
Mr Beardy Drummer
I was in a pub in King's Cross last night and I saw loads of vans towing big racks full of the bikes.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
We already are. I have two bikes of my own, one has 'Specialized' splashed all over it, the other 'Dahon'.
If it keeps the costs down, who gives a fuck?
Though the colour of the scheme being the same as Barclays' is dodge, same for the super highway thing, don't think it's a coincidence.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Yes they are, mine even has a cashpoint.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
In about a month.
Thanks. So how will this work for non-Londoners? Do I put my credit/debit card into the terminal and enter my PIN?
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
Yep. It'll charge you £1 regardless, for the day, then topups for any trips you make over 30 minutes. And the full £300 or whatever it is if you fail to re-dock the bike after 24h.
