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Barclays/TFL cycle hire scheme in London

Just got back from Paris where we used Velib a few times, so will be interesting to try out the London one and compare. Impressions of the Paris one were good, except that i) 1/3 times the machine would not accept payment for a day pass, though didn't say why not. We guessed that it had run out of the paper tickets that it prints your number on, and ii) a few times the destination station was full. In the worst case, this resulted in a 45 minute search for a space, passing 8 - yes 8 - full Velib stations before finally finding a place. This last experience was enough to cause us to give up on Velib for the last couple of days when we needed to meet people at certain places and times.
 
doddles said:
Just got back from Paris where we used Velib a few times, so will be interesting to try out the London one and compare. Impressions of the Paris one were good, except that i) 1/3 times the machine would not accept payment for a day pass, though didn't say why not. We guessed that it had run out of the paper tickets that it prints your number on, and ii) a few times the destination station was full. In the worst case, this resulted in a 45 minute search for a space, passing 8 - yes 8 - full Velib stations before finally finding a place. This last experience was enough to cause us to give up on Velib for the last couple of days when we needed to meet people at certain places and times.
Click to expand...

Well London is still registered users only. As for full / empty stations, this is obviously still going to be a learning exercise for the operator where it will take some time for things to settle in terms of usage / demand
 
The full/empty station thing continues to be a problem. I know today was a bit of a special case with the tube strikes but I had to try 4 different places to find one this evening, and 2 to return it.

One thing that could be improved is that when you get to a station and it's full, and you press the button that gives you 15 more minutes to find another one, instead of just giving you a list of nearby stations why can't they be displayed on a map instead? I can't see that it would be difficult technology-wise, seeing as this is possible on some of the mobile phone apps.

A list of docking stations by street name isn't much use if you're in an area you don't know.
 
But there is at least one map of the local area on the side of the terminal so you look on that, no?

Even yesterday my Moorgate-Tooley Street return was perfect, no probs
 
Now that quite a few of us have used these bikes, what's the consensus on the gears?

A lot of people were originally saying how they disliked first gear because it is way too low and useless for going any distance in, but I found it was actually really useful when starting from still - especially at traffic lights when you need to get a bit of speed quickly which is quite difficult in a high gear due to the weight of the bikes. Second and third seemed about right for me, and the interchange was almost flawless.
 
I agree first gear is actually quite useful, but third is too slow. Maybe that is deliberate, to stop people going too fast on them.
 
Used the bikes again, twice, at the weekend. Each time for a four and a half mile trip from Olympia to Haymarket. Managed each journey in under half an hour so saved over a quid on getting the bus.

The scariest part was negotiating hyde park corner. Battle with five lanes of traffic at the roundabout or brave the diana car crash-esque tunnel that runs underneath to Piccadilly? I went with the roundabout the first time and got the wrong lane so had to nip off to the side and re join it again when there was a break in the traffic. On the way back I braved the tunnel and it was shit scary hearing cars coming up behind you knowing that they could literally smash you into the wall and you'd be dead.

Fortunately I survived both times. Not sure I fancy cycling through the tunnel again though :(
 
skyscraper101 said:
Odd. It was apparently around parliament square IIRC.
Click to expand...

And even odder the brief text from that article that's still on google news says "A cyclist using one of the Mayor's hire bikes collided with a double-decker bus near St Paul's Cathedral this morning. The male cyclist, who is believed to" :hmm:
 
One thing I am learning from the use of this scheme is that London's cycle lanes are a bit rubbish. Even the 'cycle superhighways' - for example the one going from Kennington to Elephant. Nice blue painted lane all the way down the nice straight road where you don't really need it - next thing you know, it's disappeared and dumped you right onto the E&C roundabout!
 
teuchter said:
One thing I am learning from the use of this scheme is that London's cycle lanes are a bit rubbish. Even the 'cycle superhighways' - for example the one going from Kennington to Elephant. Nice blue painted lane all the way down the nice straight road where you don't really need it - next thing you know, it's disappeared and dumped you right onto the E&C roundabout!
Click to expand...

Thats because the route turns off to the left before you reach the Elephant and Castle roundabout. :facepalm:
 
Yesterday morning the rack on Ecclestone Bridge Road was full of bikes. Someone had put stickers on everyone of them, the same colour blue as the Barclays advert, same font in white, stuck just above the word Barclays, simply saying FUCK.

This morning one still had it on.
 
funnily enough we were just discussing this in our office. Somebody has taken a photo and everything. Obviously a disgruntled Barclays customer.
 
Kanda said:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...re-scheme-anti-Barclays-sticker-campaign.html
Click to expand...
There's one sensible reader comment about the "vandalism" from all the usual Daily Mail knee jerking:

To call this vandalism as though the bikes have been damaged is wrong, particularly when the banks themselves have done so much damage to the country with their continued ripoff practices,and if anything is obscene here its the banks profits at their customers expense, not a tiny little sticker that merely states what millions of people in this country think anyway.
Click to expand...
When I take my bike out tomorrow I'll try and find one with the sticker on.
 
One question: if I have one key, can I take out two bikes? One website says you can, but there's no mention of it on the official one.
 
this made me lol:
sounds to me it's the work of left-wing loony s , the kind of people who will sit on the M25 to please bob crow.
- david jamesuk, uk, 17/9/2010 12:06

You can't sit on the M25 now David. If you scratch your nose, stretch or eat a sarnie, you end up with you face in the DM being told youve broken the law !!
- F, B'ham, 17/9/2010 13:10


and someone else makes a good point about helmets? where are they?
 
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