Barclays/TFL cycle hire scheme in London

[Radar]

Sounds good, got a link?

I use London Transport Pro, which does the TfL bikes among many other things. A godsend if you live in London and use public transport, there is a free version too but I don't think that does the bikes

 

[19sixtysix]

Sounds good, got a link?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.barclays.cycle&hl=en

 

[RedDragon]

Boris Johnson is to spark an electric bike revolution by introducing a new rental scheme on the streets of London next year. Several hundred battery-powered bicycles will be on London’s streets next year in a pilot scheme that breaks new ground in the UK.
Standard

 

[uk benzo]

Typically, he focuses on installing the stations in North London where the wealth lies.

 

[RedDragon]

Typically, he focuses on installing the stations in North London where the wealth lies.

And the hills, perhaps.

 

[Pickman's model]

Typically, he focuses on installing the stations in North London where the wealth lies.

there are rich people in south london too you know. and it's not like muswell hill is all awash with money

 

[plurker]

And the hills, perhaps.

I commute daily streatham / farringdon and back. In three months (since i started to record my rides) I was surprised to see I've ridden a total elevation of 25,328ft – that’s almost the height of Mt Everest made up of Streatham Hills...

 

[RedDragon]

Barclay's to ditch Boris Bike sponsorship Guardian

 

[Dogsauce]

Sponsorship that was supposed to cover the whole cost of the scheme, but has only managed about half of this.

Add to that the barely-used 'dangleway', massively expensive buses and crap cycle infrastructure and it looks like this Mayor of yours is a bit shit at doing transport. I guess if he clowns about a bit on telly every now and then it's all OK with the voters.

 

[teuchter]

https://twitter.com/benphillips76/status/412874144129105920/photo/1

 

[RedDragon]

A Boris delivery boy for Maggi's corner shop.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Three blokes get a Boris Bike from the old Kent Road, up Mt Ventoux in Provence and back again in 22 seconds under 24 hours.

 

[salem]

https://twitter.com/benphillips76/status/412874144129105920/photo/1

The kids got an England shirt on so just a nice summer pic I think

 

[vornstyle76]

I found an abandoned Boris Bike behind the goal at Dulwich Hamlet's ground after a solid win. Rode it all the way to...... Nunhead. But the first time I'd ridden a bike in over a decade, so good chunkytastic fun.

 

[salem]

I used to sometimes see a bloke in Barcelona who had a Royal Mail bike.

Also saw a bike courier thing towing a trailer the other day and I'm pretty sure it was a boris bike that had been painted

 

[skyscraper101]

The bikes are soon going to re-branded with 'Santander' and an all new red look.

The seven-year deal, which saw Santander outbid Coca-Cola to replace Barclays, will see the scheme renamed Santander Cycles and the 11,500 bikes and 748 docking stations carrying the bank’s red logo from April.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/lond...e-barclays-new-sponsorship-deal-10074545.html

Feel the excitement.

 

[Maurice Picarda]

That yeoman warder appears to have got lost.

 

[Crispy]

It's a better colour for London (and red is the bestest colour anyway), but everyone's still going to call them boris bikes.

 

[Dogsauce]

I reckon they should have gone for yellow like the TDF ones, because they stand out a lot more and that might help a driver notice them (if they bother to look).

Plus yellow bikes are wicked cool

We all know it wasn't Boris's idea anyway, don't we?

 

[Crispy]

We all know it wasn't Boris's idea anyway, don't we?

Of course, but "Kencycles" doesn't really roll off the tongue.

 

[laptop]

Of course, but "Kencycles" doesn't really roll off the tongue.

Pah. Parochial. I fear it's too late to acknowledge the Kabouters' pilot project and call them Kenfiets?

 

[skyscraper101]

Finally.. a more simple way to hire bikes without getting a smart key. On your phone with an app.

Users of Boris bikes now have the option to hire them using a smartphone app.

The free Santander Cycles App, for Android and iOS phones, means users can avoid hiring a bicycle from a docking station and get a release code sent straight to their phones.

Customers need to register their bank card with the app and then tap the ‘hire now’ from a nearby docking station. They will then be sent a release code which can be keyed into a docking point to release a bike for use.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/tran...w-be-hired-using-smartphone-app-10241375.html

 

[salem]

Great. Those terminals are awful to use. They need to fix the unlock buttons too. They provide no feedback as to whether they've been actually pressed and of course if it doesn't register a press or registers too many you don't know when you're starting the sequence again.

 

[Crispy]

The whole user experience is terrible. Really slow machine, loads of NEXT buttons to press (PRESS. I SAID PRESS! I AM PRESSING REALLY HARD NOW!) and 40 page user agreements to read.

 

[teuchter]

I really, really, resent the exemplary and long standing consistency and clarity of London Transport/TfL branding and design standards being compromised by this stuff. Colour matching to Barclays and now all changed to Santander. Until the next sponsor changeover. It's a line that simply shouldn't be crossed, ever. And those who don't understand why should be deported from London, or shot.

 

[laptop]

40 page user agreements to read.

when it is raining, does one get less wet by walking, by running – or by reading the legalese and then cycling?

To begin to answer this question, Feedback subcontracted the reading of the TfL document to a colleague who is quite fluent in contract-speak. The colleague emerged, spluttering, after 47 minutes (excluding a very necessary coffee break).

Having dealt with 1147 words on privacy, the colleague turned to the 4827 words of terms and conditions – and found that they reference five further policies totalling 4248 words. One of these requires "all users to read the terms of public liability insurance policy before using a cycle" – that's a further 11 pages, which the colleague estimates is an unusually brief 1500 words. And we still haven't found the schedule, which is integral to the insurance policy.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21829142.600-feedback-read-before-you-ride.html

 

[2hats]

Can anyone with more than one key on a TfL cycle hire account comment on whether they have 'fixed' the 'feature' where they were double charging an account with two keys? Or do you just have to create a second separate account in order to get a sane arrangement with two keys? Thanks.

 

[hash tag]

Inspired by another thread, I dug out this thread and of course see lots of conflicting views and arguements about the scheme. I know some of the posters are still around and wondered how people view the scheme and all its imitators now.