If you’ve been to London recently or if you live here, then no doubt you would have seen all those bikes with the Barclays logo on them – also known as Boris Bikes – and the numerous docking stations dotted about town. It is a laudable effort towards many objectives. For tourist, it is a different way to move around town and see the sights; for locals, it is a greener mode of transport, which helps to keep you fit, too. Sadly though, the scheme is proving more popular to visitors than locals. But that could be because of many reasons, of which 3 are to be explored in this blog post.

Boris Bikes | image credit: Charlotte Gillhooly | used under CC

1. Unclear road markings

London is not a cycle-aware city like Amsterdam, Copenhagen or even Cambridge. Only some roads have been marked with cycle lanes so when there is a cyclist on the road, the drivers do not give them enough space – making it really scary! (for cyclist, I mean.)

2. Heavy focus on central London

Most of the people who work in London do not live in London. To date, the docking stations only go as far as Camden Town in the north, Whitechapel in the east, Kennington in the south and Olympia in the west. See map. This means that people will still need to take the local transport to hire a cycle and is likely not good value for money.

3. Oyster card not applicable

Those who travel frequently to London are likely to have an Oyster card – whether with travelcards or pay-as-you-go (PAYG). Unfortunately, you cannot use Oyster cards to hire a Boris Bike and thus making it an additional cost and hassle. Not sure if TFL is planning to implement the use of Oyster cards for cycling and if they don’t then they are missing a huge opportunity. How huge? According to its Wikipedia entry, on the subject of usage:

By June 2010 over 34 million cards have been issued of which around 7 million are in regular use. More than 80% of all tube journeys and more than 90% of all bus journeys use Oyster. Around 38% of all Tube journeys and 21% of all bus journeys are made using Oyster pay as you go.

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