magazine
London Bikes - BBB Bike By Boris
written by Steve Barrett, 1 mth ago
Today saw the launch on the new London Bike scheme which has been pushed through by mayor Boris Johnson. Boris is a great lover of the bike and has been snapped many times whizzing around London. The scheme sees thousands of bikes for hire that are parked at 400 pick up zones around the city you simple find a bike, pay the fee and off you go, when you finish just push it back into the nearest pick up zone and the meter will stop. It cost from just £1 a day to use the bikes or you can pay for a whole year a save even more.
As always the media have been trying to catch Boris out saying that in a similar scheme in Paris all the bikes got stolen but he's thought of that - basically he said the bikes belong to the people so if they get nicked what are you going to do? So we shouldn't see them popping up on ebay then! Also London has learnt from the problems in Paris, unlike the Paris bikes they don't have locks on them so the only place you should see them lift is in the pick up zones, that means if you see a hoody coming home on one he has nicked it. The bikes aren't built for speed or distance they are suited to quick hops around town. Worst thing I guess could happen is they all end up in the river so be warned if you do loose a bike your credit card will be charged £300.
For me this is great news, I don't like the tube so the option to jump on a bike is perfect, I'm not in London very often but have in the past turned up at meetings on scooter, motor bikes and even roller blades so the grab a bike scheme is perfect.
Thanks Boris for doing this we might forgive for the congestion charge - well only maybe.
