TRANSPORTS OF DELIGHT

London's transports of delight

A KEEN cyclist, Gulliver has been rather over-excited by the prospect of London’s new bike-hire scheme, which was launched today. So, having signed up for a year’s access (at a cost of £48, including a pass-key), I decided to test it out, hiring a bike for the trip from Waterloo station, a big London terminus, to  office in the West End—a journey of slightly more than a mile.

The scheme seems to have piqued the interest of Londoners and, as if to emphasise the fact, within seconds of climbing into the saddle, I was accosted by a man demanding to know what I thought about it all. He turned out to be the transport correspondent of The Times. The bike is somewhat clunky, I told him. Heavy, with the turning circle of an articulated lorry. But then they weren’t designed for the hill stages of the Tour de France. Rather they have to cope with London’s bumpy streets, novice cyclists and the attempts at vandalism that will follow closing time in the city's pubs.

Getting people onto bikes for short journeys has to be a good idea in a city where the alternatives are breathtakingly expensive taxis, sweaty and overcrowded underground trains and buses that often crawl along congested streets. And the scheme has laudable ambitions. As Boris Johnson, London’s affable mayor, puts it: “In 1904, 20% of journeys were made by bicycle in London. I want to see that kind of figure again.” (Adding: “If you can’t turn the clock back to 1904, ladies and gentlemen, what is the point of being a Conservative?”)

Central London is not ideal for cyclists but neither is it imperfect. There are plenty of cycle lanes (albeit often used as convenient parking spaces by van drivers) and the terrain is pretty flat. Apparently one problem with cycle-hire schemes in less horizontal cities is that bikes accumulate at the bottom of hills, as nobody has the energy to ride them back up.

The first stage of London's scheme will see 6,000 bikes spread around 400 docking stations. On top of an access fee, which in these early days must be paid in advance online or over the phone, there is an hourly hire charge which increases incrementally the longer you have the bike. This has caused some comment. The mayor says he wants the bikes to be used for short journeys, so the first 30 minutes are free. However, if you keep a bike for a whole day you'll pay £50, for longer than 24 hours £150, and if you don't return it at all £300.

There were a few downsides to my journey. The huge docking station at Waterloo station was almost bereft of bicycles. A friend also told me he’d bagged the penultimate bike at Vauxhall, another busy overground station. The mayor accepts that it will take time to calibrate the system and get the bikes where they are most needed, but I suspect the large train stations will need more.

Conversely, the closest bay  in Pall Mall, was full of bikes, leaving nowhere to deposit mine. In such circumstances, you are supposed to be able to push a button, learn where the nearest bay is, and then have an extra 15 minutes, toll free, to get there. But in this case the system wasn’t working, and I had to dash around the corner to St James’s Square where I nabbed the very last space.

All this dashing, coupled with a muggy London morning, meant that when I did get to the office I was, shall we say, glowing (“Glowing the office out,” commented one colleague, somewhat harshly). This would have to be a consideration were I about to rush into an important meeting, and it might limit the programme's appeal to business travellers. Nevertheless, I fully intend to make use of the scheme whenever possible. And judging by my 15-minute cycle, the competition seems worried. I inadvertently cut up a taxi on the Strand, and then saw the driver wind down his window and bellow "you could get someone to drive you for that price!" Sadly he sped off before I had a chance to ask him the last time he drove someone for free.