Nottingham's 'Boris bikes' hired by less than one person a day
LESS than one bicycle a day has been hired in the six months since Nottingham's city bike scheme was launched.
The council's Citycard Cycles have been hired 126 times since September.
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Senior Information Assistant at Nottingham Tourism Centre Neil Beardsley, left, and cyclist, Murray Brown on two of the bikes.
But Nottingham City Council is hoping interest from commuters and tourists will pick up once the weather improves.
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Murray Brown, 38, of Shakespeare Street in the city centre, has hired the bikes regularly.
He said: "I've used them to go from library to library to find books that aren't in the Central Library.
"The bikes are fine and they've been free to use, which is great. I don't know if everyone knows they are there to hire.
"I often think twice about going out on the bike because of the weather. I'm sure people will use them more in the summer."
Figures supplied to the Post by the city council show 40 bikes were hired in September, 29 in October. Seven were hired in November, nine in December, and 11 in January. Fourteen were hired last month, with 16 so far this month up to Wednesday.
Most of the bikes were hired at Nottingham Tourism Centre.
Neil Beardsley, senior information assistant at the centre, said: "We had a few regular customers when they first came out, people who hired them on a daily or weekly basis.
"We also found a lot of international students from the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University were hiring them over the weekend.
"We do get a lot of people enquiring about them, saying when the weather gets better they will come back and get one. Hopefully when the spring and summer comes we should be hiring them out every day."
As part of the Citycard Cycles scheme, five cycle hubs have been set up around the city where people can hire the bikes and lock their own bikes up more securely.
Since their launch, 853 cyclists have registered to use the hubs at Nottingham train station, Broadmarsh Bus Station, Fletcher Gate car park, and the Queens Drive and Colwick park and ride sites.
They include covered parking, lighting, CCTV, and Citycard access control doors.
The scheme has been funded entirely by the Department for Transport, costing up to £350,000, and is being implemented over two years. The plan is for up to 250 hire bikes to be available at 17 bike stands across Nottingham, including Wollaton Park and Nottingham Castle.
The council expects to spend no more than £50,000 per year to keep the scheme running.
A new scheme allowing people to book a bike using a mobile phone is due to start in May.
Councillor Jane Urquhart said: "We are hopeful that we have put the right infrastructure in place so as the weather starts to improve we will see people taking this up."
Graham Hubbard, co-ordinator of Lenton-based cycle training company Ridewise, said the council has provided him with ten CityCard bikes to help teach people how to ride.
He said: "I think it's fantastic the city council has undertaken this scheme.
"I would hope that the city council will up the ante on advertising this provision. A lot of people might see the bikes and not be entirely clear they can be borrowed, and that the process is easy."
Greater Nottingham Transport Partnership chairman Gary Smerdon-White said: "The main thing to think about is the way this is being implemented.
"The bike hubs are starting to be used. The next step is to get more places where people can hire them."
14 Comments
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by FormerlyW
Saturday, March 23 2013, 3:44PM
“I'd suggest you take a closer look before making such sweeping statements. I fairly regularly criticize the Council: their proposals over changing school terms was daft, and their behaviour over the Future Jobs Fund was appalling.
I just find it more effective to criticize the things they have actually got wrong rather than going out of my way to find fault with everything they do, thus paradoxically ensuring that any attempt to hold them to account gets lost in the noise of easily-dismissed unfounded criticism.”
by EggyEggCup
Saturday, March 23 2013, 2:31PM
“Bizarre that anyone would get their jollies by childishly spending so much time defending this awful, flawed administration against any sort of criticism deserved or not.”
by FormerlyW
Friday, March 22 2013, 10:51PM
“Bizarre that anyone would get their jollies by childishly badmouthing the place they live.”
by mof_gedling
Friday, March 22 2013, 9:21PM
“bike hire works in Barcelona, mainly because they have places of interest to cycle to,same goes for London, by the time you have cycled up and down maid marion way looking for tales of robin hood your day is nearly over,”
by paul0909
Friday, March 22 2013, 8:34PM
“This is a bit of a non story. If you have the money in the budget for the scheme then why not get on with it. Leaving it till spring would have meant the bikes were hired 126 less times. I would expect teething problems will have been ironed out over winter and a relaunch in spring would have been planned anyway. Obviously the stats sound bad, but not so when you realise they just cover the winter months. The post obviously knew the headline about the bike scheme not attracting many participants would draw several comments and allow people to have a dig at the council but they need to rise above the temptation to write headlines along the lines of ice cream sales low in january.”
by irvine
Friday, March 22 2013, 4:37PM
“smshogun
No one said you sanctioned the scheme - where did you read that? Do you work for the city council?”
by smshogun
Friday, March 22 2013, 4:19PM
“MOF:
Who said I sanctioned the scheme? I merely pointed out that any such scheme was launched at the wrong time, the onset of winter.”
by DunkirkPie
Friday, March 22 2013, 4:03PM
“"There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you're doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I'm not so careful about the content of the present, but I'm very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else's money on myself. And if I spend somebody else's money on myself, then I'm sure going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else's money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else's money on somebody else, I'm not concerned about how much it is, and I'm not concerned about what I get. And that's government." - Milton Friedman”
by mof_gedling
Friday, March 22 2013, 2:10PM
“Smshogun probably the same moron who thinks its a good idea to waste 50 grand a year on such a daft scheme, it might work in the capital but this is nottingham,”
by smshogun
Friday, March 22 2013, 1:23PM
“Which moron sanctioned such a project? launching a cycling scheme at the onset of winter is hardly going to attract a good take up of the service, so serious questions need asking of those sanctioning the scheme when it could have been launched in spring to allow take up of the service.”