London Cycle Hire

i don't know any hard facts about how the schemes i've seen first hand are doing in paris, amsterdamn, cologne and dublin... but they *seemed *to be working okay... if a little underused. i hope it does work out here.

No. The scheme in Dublin has been a massive, massive success. The most recent figures I have seen were that originally they had planned for 1,500 subscribers in the first year - there are approximately 30,000 people signed up. The bikes are everywhere, if you walk around the city centre I guarantee you will see someone on one within 30 seconds. They are expanding the number of bikes/racks already afaik.