Fear for your lives next summer

fixed.

I'm not a southern trains user thankfully.

I like the fixed version.

That the cards can be cloned is well known- but it's not that much of an issue to the general populace is it?

You need to have the know how and the tech to do it, and realistically it's just not worth doing so that you can obtain a free bicycle.

You're getting the bike, and someone else is paying for it without them knowing. That's the pain. imagine the bad press?

no reason to go that way when you can have a credit/debit card system - and let's face it - everyone has one nowadays.

Plus do you know how horrific the Oyster payment gateway could be? letting a third party (who runs the bike scheme) into that, yeeeeeek keep away. contractual hell. what if they broke it? liability++

anyway, no matter, it's sorted - it won't start off being Oyster'd. We'll all see how this pans out...

Velib converted a friend of mine to the ways of the bike. Can't beat tootling around the city of light on one.

However, I am in a grump today - am I the only one not pissed off at the BBC report and its obsession with helmets and how dangerous bikes are?

...
However, I am in a grump today - am I the only one not pissed off at the BBC report and its obsession with helmets and how dangerous bikes are?

Yeah saw that, shoddy.

I rode on a new piece of bike lane on the A2 this morning. It stops, randomly, half way along the road, just in the right place to let you fight it out with the HGVs. This is brand new road design. I have no confidence in current generation of planners to do anything better.

maybe worth trying.In the councils that I am familiar with there are plenty cyclists, some of whom are engineers (thats Poole and Bournemouth btw) and some of whom actually, wait for it-- want to make conditions better for riders.
On a historical note from other sources I have heard that in the 50's CTC were asked by the government about cycle lanes, a la Europe. They responded by saying 'we dont want them at all, we ride on the roads' or words to that effect, thus in part shaping the current situation where all the non riders bleat on about cycle lanes all the time. they just need to HTFU.

Velib converted a friend of mine to the ways of the bike. Can't beat tootling around the city of light on one.

However, I am in a grump today - am I the only one not pissed off at the BBC report and its obsession with helmets and how dangerous bikes are?

they all need to HTFU.

i hope it works....

do kids go free like they do on the buses ?

or possibly to be more sustainable / realistic is to price the buses in line with the price of the bikes ?

good luck to the scheme.

they all need to HTFU.

Reminds me of this great post:

"Oh I couldn't possibly cycle into work, it's far too dangerous out there these days"
"It's not you I worry about, it's all those drivers"
"It's all main roads, there's no cyclepaths on my route to work"
"The roads will be full of people who can't take the tube today"

Shut up you whinging cunts:

brilliant yeah^^
Im getting sooooooooo pissed off at how ordinary bods are riding around on the pavement all the time, cos they are scared of traffic.
and then when you ask habitual drivers about trying a change they go " I would do if there was less traffic"-- you are the fucking traffic!! and i hear it every day.
(rant over,sorry)

there are shitloads of uber hipsters riding their fixie skidders around town in a manner that suggests they care little for their own or others safety, can't see how a few hire bikes is going to make it much worse.

you couldn't just 'em be could ya?? You had to go and get them involved again...
(I secretly love your constant jibes tho)

how will they stop them?

Come on winston, keep up.
Each bike will have it's own warden, who will be employed to watch over the bike 24 hours a day.

i assumed the pick up points were staffed.

The Cycle Hire scheme is very well-managed, backed by solid funding, moving ahead well on schedule, and will be a success. All of the worries expressed in this thread have been considered and addressed--e.g., the cost of vandalism is factored into the scheme's running costs, etc. There is now a considerable amount of experience, from Paris and dozens of other cities, of the impact of such schemes, and nothing about it is a novelty.

I'm really looking forward to it. We expect it to usher in a change reminiscent of the early days of congestion charging, although its full impact will only be released gradually as more bikes and hire stations are added, and the scope of the hire zone increased.

Some times I <3 your naive socialist dreaming.

not naive, could be great ....but being a cynical git, I kind of get the impression that the roads will be full of idiots(pissed or not) pootling around with great gurning grins and getting in their own way as well as everyone elses. Love the idea, just not sure about the reality.

Places like central? pffft. Speaka de ingleesh?

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_London[/ame]

Heh

You took my bait in the end.

Can we talk apple pie now?

Skully!

We had a roast dinner tonight, which was excellent... After I cleared the plates, mum came over and put down some more small plates. Dad and I looked at one another in disbelief. This shit ONLY happens when someone dies or gets married or they are trying to impress new friends or something.

Home made Frangipani pie! Fucking hell! Words cannot describe.

mmmmm pie.

I took a video of Fiddy riding the Superhighway today at the show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0ud1yp0Epg

Do note my comments following a discussion with the Project Manager.

• this is just a mockup. it's illustrative IMHO.
  

• No blue lanes will appear at bus stops as they do in the video
  the routing of the superhighway at bus stops will be considered on a case by case basis. (this is important, she understood my concerns about conflict there).

• The signs at the side of the road are not yet defined size wise - I've asked for lots bigger :)

Heh
You took my bait in the end.
Can we talk apple pie now?

I've always got time for apple pie.

stockholm has a very popular bike rental system as well , its strange over there as you never see RLJ and even though there are a few cycle lanes its nothing like amsterdam , yet all the car drivers go slow to accomodate the bikes. glad london went for proper sized wheels , the stockholm bikes have 20" fronts & 24" rears , i suppose it lessens the appeal for theft , the stockholm system means you can only hire from 6am till 6pm , so no drunk riding cos max rental time in one session is 3h , so last lock up would be 9pm

are you implying that I can't get drunk by 6pm?

i think to be seen on one of those stockholm bikes you would have to be drunk anyway

I live in Montreal where a system using exactly these bikes has been in place for a few months. I haven't tried one yet as the fare is a bit expensive at $5 (£3) for a day's availability with fees on top of that depending on how long you keep it, although there is a yearly subscription available. As far as I can tell, it was a well-conceived idea reasonably well-implemented as quite a lot of people ride them.

As far as the bikes themselves are concerned, they look pretty well-built; the only damage I've seen on one is a bent-off rack, presumably from a frontal collision. The consequence of this is that they're really heavy and by extension slow. I've seen a few students late to class hauling ass on them and economically speaking the calorie per metre ratio represents very poor value. They've also got always-on front and rear lights that are powered by a dynamo that goes click click click and I can only surmise that this adds to riding difficulty. The biggest problem that I can see with these bikes is that they're a scourge on the streets: they're slow as ass, wide as fuck and generally their riders aren't exactly the most experienced or aware cyclists.

They don't look half as bad as they could've done.

I personally fear for the survival of the LBS.

+1. Wave bye bye to the tatters that are left of this countries cycle industry.

Home made Frangipani pie! Fucking hell! Words cannot describe.

so who died?