Obstacles to building a TFL style cargo bike network?

I live very near Hackney Wick and Fish Island and if you know that area, you'll know it's become a maze of new developments. If you know Hackney, they're generally trying to limit the amount of car parking available in new developments and car parking spaces for residents of these developments.

It generally strikes me that the developments on Fish Island would be a near perfect testing space to build a network of TFL cycle style cargo bikes... Having something like this style of cargo bike available to be rented in a similar way as you would a TFL cycle, with a locking mechanism built into the road.

There are enough large supermarkets, with parking spaces available (which could be turned into dock spaces), nearby (ASDA, Morrsions, Waitrose in Westfield, Sainsburys and Lidl in Stratford Centre) that would make the network worthwhile, along with road infrastructure (which could be improved).

This is all lovely pie in the sky thinking, and many of you might have had the same idea. Has anyone a bit more entrepreneurial minded actually explored it? The first biggest issue I see is building a safe docking system that would hinder people from vandalising or stealing the bikes. I imagine the reason why things like pedal.me and companies that rent out cargo bikes exist is because they haven't worked out how to overcome that obstacle.

Interesting idea.

Zipcar doesn't seem to have any issues with people vandalising their cars. I guess some kind of system that locks something (a key of some sort) inside the cargo bike in some kind of container, which you would unlock with your phone, then use to unlock the cargo bike would work well.

I don't think those obstacles are not able to be overcome, I just wonder how many people would actually use them. A cargo bike is not easy to just get on and ride if you haven't before. I'm sure some people would use them, possibly not enough for TFL to make an investment and definitely not enough for a company to risk it.

The Santander Bikes run at a massive operating loss, which is why they've barely expanded from their original area. The subsidy works out as something like £3 per journey. And those bikes get a lot of use each day.

How much does a cargo bike cost? How much would someone pay to use it? How many times a day would each one be used? How much would you spend on maintenance / customer service / vandalism etc?

It's a nice idea, but I can't see the numbers adding up without a rich backer willing to cover significant losses.

(In some cities Ikea lends out cargo bikes, which is a drop in the ocean for them cost wise and has an obvious audience)

Zipcar doesn't seem to have any issues with people vandalising their cars

They get regularly vandalised / crashed into / etc. I've seen one with the entire front end unbolted, presumably to fix someone else's crashed car.

But they're able to charge high enough hourly rates to cover the costs.

@grams you make good points about TFL cycles and the costings... I don't really know enough about them and their operation so my only comments would be that they run a much larger fleet for different purposes, whereas my suggestion - in my head - I think you'd really be looking at 3, maybe 4 maximum, cargo bikes in a specific area. I'm not 100% convinced that it could turn a profit even with those small numbers, but do wonder if a break-even or a small loss is possible.

I used Fish Island because it's in my back yard, but Stratford's East Village is equally ripe for this idea.

@ohheyitsdrew i think everything is ripe for vandalism sadly... but i think your point about cargo bikes not being as easy to ride as normal bikes would be the main problem.