Wednesday, August 12, 2009

London Calling: Montréal's bIXI for Bike-sharing

Today Transport for London (TfL) chose Serco to manage, service and bring to life London's Cycle Hire scheme and Serco has partnered with Montréal’s bIXI system to set up the 6,000 bicycle fleet with 400 docking stations. TfL expects to have the system quickly operational with the goal of May 2010. With the bIXI's drop in place docking stations, that should be easily obtainable. The bike hire scheme is part of London Mayor Boris Johnson’s £111 million bicycle improvements for the UK’s capital. The press release from TfL Cycle Hire quotes Mayor Johnson, "They (Serco and bIXI) can't wait to get cracking on helping us get thousands more Londoners on two wheels and I'm sure that the cycling revolution taking place in the Capital will rapidly become the envy of the world."

Even with the easily installed bIXI stations and bikes, bike-sharing might not come as easily as it should, central London is composed of different “councils.” According to Global New Clickpress, the councils of Camden and Westminster have been slow to approve the placement of docking stations on the streets in their jurisdictions. The councils fear the lost automobile parking revenue from metered spaces. Undoubtedly these councils do not realize the idea is to reduce the amount of automobiles and the congestion in the streets!

The Bike-sharing Blog commends London on its choice and looks forward to riding a London bIXI along the Thames.

Source: TfL

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

News from Germany:
Hamburg- stadtrad, 1000 bikes, 70 stations (cooperation with call-a-bike, German raylways)

"Metrorad Ruhr" in Ruhr area, about 1500 bikes (cooperation with nextbike)

Nextbike: Cologne-100 bikes, 14 stations.
Hanover-80 bikes, 15 stations