Don't hold your breath for Ken's cycling revolution to begin
First the joy, then the disappointment.
Picking up The Guardian on Saturday, I was thrilled to see the first big idea of the mayoral campaign - Uncle Ken's plan for a cycling revolution.
He plans to make 6,000 bikes available for hire from "docking stations" spread every 300m across central London.
Anyone who has seen the "Velib" scheme operating in Paris - from where the idea has been pilfered - will know what a success that is.
Streets abound with the sturdy grey bikes. Everyone appears to be taking to two wheels, from stylish Parisiennes to families of tourists. From the Seine to the Sacre Coeur - yes, some people are even mad enough to cycle up Montmartre - the bikes can be found everywhere.
But alas, back in London, came today's news that we should not hold out collective breath for Ken's revolution to begin.
The earliest we will see thousands of hire bikes on the street is "summer 2010". Pray, tell: What's wrong with next month? Or, if there are supply problems, with the new bikes with this summer?
Ken's crafty spinners had done their job. A good story had found its way into the national press without the disappointing detail.
Similarly, there was little attention paid to the fact that Ken cannot ride roughshod over the boroughs and impose a dozen cycle "super highways" proposed as part of the "revoultion".
Nor the fact that Paris has 10,000 bikes compared to London's 6,000 - and has plans to double this to 20,000.
The only thing London seems to have got right is in the choice of bike design. They're red rather than grey but similarly untrendy to the Velib machines - a wise move, bearing in mind the epidemic of bike thefts in the capital. The fact that they are on every street corner, have a matronly front basket and look like they weigh a tonne will hopefully allow them to escape the attentions of the sticky-fingered fraternity.
The perfect scheme would allow Londoners to discard the Tube and the bus and hop on a bike at will, having clicked their Oyster card to free it from its secure station. Ten minutes later they're at their destination, the bike's back in use and the world feels a better place.
Well done, Ken, for the vision - but please can we have it a whole lot sooner?
ANOTHER CRACKPOT IDEA BY A DESPOT,WITH 500MILLION BURNING A HOLE IN HIS POCKET.IF YOU LEFT A DANGEROUS DOG TIED TO A LAMP POST IN SOME PARTS OF LONDON IT WOULD BE NICKED SO WHAT CHANCE A BIKE,BECAUSE IT WORKS IN PARIS DONT THINK IT WILL WORK HERE.
Posted by: s sims | 11/02/2008 at 07:25 PM
Looks like "s sims" may have a point. I'VE JUST LEFT MY KEYBOARD FOR 2 MINUTES AND MY CAPS LOCK HAS BEEN NICKED.
Seriously, we are unable to get enough parking spaces for bikes at any of the national rail stations now, so where exactly is this extra space going to come from? St Pancras just installed 30 crappy parking spaces that offer little to no security. Who in these days just locks their front wheel up?
Waterloo had half its cycle racks taken away a while back, and the proposed "cycle stations" (Dec 2005) never happened.
The problem also is that cycling will become very popular the safer it is. Which will mean turning car parks across to cyclists, companies installing shower facilities, cycle shops giving quick on-the-spot repairs etc. All of which are pie in the sky.
Posted by: Nick | 12/02/2008 at 03:22 PM
I think we have got to positive about the news and acknowledgement about that cycling is an important method of transport.
The main thing that must be addressed is saftey for the cyclist and the only effective way to this is to remove other vechicles from direct roads/routes which head in and out of central london which would inevitally cause a lot criticism, due to the impact on other road users. I believe that Ken is the only politition with authority and strong enough to implement such policies. As done with the congestion charge. If any other majoral candidate was responsible there would inevetiably be too much ground given to the other road user and end up creating route going nowhere and hense not used.
Posted by: Alan | 02/03/2008 at 12:05 PM