More ‘Boris bikes’ to be rolled out after record numbers take to two wheels
Transport for London is adding 1,700 more bikes to its Santander Cycle scheme in response to record numbers of users during May.
With health fears over coronavirus keeping Londoners off public transport, last month saw over 1.2m of the vehicles – formerly known as “Boris bikes” – hired, the highest number in the scheme’s 10-year history.
TfL also said it had broken its record for hires in one week, with 362,925 hires made between 25 and 31 May.
In addition, more than 30,000 free journeys have been made since the cycles were made free to NHS staff back in March.
As a result of the surge in demand, TfL has today announced plans to further expand the scheme as part of London mayor Sadiq Khan’s “Streetspace” plan.
In addition to the 15 per cent increase in the number of bikes available, 14 new docking stations will be built by the end of the year, including eight this summer.
Three of these will be built at Clapham Common in south London, while another four will be built on the Cycleway 4 route between Tower Bridge and Greenwich.
Under the “Streetspace” scheme, temporary changes have been made to London’s streets in order to encourage people to use active methods of transport to ease the burden on the Tube and bus networks.
Even after service levels on the network have been increased to 100 per cent, under the current social distancing rules TfL will only be able to safely carry 13-15 per cent of its normal passenger load.
A number of changes, including a new cycle lane on Park Lane, extra pavement space at 17 high streets across the capital and changes to residential roads are already in place.
Khan said: “I’m delighted by the unprecedented demand for cycling over the past few months.
“We’ve seen three times the number of people cycling in some parts of our city compared to before the crisis, huge demand for our free cycle hire scheme for NHS staff and carers, and multiple Santander Cycles records being broken”.