I love Citi Bikes

Citi Bikes are the New York version of Boris bikes. They are built on the same technology. And they have just celebrated their first 100 days in action.

6,000 bikes are available at about 330 docking stations, at this stage a little smaller than our scheme here in London. But expansion is planned.

Hire bikes in New York - look familiar?

The scheme has already been hailed a success. The pricing structure makes annual membership far more cost-effective than in London, so there is more incentive to become a member and use the bikes often. And if you want proof of their appeal, just look at the stats. With many days way beyond 30,000 journeys and some over 40k, the daily hire per bike is higher than in London.

Why this runaway success? Better bike lanes in New York? Less people with their own bike so needing to hire one? Probably both true. But also I think the Citi Bike people are more engaged and proactive in marketing than TfL have been. The scheme has its own dedicated website - Boris bikes just get a small corner of the TfL one. The scheme even has its own official blog. Impressive. Then there are member meetings and bike classes. The scheme is already harnessing the user community to spread its success, and actively encouraging new riders to join.

TfL should take note. As phase 3, the southwestern extension, gets ever nearer, could more be done to build a committed community of Boris bikers to rival our Citi biking friends over the pond, and spread the love of Boris bikes to even more Londoners?

UPDATE - another good article analysing the Citi Bike scheme and its early success

Boris Bikes hit the streets in New York

Citibike, the New York version of Barclays Cycle Hire, has launched for members. With 6,000 bikes at over 300 stations, it's the biggest bike sharing system in the US so far, not quite as big as the London scheme yet, but it's only the first week, and it aims to grow. The bikes are differently branded, but are, to all intents, Boris bikes with an American flavour.

Here's the Standard's report, and one from the Huffington Post.

Despite the 'nimby's, cycle hire is here to stay, launching in New York, growing in London, and a feature of many other big cities. I'll be keeping a close eye on how the New York system is received in the coming weeks.

Boris bikes - more to come

And the winner was ... Boris.

So the next 4 years will no doubt see further battles over road design and the totemic policy of 'smoothing traffic flow'; but on a brighter note, the Boris bike is here to stay, and by 2016 (and he apparently won't run for a third term) who knows how widespread they'll be? There are few details of the western extension yet, hopefully these will follow later this year.

Dock construction seems to be taking a pause. A new one has opened in John Islip Street, and Monument Street went live a couple of weeks ago, but I'm not aware of any others under construction which are not now open. It will be interesting to see how the scheme copes during the Olympic months. It's already quite worrying that on a fine evening, most of central London is empty of the bikes by mid-evening, making them useless for evening entertainment. Initially we were promised that more docks and a better understanding of the patterns of use would help Serco solve these problems. It seems the patterns of use are now well-established, and simply accepted.

A very interesting, and encouraging, article appeared recently in Bike Biz. It's an old argument that sheer volume of cyclists will help improve road safety because other vehicles can't help but take greater care. This seems to be happening now in some of the busiest areas of London, such as the City. There's a way to go though before this effect will calm some of our busier routes, and the removal of cycle lanes in favour of narrower streets (take St Paul's Churchyard as an example) can only increase the conflict between cyclists and other traffic.

Boris bikes are coming to New York too, in a scheme which will eclipse our own. 600 docking stations and 10,000 bikes should be in place by this summer, using the Bixi system, originally developed in Canada and used for our own beloved  Boris bikes. The prices are higher than London, but the omens look good for America's most ambitious bike hire scheme to date. Take a look at their website.