St Martin's Close leads the way

Brand spanking new - St Martin's Close

The new phase of expansion is underway at last. Without fanfare, a new docking station opened at St Martin's Close on Camden Street, an excellent location entering Camden Town from the south. A few hours later Addison Road (see previous post) in Holland Park opened. Others are sure to follow - I saw Serco engineers testing bikes at Princedale Road this afternoon.

Up in Camden, another dock is in preparation in Hawley Crescent. I think this one is less well situated as it's a bit hidden away, but all extra capacity is welcome.

Coming soon - Hawley Crescent

My email to the cycle hire people about the launch date for the extended scheme was met with the rather curt reply 'December'. I expect the main zones of Hammersmith and Fulham, and Wandsworth, will go live then. In the lead up to that, keep watching for new docking stations within the existing zone opening up. Newton Street for example, in Westminster, is also under construction.

It's an exciting time. Please add a comment if you have further news on new stations - I am especially ignorant of what's going on in the north and east of the area currently covered by the scheme.

Camden loves Boris Bikes

On Friday I toured the new docks in Camden Town. I started by docking in Albany Street to the east of Regents Park, a dock of around 20 docking points. Chatted to an elderly Irish lady who used to be a cyclist there and explained how to use the bikes, hoping she'll get a key soon!

While Albany Street is okay, there aren't many docks connecting the existing zone to Camden Town. Outer Circle would be a perfect site for a big dock, but nothing yet.

I headed up to Camden Town and arrived at Gloucteser Avenue. A Serco guy was stripping the 'coming soon' sign from the dock. 'Can I dock?' I asked. 'Yeah, should be working,' he said, so my bike was the first to go in. Walked from there to Arlington Road, the dock is ready to go but not active yet. On to Hawley Crescent but no sign of a new dock there yet. Bikes were available on Bonny Street next to the Overground station, so I cycled down to Greenland Road, where the dock is under construction. Castlehaven Road was the one I missed out, but it's live on the map.

The really positive thing is the density of docks in Camden. And they're generally big docks. But navigating the busy one-way system isn't easy, and there aren't enough docks connecting this area to the King's Cross area to the south yet. More docks are definitely needed in Somerstown.

Saturday update - from a totally different area, but construction is underway to extend the dock at Queen Street in the City.

Liberal Democrats: Boris bikes are failing Londoners

Caroline Pidgeon AM, writing for the Liberal Democrats in London, has highlighted a number of the unsatisfactory elements of the scheme, particularly problems with redistribution. There is certainly no 'coalition' on the London Assembly and Caroline has criticised the mayor several times over cycling, notably TfL's refusal to compromise on cycle safety for the new layout on Blackfriars Bridge.

I think her criticisms are largely fair with reference to bike redistribution and especially the tortuous process of casual use. Personally I think improvements to the system since the survey she cites was carried out have greatly improved the reliability of the bike keys. The most obviously missing criticism is to do with dock location - they are often built where boroughs allow them to be situated rather than where users actually want them.

A lot more could be said about this - but hats off to Westminster (for once!) who rejected recommendations and have given the go-ahead for a dock on Abingdon Street, close to the Houses of Parliament, contrary to my expectations.

There's a lot more Boris bike news at the moment, I assume because of the imminence of the Eastern Extension (to be switched on as a whole probably in March I am led to believe from a conversation with some TfL press people). Highlights include: calls for Boris bikes in Highgate and Hampstead; might a new docking station in Camden be unsafe; has the novelty of Boris bikes worn off.