The
massive growth of dockless hire bikes in London can't have escaped many
people's notice. The proliferation of these bikes is testament to their
usefulness and popularity as a transport mode!
Hire
bikes have opened up cycling to new demographics - to people who don't
have space to store their own bike, or don't want to risk theft of their
own bike when it's parked in a public place. They are very useful for
people who live in areas with poor public transport, who would otherwise
have a long walk to a train station or a slow bus journey. As cyclists,
we know that cycling is usually the fastest way to get around London.
The hire-bike user demographic appears younger and more ethnically-diverse than the general cycling population.
As
with any innovation, as well as benefits there have been some teething
problems. There is no shortage of opponents citing stories of
badly-parked and inconsiderately ridden bikes.
Badly-parked
bikes can be a problem. They can obstruct pavements and clutter public
areas. To some extent these issues are historic: operators now require
users to take a photo of their parked bike at the end of the hire; bad
parking will attract a surcharge and persistent bad behaviour may lead
to a user being banned. At popular destinations such as stations, the
number of parked bikes can be a problem, but this is largely because the
Council has failed to provide parking bays to accomodate them. We've
found Merton Council documents going back to 2018 that
recognised the need to provide for dockless bike parking. Yet in 6 years
there's been almost no progress. (To be fair, some other boroughs are no
better, and there really needs to be a pan-London approach, rather than
a patchwork of different rules for each borough.)
A further issue for which the Council bears responsibility is the failure to reach agrement with Lime. Other boroughs were quicker off the mark. Because Lime bikes are geo-fenced to certain areas of the borough, this results in bikes being abandoned by users at the geo-fence (i.e. boundary) who can't go any further towards their destination. This situation is really in no-one's interest.
We certainly need
the Council to step up and address the need for parking. Generally, the
most sensible location for parking is on-carriageway. Indications are
that the Council is aiming to implement 300 marked bays, and 150 or so
should be funded next year. However, marked bays are expensive to plan
and install, 300 seems nowhere near enough - there are around 1400
streets in Merton - and the rollout will take years. Convenience is a
key benefit of hire bikes, and taking away convenience and usability is
not likely to improve the actual parking situation. A pragmatic, mixed
approach of formal bays where needed and less formal on-highway parking
seems a more cost-effective and timely approach. Such an approach can be
incremental and evolve over time.
Thinking
about inconsiderate riding - the evidence is mainly anecdotal, and we
have not seen reports of a significant uptick in pedestrian collisions
involving hire bikes. There's little doubt that the lack of good cycle
infrastructure doesn't help matters and users may be taking to pavements
at times out of fear of road danger. And we should not forget that motor traffic is the major danger to all, evidenced by the tragic death of a Lime bike rider in Wandsworth recently.