The Barclays Cycle Hire scheme is to be expanded in time for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The hire area will be extended beyond central London, and 1,500 extra docking points will be provided there too.
New docking stations will be built in Tower Hamlets, North Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Bow, Canary Wharf, Mile End and Poplar. Altogether, 4,200 extra docking points and 2,000 more bikes will be provided.
When complete, the expanded scheme will cover 65km² of the capital (at present it covers 45km²) and around 8,000 hire bikes will be available from 14,400 docking points at hundreds of locations. The original scheme has been used for 1.5 million journeys since it launched in the summer.
Mayor Boris Johnson said: “Londoners have taken to the hire of two wheels with alacrity and it would have been absolutely nonsensical not to expand our scheme. Plans are now well advanced that will see the roll-out of thousands more of our gleaming bikes across the capital’s legendary East End. For as little as 12p a day, users will soon be able to use our bikes to cross a huge swathe of our city, and it'll mean that by 2012 we’ll be able to invite the entire world to join London’s cycling revolution."
David Brown, managing director of surface transport at Transport for London (TfL), said: “We always believed that Barclays Cycle Hire would prove to be hugely popular, but the enthusiasm with which people have embraced the scheme has been remarkable. We've every confidence that the expanded cycle hire scheme, which will stretch up as far as the edge of the Olympic Park and down to the Isle of Dogs, will be just as enthusiastically embraced by Londoners and visitors alike.”
Tower Hamlets and TfL are holding a series of drop-in sessions for people to learn more about the scheme. These will take place on the following dates:
- Thursday 18 November, 10am-2pm, Chrisp Street Idea Store
- Tuesday 23 November, 4pm-8pm, Whitechapel Idea Store
- Thursday 25 November, 4pm-8pm, Bow Idea Store
- Tuesday 30 November, 10am-2pm, Cubbit Town Library
