Ripping Out ‘Boris Bikes’ Would Be Insane Says London’s Cycling And Walking Commissioner

A media report that Transport for London (TfL) plans to remove the Santander Cycle Hire scheme is wrong, London’s Cycling and Walking Commissioner Will Norman has told me, December 14.

It would be “insane,” to rip out the bike share scheme’s 781 docking stations and remove the 12,000 bicycles, said Norman.

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On December 13, the MyLondon website reported that “TfL are considering getting rid of their cycle hire scheme as part of a proposed cut put forward by an independent review.”

This independent review—commissioned in July and which delivered its report last week—did not recommend removing the Cycle Hire scheme.

The review’s four experts reported that the removal of Cycle Hire, Woolwich Ferry, and River Services would save £63m but would lose £15m in revenue. In total, £427m could be saved if TfL removed the Night Tube services, closed ticket offices, removed the lowest revenue bus routes, and ripped out the Cycle Hire scheme, but the experts concluded that making these cuts would lead to negative economic impacts due to employee strife and “adverse environmental impacts” due to a significant increase in car trips.

“We do not recommend significant service reductions,” reported the experts, which included Stephen Glaister CBE, Emeritus Professor of Transport and Infrastructure at Imperial College London, and a former TfL board member.

Instead, the experts recommended that TfL should imposer a £3.50 Greater London boundary charge for motorists.

MyLondon is published by Reach plc, formerly known as Trinity Mirror, and one of the U.K’s largest newspaper groups, publishing 240 local papers and nationals, including Daily Mirror, Daily Express, and Daily Star.

“We’ve got absolutely no intention at all to scrap the hire bike scheme,” Norman told me, “it’s been shown that it’s more popular than ever. In fact, we’re investing in modernizing and expanding it.”

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London’s cycle hire scheme—modeled on existing ones in Lyon and Paris—was launched by then Mayor of London Boris Johnson on July 30 2010. The Barclays-sponsored bicycles became known as “Boris Bikes,” although it was Johnson’s predecessor Ken Livingstone who instigated the scheme.

Since February 2015, the scheme has been sponsored by Santander, and the bikes are officially known as Santander Cycles.

Norman said that, due to the pandemic, the scheme had had a “massive record-breaking year.” NHS workers were given free codes to use the bicycles—hiring one normally costs £2—and the seven busiest docking stations during the height of the pandemic were situated outside hospitals.

“We’ve had 75,000 NHS journeys,” said Norman.

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In a press statement, Norman said: “Many people enjoyed making the most of the quieter streets during lockdown, and this change in habit has had lasting effects, with walking and cycling journeys continuing to be higher year-on-year.”

Nearly half of all journeys in London were walked or cycled between April and June, up from 29% before the pandemic, states TfL.

At Colliers Wood, where protection has been added to the existing Cycleway 7, the number of cyclists has increased by 35% during the week, and 150% at the weekend. On Park Lane, just under 200 cyclists an hour used the new cycle lane at peak times in November, with no impacts on bus journey times and general traffic, said TfL.

The other experts on the independent review were T.C. Chew, Global Rail Business leader at Arup, Commissioner for the National Infrastructure Commission Bridget Rosewell CBE, who is also chair of Atom Bank and the M6 Toll company, and Sir Jonathan Taylor, a former vice president of the European Investment Bank.

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The cycle hire scheme is a “cool part of London,” said Norman.

“It’s not going anywhere.”