Tag: Barclays Cycle Hire

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Capital Snappers

To Cyclo the combination of photography and cycling sounds like a recipe for disaster, but we’re assuming that the idea of the competition run by Barclays, official sponsor of the London Barclays Cycle Hire (better know as ‘Boris Bikes’) and Barclays Cycle Superhighways, is that you actually stop and get off before snapping. Running from March 19 to May 4, ‘London by Bike’ is asking for submissions of pictures that ‘Capture the essence of cycling in the Capital.’

 

Entries via their facebook page (details below) where a shortlist will be drawn up from ‘likes’ and comments before being judged by a mysteriously unnamed panel. The winner will see their picture used in 300+ branches of the bank across London and will be treated to £1,500 of cycling equipment, a weekend stay in a 5 star hotel and dinner courtesy of Heston Blumenthal.

 

Cynics should note that whilst entrants retain their intellectual property rights, by entering you are ‘…grant(ing) the Promoter and any of the Promoter’s related companies an irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display…’ etc, etc. With the news that George Osborne yesterday granted some £15m in the Budget to improve safety for cyclists in London, Cyclo suggests a winning entry might comprise the Chancellor, the Mayor and the PM on a Goodies style bike.

 

Full details and entry at www.facebook.com/BarclaysBikes

 

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Life Saving Cycling

A research paper published in the British Medical Journal has reported that the Barcelona based cycle hire scheme (know as “Bicing”) has off-set an estimated 9,000 tones of carbon dioxide since it’s launch in March 2007 and could account for the saving of some 50 lives. In its first two year’s the scheme attracted the support of more than 182,000 locals (an impressive 11% of the municipality’s population) with 68% of the trips used for either commuting to work or on school runs. The Spanish-led research team concluded that although there was an estimated 0.03 “extra” cyclist death each year from traffic accidents and 0.13 deaths from exposure to air pollution the overall “saving” equated to 12.48 lives per annum through increased physical activity.

 

With London’s own cycle scheme having just celebrated its first anniversary and with the UK Capital’s poor air quality cited as causing almost 4,300 deaths per year it will be interesting to see, long term, if the Boris Bike has more benefits that pure congestion relief.

 

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Boris Bikes’ Birthday

With the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme in London celebrating its first birthday (happy birthday from Cyclo) the Mayor, Boris Johnson, has announced the sponsor’s additional £25million pledge to expand the massively successful initiative westwards. Speaking at celebrations in the Westfield’s shopping centre – who will themselves part fund new docking stations at the complex – Johnson announced plans to bring the scheme (most commonly and fittingly known as Boris Bikes) to Wandworth, Hammersmith, Lambeth and Kensington and Chelsea; all of which is expected to be complete by 2013. Meanwhile expansion east is also under way with additions through Shoreditch and Tower Hamlets and on to Canary Wharf with 8,000 new bikes and 14,400 docking stations which should all be in place in time for the 2012 Olympic Games.

 

It’s estimated that in the 12months since the schemes initial launch that some 6million bike journeys have been made – a testament to its success and popularity. Johnson commented on the anniversary, “By working together we are putting thousands more Londoners on two wheels”, whilst Bob Diamond, Barclays Chief Executive described the scheme as “pioneering” and one that, “makes a positive difference to everyday life in London, its people and its economy.”