Tag: Boris Bikes

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Conquering Mont Ventoux on a Boris Bike

Mont Ventoux

Mont Ventoux Mont Ventoux is a challenge that strikes fear into even the most seasoned of Tour de France riders – stark, wind-swept (as the name implies) and with a breath-sapping summit finish. It is the stuff of legends to pro and amateur riders alike. But none of that has stopped Rob Holden from hiring a ‘Boris bike’ and cycling the 22kg, three-speed bike to the top. Rob, aided by friends Matthew Winstone, and Ian Laurie, hired the bike from a docking station in Southwark, south London, loaded it into a van and drove, via the Eurotunnel, to the Alps. The 22km climb of the ‘Giant of Provence’ was recorded for posterity – you can see the resulting ‘Boris vs Ventoux The Film’ below – and the team returned the bike to London with only moments to spare before the 24-hour rental cut-off.

 

Mont Ventoux has been a stage finish for the TdF on nine occasions – most recently this year, when Team Sky’s Chris Froome claimed victory – and the race has crossed the summit on six other editions. The climb tragically and controversially claimed the life of British cyclist Tommy Simpson during the 1967 race.

 

Rob Holden’s epic Ventoux challenge had set out to raise £2,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support but, to date, has raised almost £7,500. Please help add to the fund at justgiving.com

 

 

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First Boris Bike Death

boris_bikes2_largeA female cyclist, believed to be 17-year-old, has been hit and killed by a lorry on Barclays Cycle Superhighway 2 – which currently runs from Bow to Aldgate – tragically making her the first cyclist killed whilst riding a ‘Boris Bike’. The London Ambulance Service was called to the incident at around 6.30pm yesterday (Friday, July 6) and the woman was taken to hospital, but pronounced dead on arrival. The driver of the lorry has not been arrested and the Metropolitan Police say investigations into the exact circumstances are ongoing.

 

Leon Daniels, Managing Director of Surface Transport for Transport for London told the BBC: ‘Our thoughts go out to the friends and family of the female cyclist who tragically died following a collision with a heavy goods vehicle on Whitechapel High Street. We understand she was riding a Barclays Cycle Hire bike… Transport for London has a range of measures already underway to further reduce the number of collisions involving cyclists across London and we will be assisting the Metropolitan Police with their investigation into this tragic incident.

 

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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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Ken Bikes?

Mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone has suggested that, if elected, he would aim to bring the Barclays Cycle Hire (popularly known as ‘Boris Bikes’) in line with the Capital’s Freedom Pass which allows older and disabled London dwellers free use. The pass which currently covers the likes of tube and bus travel is effectively subsidised by each local authority, meaning they would have to stump up the estimated £250,000 a year extra to cover bikes. Although the bike scheme is sponsored by Barclays it is already technically tax-payer subsidised and runs at a considerable loss – estimated currently at around £15 million a year, but expected to rise to £20 million when the scheme is expanded through the east of the capital. Now, it could be that Livingston genuinely wants older and disabled cyclists to make use of the bikes, but as he made his announcement prior to hustings at Age UK there does seem to be a little bit of opportunism in his timing. Cyclo will keep you posted…

 

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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.”

 

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Thieves Taken to Task

With the Boris Bike scheme (more correctly known as Barclays Cycle Hire) about to celebrate its first birthday the wiff-waff meister Lord Mayor of London has a double reason to celebrate with the announcement that the anti-bike-theft squad he established in tandem – so to speak – also seems to have been an outstanding success. The Cycle Task Force, a 40-strong squad of dedicated officers, has overseen a fairly dramatic 3% reduction in the number of thefts in the capital, despite increasing numbers taking to the saddle across London. The squad, funded via the £116million Transport for London cycling budget, have declared that 75% of arrests have resulted in either a warning, fine or jail sentence. Additionally 12,000 bikes have been security marked by the squad and more than 6,000 people met and briefed at events on the dangers posed to cyclists by the Capital’s lorries.

 

Although the 3% reduction in thefts (which represents around 700 less stolen bikes) is impressive, there was still a staggering 22,536 cases in London in the 12 moths to May 31, which equates to approximately 10% of reported thefts in the UK. Westminster had the highest incident rate at 1,788, followed by Islington at 1,565 and Hackney with 1,518. The London Borough of Bexley, in the South East, is celebrating the fewest thefts across the Capital with a mere 124.However, according to a recent British Crime Survey an almost unbelievable 80% of owners fail to report their bikes stolen. Cyclo will leave you to do your own maths on the true state of larceny in Bexley…

 

Image © Transport for London 2005