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Thanks for the figures Ian, Paris is actually put rather in the shade by Barcelona where an initial 1500 bikes was rapidly increased to 3000, and then to 6000 and very quickly hit over 20 subscribers per bike, it was launched 4 months before Ve' Lib by Clear Channel, who through their Adshel history were possibly the first European operator on any large scale  (Rennes 1997)  followed by Decaux who trialled a variety of systems including a version of the Copenhagen (1995) bikes in Vienna.

The Bixi system adapted for London was not even in operation when the commitment was made to use it, and the first installation went live in Montreal last summer.  So there may well be some elements of the bath-tub curve (where you get 'infant mortality' in a product or system before it settles down failure-wise)

The Decaux and Clear Channel systems along with Call-a-Bike (started 2001) and OYBike (2004) are have mature systems and hardware - still not always perfect but with a better knowledge of the issues, and rolling out a steady stream of projects.  Decaux would not offer their system outside the advertising-funded model, so were ineligible for the London Bikes bid, Call-a-Bike likewise had to completely rework their operating model, Many other systems did not prequalify, or dropped out because of the onerous conditions and timescale for delivery.

Now that it is here lets see what it can deliver. 

NB There is already a subvertising campaign where the message on the bike has been subtly changed  by way of a protest about Barclay's links with politically sensitive activities.  I wonder if other city bike schemes are getting used in this way?

Dave H

Ian Perry wrote:
[log in to unmask]" type="cite">Hi ,
Following on from Dave Holladay's post on another thread:

The figures I've seen reported for London suggest that each Barclays Bike was hired just once a day over the first three days.

Each Velib in Paris is used 4 to 8 times a day.  London's once a day is not a disaster, but not what should be hoped for.

London has 12,000 subscribers, but after just one year Paris had 198,913 annual subscribers (approx 12.5 annual subscribers per bike at that time), plus 277,193 seven days subscribers plus another 3,683,714 one day subscribers.  26 million trips were made and they averaged 18 minutes each.

London will eventually have 6,000 bikes...  and eventually 400 stations, with more expected to follow in stages.  Paris launched with 10,000 bikes (with all wheels turning freely and locks) and 800 docking stations (that allowed daily subscriptions, bikes to release and confirmed bike returns). 

Paris had also included a cycling infrastructure as part of the Velib scheme, whereas London has those much ridiculed blue super highways that do not appear to be relevant to the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme.


It is just my personal view, but I think that London is not offering a complete package...  and needs to get its bike-sharing scheme working properly, fast!

Ian.