Cycle hire scheme to expand to East London

London’s cycle hire scheme is to be expanded “across a large area” of East London allowing residents and commuters in Tower Hamlets and Hackney to use the scheme.

Transport for London say the scheme, which is currently limited to central London, will be extended “as the edge of the Olympic Park” by 2012 with new docking stations being planned for Bethnal Green, Bow, Canary Wharf, Mile End and Poplar.

The scheme, launched this summer by Mayor of London Boris Johnson, recently reached 1.5 million journeys although TfL has had to delay plans to open it to casual users.

Speaking today Mayor Johnson said: “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 12 pence a day users will soon be able to use our bikes to cross a huge swathe of our city, and it will mean that by 2012 we’ll be able to invite the entire world to join London’s cycling revolution.”

Green party Assembly Member Jenny Jones said the planned expansion was “great news for East London, but a real disappointment for all the other people living and working in Inner London who won’t have the scheme coming to their area.”

Jones claimed the plans to extend the scheme “lack ambition”, adding: “If the Mayor is serious about his target of having a million extra journeys made by bike every day, then a bike hire scheme which only generates an extra 40,000 journeys a day is well short of what London needs.”