Transport for London is inviting bids to run a new bike hire scheme after a study released today showed the scheme is viable and could create more than 40,000 extra daily cycle trips in central London.
Introduction of a cycle hire scheme was first sugested by former Mayor Ken Livingstone after he witnessed the success of Paris’s Velib scheme and was a key manifesto commitment of most candidates in May’s elections.
London’s scheme is expected to offer and 6,000 hire bikes from launch to be available from hire points located in London’s Royal Parks and the TfL zone one areas of Camden, Hackney, Lambeth, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Westminster and the City of London.
Speaking this morning Mayor Johnson said he hoped to “inspire Londoners as a whole, and not just the adventurous few, to get on their bikes and give cycling a go” and wanted to create a city “where to use two wheels is common not curious.”
TfL have set a ‘go live’ date of May 2010, Kulveer Ranger, the Mayor’s Director of Transport Policy, said the administration was working “to hit the target of a 400 per cent increase in cycle journeys in London by 2025.”
Companies wishing to tender can find more details at tfl.bravosolution.com
