Cycle hire: the first ten days

Generally a positive experience so far. I had a problem with the key not letting me take a bike so I tried another bike, problem solved. I've arrived at Charing Cross twice to find no dock. As yet I've been fortunate enough not to have missed my train. Although, getting a little apprehensive about this as more people join the Barclays scheme. My gripe is no cycle lane on Queen's Walk in Green Park. People coming from the West End back to Charing Cross I'm sure would rather go through Green Park than take their lives in their hands through Piccadilly! Who can I contact regarding this? I've tried the Mayor of London (who being a cyclist, I would have thought would be all for this) but got stuck in the red tape and The Royal Parks who didn't even bother to respond to my email. HELP. Finally, if you have a smart phone, only download one app. I stupidly got two which give conflicting information. Now I don't know who to believe!

IT is coming to the aid of the Boris Bike. Lots of new apps and websites to help people plan where to pick-up and drop-off the bikes. For instance, this site uses colours to indicate empty or full.
And there are other sites that work with mobiles including the iPhone. Eventually users should help to re-balance the bikes. Any thought to encouraging 're-balancing trips' - for instance, early evening pick up in mainline station with destination in City? Could you issue some kind of credit for this 'contra-flow' journey?

Fantastic take up - have ridden clear across the cycle hire zone - nice, smooth ride. But can you please build more docking stations at the mainline train stations, esp Waterloo. In the long run, this should be cheaper than using staff and vehicles to re-balance the bikes.

FOR Goodness sake - DONT JOIN - not worth the money.What a complete shambles - keys that don't work, helpdesk that say they cant help and just there to listen, no bikes where you want them, no docking stations available when u want them, a map sent out with your keys that shows docking stations - where none exist - so far I have found 5 just in my area that aren't there, the shambles has cost me in excess of £18 for tube fares because of no bikes, has made me miss trains and be late for meetings due to no docking stations.Keys that wont let you take a bike if one is there, docking stations that wont let you dock - no green light - call centres that take AGES to answer - and are absolutely helpless to help .... I really wanted this system to be succesful but the management should be fired - if I set up such a system and provided such customer service in my industry I would be. Trip to Montreal ???? Obviously didn't learn anything - it works there ..... London totally, totally let down ...... I am fed up hearing about 'teething' troubles - if as was said they only to be expected why wasnt a contingency plan put in ??? Now I remember why I don't bank with Barclays .... !!

What were the objectives of the scheme? How will success be measured? What did the business case shown as the return on investment?
It would be helpful if there could be more transparency on these key criteria so that the public who are paying £140 million for this scheme can judge for themsleves whether or not it is a success.

I could not have been more supportive of the Cycle Hire Scheme, in advance. But it has proved a nightmare to use, and after a couple of weeks, I now realise the Cycle Hire scheme is a ‘joke’ scheme not designed for real Londoners who might want to go from A to B. It’s a flashy pre-Olympics gimmick for occasional tourists (when they get the chance)who I imagine won’t mind being inconvenienced by TfL, because they can say, ‘Well, at least I hired a bike for free!’ The worst of it is, who can trust it? Taking a bike is fine, but I now have no idea whether I will be able to dock the station within any decent radius of my destination. It certainly isn't quick. I have been late for meetings because of it. TfL in their wisdom, have flooded London with more cycles, but not more docking stations. It hurts to think of the idiocy of that.

good to see the Tories following their own lead... FLYING TO MONTREAL to look at how a bike scheme works??! - why not take the Eurostar to Paris instead?! so much for the low carbon economy or austerity measures eh?! Just like Eric Pickles' new Jaguar priced at £70,000... instead of using the £20k prius he was given..."DO AS WE SAY, NOT AS WE DO!!!!!"

and oh yeah, these may be Barclays Blue, but they're Ken's and Jenny's bikes if they're anyone's, not Boris's!!!!

It looks like a great scheme but I have been put off joining so far because I would mostly want to use it for journeys to Charing Cross. Whenever I return there in the evenings the docking points have always been full and every day I have seen people arriving with bikes with nowhere to dock them. I understand that bikes are now being moved around to and from Waterloo, which is a welcome move. I suggest that something similar will need to happen at Charing Cross and probably other mainline stations too if the scheme is to realise its full potential, as it is understandable that there will be a peak in demand for bikes at mainline stations in the morning rush hour and a peak in demand for docking points in the evening.

It's daft that the scheme doesn't extend along Mile End Road to Stratford Old Town and the Olympic Site.. this really should be a priority for any future extension!

I was on the train and the topic of discussion between passengers was Boris's Bikes. The commuters said that they found them great to use and good addition to London - so well done.

May I add to Lloyd Pritchard's comments below. I use Marylebone station every morning, but this week there have been no bikes at any of the 5 racks between there and my work - Broadcasting House. And last time I did get a bike, there was no space to dock it at Broadcasting House. It's a great scheme, but before you add more bikes to it, you will have to have a greatly increased workforce moving the bikes about. And a better trained and larger staff on the phones and emails at tfl itself - I had great trouble renewing my key (beginning to wish I hadn't bothered now - I've spent £45 for nothing so far...) and I emailed 10 days ago about the bike distribution problem and haven't heard back yet. PLEASE sort this out - as it COULD be a great scheme!

David Ireland

Sirs!

I am trying to use the Boris/Barclays Cycle Hire but feeling I must soon give up; there is a MASSIVE lack of bikes everyday around Waterloo station. Most days I walk all the way to Blackfriars, having checked 5 docking stations, before finding a bike or end up getting a bus.

There really needs to be trailer loads of bikes waiting at Waterloo otherwise this isn't going to work. Returning to Waterloo in the evenings I have missed trains due to lack of docking stations. Again there need to be trailers constantly removing bikes.

All the information must be available at 'bike control' so they can see where the problems are & should act on them!

A real shame as I was hoping to use these bikes everyday. Please pass this to Barclays Bike Hire people as they have made sure not to supply an email address!

Best Regards
Lloyd Prichard