Planning and Current Situation of Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme in London

Abstract

A bike-sharing system called Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme has started its operation in central London since July 2010. This article outlines collected information on the large-scale bike-sharing system in the metropolitan city following Velib' in Paris, including background, roles of relevant bodies (i.e. Transport for London, Serco plc. and Barclays plc.), demand estimation method, standards for site selection of docking stations, and current usage situations and problems. As for the situations of usage and operation, it shows: [1] the average number of usage is around 15,000-20,000 hires per day and far below the predicted and targeted level, [2] the considerable portion of hires are for commuting purpose during peak hours, which leads to the shortage of available bikes and docking points in some areas, [3] they have been coping with it by the improvement of bike redistribution practices and through the gradual installation of docking stations, and so on.