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Ofo branded threat to Cambridge bike shops

Locals also concerned about influx of bikes given there is already a shortage of bike parking spaces

The arrival of Ofo in Cambridge has given rise to fears about the potential impact on local bike shops. The global bike sharing firm recently made its distinctive yellow bikes available for hire in the city and concern has been expressed about what this might mean for local firms reliant on bike rental for a proportion of their income.

20 Ofo bicycles have been deployed as part of a three-week trial and the company says more should follow. There are also plans to launch in other UK cities later in the year.

The firm has seen extraordinary growth since being launched in China in 2014, in large part because its bikes do not need require docking stations – instead, users unlock the bikes using an app.

Councillor Noel Kavanagh, Cambridgeshire County Council’s cycling champion, told Cambridge News:  “I think I can imagine a company from outside Cambridge seeing the fact we are regarded as the cycling capital of the UK and thinking this is a good opportunity. But they have not taken into account that most of the population that cycles have their own bikes.

“We also have something like 40 cycle shops in Cambridge and a number of those have cycle rental as part of their revenue stream. We need to be supportive of local cycling businesses because, only recently, two of our traditional cycling shops have closed down.”

Kavanagh also pointed to a shortage of bike parking spaces in Cambridge as being another concern.

“To think they can come to Cambridge and leave bikes as part of a so-called trial is, in many ways, disrespecting the city of Cambridge.

“Politicians warned them the population here is already well served. Ofo have not thought this through. We are not a city that has a cycle famine, but we do not have the powers to stop them. It’s free enterprise.”

MP Daniel Zeichner is another who harbours concerns and he has written to the Department for Transport urging it to give local councils the power to set up a bike-parking licensing scheme.

“The Government is leaving local councils, and local people, powerless against companies with deep pockets but little understanding of how our communities work.

“Instead of just watching, the Government should be moving swiftly to give councils the powers to protect us. Bike-sharing schemes could be a great success, but not if they get off to a chaotic start – we need action to make sure it works for everyone.”

An Ofo spokesman claimed that reaction to its bikes had been positive so far. “We’re working with the council to pull together an end of trial report which we’ll be going through together. From there, we’ll be discussing the next best steps for us to take as a team.”

The firm is also keen to talk up its environmental credentials, and the spokesman added: “Only yesterday, it was confirmed that the UK Government must present ideas on how it will tackle air pollution on the 9th of May. Ofo wants to encourage more people in the UK to cycle and will help the UK Government tackle the issue of air pollution up and down the country.”

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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6 comments

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pdw | 6 years ago
1 like

I regularly travel to Cambridge by train, and the lack of any bike hire system at the station is frustrating. I typically make several journeys around Cambridge, all a bit too long to walk. I usually end up bringing my own bike, although the other leg of my journey is on GWR who make it as difficult as possible to bring a bike on their trains. There's a bike shop at the station, but last time I looked into it they just weren't set up for very short term hire.

Whether this is the answer rather depends on whether they can maintain enough capacity at the station.

Avatar
cdamian | 6 years ago
1 like

This sounds familiar. That's why tourists can't use the bicing bike share service in Barcelona. Apparently the local bike rent shops managed to get that clause in.
I would argue that bicing kicked off the biggest change in bike use here ever and led to more cycling lanes, more people buying bikes and drivers getting used to seeing more bikes on the road.
So everyone wins, except tourists.

Avatar
kevvjj | 6 years ago
3 likes

Free enterprise has allowed the current bike shops and their situation to thrive. Now someone comes in with a better idea of serving the population that need to hire bikes (tourists, business people, general visitors) and they cry foul! I'd lke to see how many of those complaining still shop at their local grocery store instead of the big supermarket chains. It's called capitalism - instead of whinging, get off your collective arses and compete!

As for a shortage of bike parking spaces - every car parking spot is ten bike spaces...

 

Avatar
congokid | 6 years ago
3 likes

Quote:

most of the population that cycles have their own bikes

And most of the almost 600,000 visitors to Cambridge a year don't. I imagine many of them would be happy to avoid the high cost of bike hire from traditional shops, not to mention eliminate the need to work round their opening hours.

Avatar
emishi55 | 6 years ago
4 likes

MP Daniel Zeichner is another who harbours concerns and he has written to the Department for Transport urging it to give local councils the power to set up a bike-parking licensing scheme.

 

Surely as with the rest of the UK, extra space could be found easily for bike stands?

There's plenty available that currently allows parking of excessively sized, fossil-fuelled vehicles, used for moving primarily individual operators a distance of about three miles, all at colossal expense, both directly and indirectly, to the larger population.

Time to get a reality check with our priorities.  

Avatar
brooksby replied to emishi55 | 6 years ago
4 likes

emishi55 wrote:

MP Daniel Zeichner is another who harbours concerns and he has written to the Department for Transport urging it to give local councils the power to set up a bike-parking licensing scheme.

 

Surely as with the rest of the UK, extra space could be found easily for bike stands?

There's plenty available that currently allows parking of excessively sized, fossil-fuelled vehicles, used for moving primarily individual operators a distance of about three miles, all at colossal expense, both directly and indirectly, to the larger population.

Time to get a reality check with our priorities.  

It always surprises me how few bike stands most city centres have. I'm sure I read somewhere that bristol council (for example) was saying how wonderful it was that they had 300 stands in the city centre- and yet there are several *thousand* car parking spaces! And when I asked the BID group which runs the central shopping area if we could have more stands I was told that there wasn't room and that they would be unsightly and in the way. Whereas a multi storey car park the size of Mars is apparently fine...

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