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Around one in twelve London residents have tried out a Boris bike, survey findsLondon Cycle Hire Scheme Bikes On Docking Station (copyright Simon MacMichael).jpg

Around one in twelve London residents have tried out a Boris bike, survey finds

Hire bikes most popular among the young, male users outnumber females by three to one
by Simon_MacMichael
Thu, Nov 24, 2011 10:10
5

Around one in twelve London residents have tried out the city’s Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme since it was launched at the end of July 2010, a  survey has revealed.

The London Omnibus survey, conducted by YouGov, only questions people who live within the capital's broughs, and therefore excludes tourists and other visitors as well as those who commute in from farther afield for work, reports Metro.

In all, 8 per cent of Londoners said they had used the scheme since it was launched 16 months ago. That may not sound a lot, but it’s still around half a million adults.

Moreover once you start thinking behind the figures, it’s clear that a significant proportion of those who are able to use the scheme have done so.

For a start, you can exclude those who are too elderly or infirm to use the bikes. Then, there’s the fact that the scheme covers a relatively small and central zone that many – perhaps most – residents of outlying boroughs seldom, if ever, visit.

Meanwhile, many residents who do commute into the city for work don’t have a long enough journey once they arrive in the city centre to justify using a bike.

Suddenly, that 8 per cent of all London residents isn’t looking too small - if it were shown as a proportion of those who were in a position to actually use the scheme, there's little doubt it would be much, much higher.

According to YouGov, men, at 12 per cent, are three times more likely than women, at 4 per cent, to have used the scheme’s distinctive blue bikes.

The scheme has proved particularly popular with the capital’s younger residents; more than a fifth of 18 to 24-year-olds and 11 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds have used it.

What the survey doesn't show, however, is the frequency of use, so there is no way of telling how many people, for example, have tried out a bike once and not returned.

Metro adds that more than 7 million journeys have now been made using the scheme, more than a third of those by casual users. The scheme also currently has around 140,000 registered members.

 

Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme
Boris Bikes
Survey
Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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5 comments

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OldRidgeback | 12 years ago
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A lot of the people who use them are tourists or cycling newbies judging by the way they ride. I've never used one but with five bicycles to my name as of Saturday, I probably never will.

I think the scheme's a good idea though, long may it last.

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Simon_MacMichael | 12 years ago
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I don't get to London much these days, but when I do I love using them.

Had a family Sunday lunch in a restaurant near Regent's Park earlier this month - panicked siblings on the phone saying 'We're running late, can't find a parking space' as I was smugly slotting the bike into a docking station just around the corner from the venue 4

There seemed to be a lot of people out and about on them that particular day - helped no doubt by unseasonably sunny weather 16

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Coleman | 12 years ago
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Yep - commuters from the home counties. A middle-aged colleague predicted the early demise of the scheme and questioned who would use the bikes. He gets the train from Cambs. Looking at the use of the bikes in the rush hour it seems like it's people just like him who use them. I would point out the irony to him but that might mean having a conversation with him.

I've had one go - on one of the Blackfriars Bridge ride. Quite satisfying to use a 'Boris bike' in a demonstration against his uselessness and TfL's failures but it was good to go back to the Bianchi after that.

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Coleman | 12 years ago
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I think commuters would skew those figures. There's an impressive number of chaps who look like they should be wearing bowler hats zipping about in the mornings and evenings.

The bikes come in at 25kgs, don't they? There must be some strong legs and healthy hearts in the City.

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Simon_MacMichael replied to Coleman | 12 years ago
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Coleman wrote:

I think commuters would skew those figures. There's an impressive number of chaps who look like they should be wearing bowler hats zipping about in the mornings and evenings.

I'm not so sure. The number of people able to use the bikes for an end-to-end commute (ie living within or just outside the BCS area) will be a small proportion of the London population.

And a lot of the well-heeled city types that you do see on their way from Paddington, Waterloo, Victoria or wherever will have commuted in from outside the Greater London area.

Moreover, once you start moving in towards the city of centre from the edge of Greater London, a lot of commuters will be doing their trip to work on their own bikes anyway.

I'd love to really get under the skin of the figures and find out who exactly is using them when and why, but I'm not sure we'll ever really know.

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