http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-11795702
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
Scotland's first bike hire scheme uptake revealed
(7 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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If I remember rightly, the scheme has 15 bikes. This means each bike has been used just once a week on average in the first ten weeks of the scheme.
Even taking the size of Dumfries into account, 47 users does seem pretty low.
Unless a small town has hideous traffic congestion problems, facilities located an obvious cycling distance apart and a ready users base then you have to question whether a cycle hire scheme is a good investment. Perhaps the money would have been better spent on creating good qulaity cycle facilities in the town instead.
I imagine if you want to go somewhere by bike in Dumfries (or any small town) you would probably use your own bike, rather than get to the town centre and think "if only I had my bike with me".
Could be wrong about all this of course. Anyone with firsthand experience of the hire scheme? I'd be interested to know what you think.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Well... it's a start. Anyway cycling is all about quality not quantity;-)
Dumfries (like many towns) has a lot of things within walking distance. Bike journeys only make sense for many people when over 1.5 miles on the level.
Dumfries has been Tesco-ised too - but would people cycle there as these tend to be car dominated?Posted 13 years ago # -
I think one of the reason was to get people to cycle from the town to Crichton Campus and/or hospital.
But for most people the bus service is adequate.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Humm let just take a look at those figures:
Dumfries pop 31,000 Scheme members 47
London pop 7,800,0000 Scheme members 90,000Lets take the number of members as a percentage of population:
Dumfries 0.15%
London 0.12%So Dumfries has had a greater up take per head of population than London. Just take another look at the London figures, the population level given is for Inner London, but the scheme members come from a far wider area (I know of one member of the London scheme who lives in Dumfries), I doubt you could say the same to Dumfries. So if London is judged a success, then so is Dumfries in a way... ;-)
Posted 13 years ago # -
"Dumfries pop 31,000 Scheme members 47
London pop 7,800,0000 Scheme members 90,000Lets take the number of members as a percentage of population:
Dumfries 0.15%
London 0.12%"Er, hate to say it, but you've slightly overstated the population of London there.
I make the London figure 1.16%
Posted 13 years ago # -
Well as a Mon-Fri resident of Edinburgh and a weekend resident of Dumfries and Galloway I've seen the scheme.
I was driving in Dumfries yesterday for a first time in a long time and it alway surprises me how slow the traffic moves through the town centre - it is much faster to navigate the town centre and surrounding areas by bike. Cycling provision alright, loads of ASLs and a few shared/dedicated use paths. I've cycled in the town a few times and driver are not much of an issue - but clearly not used to dealing with cyclists regularly like in the City.
I've not tried the scheme myself - it just doesn't make sense for me to cycle into town to rent a bike but the number and location of the bike stations doesn't look too good. I think part of the success of the London system is the number of docking stations and the relatively short distance between them. The Dumfries system has a total of eight docking stations covering five distinct areas. Provision in the town center is good, as is the Hospital/University campus. But there is no provision on the corridor between the two areas.
Provision in hosing areas and schemes is limited at best. Residents of Lochside - SIMD score of 189 - has no access to the scheme. Given the volume of pedestrian and public transport journeys between this area and the town centre and the existing high quality infrastructure provision it is difficult to understand why this area lacks provision.
Still some bikes are better than no bikes :-)
Posted 13 years ago #
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