CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
passed 3 with young lads riding the flashing red/blues at Blackhall yesterday. On hold to 101 for 30 mins before I gave up.
As Snowy says, just burning through this money (Some of it our money!) currently.
Feels like Edinburgh tries to invent every single piece of cycle infrastructure and support from scratch every time instead of leaning from others.
Who knew copying th3 Norwegian system would End up being so flimsy?
Also why does transport for edinburgh have to replace 80 per cent whereas operators Serco only 20 per cent
Almost as if Serco knew?
Just in from their twitter: apparently the South Queensferry extension was a 12 month pilot and is about to come to an end. They do make some vague positive statements about the future, though.
https://twitter.com/cyclehire_edi/status/1384831801512890369
Paying the price for installing cheap docking stations.
Well bad cheap/badly designed locks on the bikes, that they tried to workaround with cheap docking stations.....
“
Thanks to everyone who made the bike lane possible, and getting handcycles into the rental fleet!
“
https://mobile.twitter.com/cap_transport/status/1407767222148374530
"It looks like the Edinburgh Bike Hire Scheme will come to an end on the 17th of September 2021, but the Council will consider options to replace it"
https://twitter.com/CllrScottArthur/status/1427950225172348934
I feel sorry for the staff. Any councillor who wants to know what went wrong with the scheme could do worse than work their way through this thread - we pretty much covered it all in real time.
Everyone should wear a helmet though!
(c) Herr DOCktOR PRoff ScotIE
This is really bad news. A huge number of my friends have taken up cycling on Just Eat bikes, particularly with the student passes they do.
It will be an enormous loss for the city if the scheme does disappear - there's nothing nearly as easy or cheap to give people a taste of cycling.
Is there any reason why the Council is considering options for the replacement of the scheme after the current scheme has ended? This has a strong George Street segregated cycle lanes feel about it.
I don't really understand why the negative factors weren't taken into account. The bikes thmeselves should have been robust enough and docking stations more so. Company operated in other places. I don't think Edinburgh has any more anti-social problems than cities elsewhere - is this not a stereotype excuse to cover up lack of forecasting .(?!)
I do support Just Eat concept so no blame on staff here. They got the bikes as issued. Rental bikes are just stuff and there's lots of versions of them - just like anything in public realm. Seat post slipped down at start and then they discovered a whack with traffic cone could unlock. All this was predictable with research and modelling or am I being too harsh?
The docking stations did seem to receive an inordinate amount of abuse - there are very few that have more than one or two upright docks left. I assume they failed to budget for the maintenance of that infrastructure. Then, applying broken window theory, it sends out the message to potential users that the whole system may not be reliable and to vandals that here's something to smash up just for a laugh, making things even worse.
Have they published any stats for the number of bikes missing/stolen/illegally borrowed and dumped in random places?
There is a forum for Thieves and vandals around these bikes. it is funded by Edinburgh Evening News The Forum is callled Bolt Ya Radge
This is a great pity. I haven't used the scheme myself, but easily half the folk I see riding bikes around Edinburgh are on the hire bikes. They do seem genuinely popular. However the sight of smashed up docking stations and bikes toppled over on footways has been a feature of the scheme since the start. A good idea, just poorly implemented.
The equivalent scheme in Glasgow provided Sheffield stands for the bikes. Not sure how popular it is, but have seen folk riding the bikes when I visited the Dear Green Place on hot sunny days.
Is there any reason why the Council is considering options for the replacement of the scheme after the current scheme has ended?
Looks like Serco are defaulting on the contract. Presume they have significantly underestimated the running costs as I'd expect they'll have to cough up for exiting early.
Adam McVey's tweeted that the council will get a new scheme in place ASAP, but [my comment not the Councillor's] I'd imagine bids for the successor scheme will be more expensive reflecting the issues Serco have had. That said, they may also be more realistic and more resilient, which would be a good thing.
Anyone know what happens to the bikes from this scheme?
Transport for Edinburgh received over £400k from Scot gov to implement ebikes so I would expect these atleast to be recycled and available in another form ASAP
here's something to smash up just for a laugh
Midlothian introduced hire e-bikes recently, and very quickly had to impose a £100 deposit on each booking because of vandalism. Who could have predicted that? Oh, just about everyone.
Stirling's NextBike scheme seems to have more robust docks and bikes. Anecdotally, nothing like the level of vandalism seen in Edinburgh.
Never ridden one so don't know what the user experience is like.
Serco's side of the story:
It was originally announced as a 3-year concession which did indeed launch (delayed) on 18th Sept 2018 so they don't appear to be telling untruths...
I've used Nextbikes in Glasgow and Swansea. The relatively low tech lock, effectively a big cable lock, make the bikes far harder to steal. You would probably need bolt cutters or an angle grinder - which puts you into the category of bike thief, who probably wouldn't be interested in a hire bike.
The Pashley bikes used in Edinburgh are nicer to ride though, more responsive steering and a bit nippier. Given the Pashley bike is also used in London, it clearly isn't the bike that is the problem. It was the feeble aluminium docks, pathetic locks and lacklustre management (take a bow, Serco). The Edinburgh scheme was meant to cost the Council nothing and it appears they are getting exactly what they paid for.
Both council and spivvy contractor proclaimeth: "it wisnae me, a big boy did it and ran away"
I despair.
As a regular user of the city bikes (when I can actually find one available near to where I need one, which is considerably decreasingly often these days), I am very saddened by this, but I hope that a new scheme and operator will be put in place, with much improved locks and docks.
Regarding the e-bikes, I think I've rarely seen any since quite soon after they were introduced, and certainly not for many months. While far too many of the poor wee bikes found themselves in various of the city's waterways for teh lolz, I have a horrible feeling that many of the e-bikes probably found themselves in some more disreputable folk's garden sheds, or in the back of a van to be sold off "second hand" somewhere suitably far away?
I've been involved with the delivery of public bike hire schemes since 1996, and hope that some of the details I've learned over the years might be useful
I've also noted this to the 4 other key players in the UK, Beryl (UK), Nextbike (DE), Bewegen (CDN) (noting @arellcat's useful feedback) and Ride-On (ES)- more on operating models later.
The software platform used by Serco is (as with a lot of their delivery) bought in, and common to at least one other bike hire operation
The clunkiness and high inertia to sign up put me off any attempt to use the Serco scheme. Nextbike is a very low inertia system to use, but I am disappointed that they have now disabled the RFID (ITSO) card access, as this unlocks a large opportunity to generate hires through wildcarding - so that a Saltire Card can be enabled both as a bus pass, car club access, and for bike hire. University staff i/d and matriculation cards can be enabled as well
Beryl has a major base on the Dorset Coast, and has recently secured delivery of schemes for NetworkWM (WMPTE)and TfGM (GMPTE)as well as smaller town schemes - They, like Nextbike, are tending to have a lower limit on the size of scheme they'll consider (Decaux would not touch any less than 200 bikes when they 'gave away' bike hire in return for a total monopoly for on street advertising)
Bewegen supplies Forth Valley, Inverness, Fort William, and an East/Mid Lothian guddle of sites. Their model seems to fit smaller schemes
Ride-On has significant schemes in Dundee and Leicester
There are probably 3 models to deliver the local 'management' of a scheme
- in house - directly employed by the supplier (as Serco does in London, and did in Edinburgh)
- a commercial contractor
- a partnership with a local community cycling project (Stirling & Glasgow) where the contract provides a revenue stream & the community links can promote the scheme
Funding of core costs - from the start for Copenhagen (1995) and Nextbike (2004) comes from selling the branding on the bikes. In basic terms you can buy branding on 40 bikes for the same price as 1 6-sheet poster on a bus stop. This can be a total fleet deal, or campaigns running for a defined period
Glasgow has also pioneered the use of their fleet to deal with transport poverty, with heavily discounted (95%) or free access to the bikes to enable people to access services and employment. Hire levels are good, especially for the EAPC hiring at roughly 2 x the rate of regular bikes and perhaps just touching the levels at which the level of service starts to suffer (empty racks)
Finally I'm looking at how the locking system for hire bikes might also provide a private bike lock (for hire) in a public bike park but that's a wee project in progress
PS for @Morningsider - one of the great things about Nextbike is that one you have the App, you can hire a bike on 25 countries - over 200 cities, and we need to get the schemes in Scotland 'aligned' so that you can 'roam' and pick up a bike in Inverness, with your Glasgow or Edinburgh app...
I've now got time, now that I'm back from my holidays, to write to my Councillors to urge them to try to get a replacement cycle hire operator/scheme in place (on the basis that writing will hopefully help, and can't hurt). Does anyone know if there have been any further developments, or are all parties still mulling over options (I hope they are mulling over options, and aren't just going to let it end…)
Took my last pootle on a hire bike at lunch time (my 174th trip apparently). Sad to see it go. Yet another bit of the city's cycling infrastructure vanishes after a relatively short space of time, with no replacement due any time soon.
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