Pleasing to see those high usage numbers shared. With the exception of a few teething issues around the parking, which seem entirely fixable, I don't think anyone could paint this scheme as anything other than a success. Hopefully they continue to build on it and don't see meeting the initial target of 700 bikes as job done. Still plenty of scope to expand further out of the city centre and for anyone who has concerns about vandalism I'd point out that Glasgow has had no issues putting Voi bikes in less salubrious parts of town such as Possil. The social advantages of doing so far outweigh the perceived risks of bikes ending up in the canal/etc.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Edinburgh Cycle Hire Scheme
(2065 posts)-
Posted 5 months ago #
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There was a link to the bit in the paper on BlueSky this morning which seemed to have been released on the understanding that it's use of the last tense would not be undermined by the absence of the expanded section in the app at that time. It also seemed a bit "brave VOI nobly expand even further" rather than "still not covering anything like the whole city like they originally suggested they would by the end of the year". I look forwards to moving them out of the way of fire exits and dry riser inlets the next time I pass through the new section.
Posted 5 months ago # -
New area LIVE!
Posted 5 months ago # -
About 600 available
Tue 9.30
Posted 5 months ago # -
CEC image
Posted 5 months ago # -
Not Ed, not Voi
“
Cycling is far safer and healthier than driving but there have been lingering concerns about the choices made by an unregulated private transport company. As things stand Lime is not accountable to any external checks when it comes to the safety of its vehicles or their maintenance regime.
Lime has already defended its safety record, even as it faces an ever-growing number of lawsuits over shattered bones. The company has established itself as the dominant player in London e-bikes and has recently looked to cement this by launching a £6.99 a month subscription option that offers unlimited rides of up to 20 minutes for a flat £1.70, below the price of a London bus fare.
“
https://www.londoncentric.media/p/lime-bike-london-lime-leg-new-design
Posted 4 months ago # -
Was given a free Voi brand folding cycle helmet in the office today. Three colleagues also availed themselves of. The bounty
Posted 3 months ago # -
“
Forest, London’s homegrown e-bike operator, has partnered with Islington Council to sponsor their Adult Cycle Training programme – an initiative designed to help riders improve their cycling skills and confidence, so they feel safe on the roads. Forest has invested £12,500 to support the initiative, which is open to anyone who lives, works, or studies in Islington. Residents are entitled to two free cycle skills sessions, which can be booked on the Islington Bikeability website.
“
https://micromobilitybiz.com/forest-invests-in-islington-councils-cycle-training-scheme/
Posted 3 months ago # -
Broadly working well but there are still times where it's impossible to get a bike. I came out of Warrender today and almost all the bike parking in the south (the blue dots) were empty with huge clusters of bikes in the city center. Walked home instead...
Posted 2 months ago # -
As pointed out VERY early on
Scotland has avoided the mayhem seen in England because Councils have used Section 97 Roads Scotland Act 1984 and the facility to licence any commercial use of public roads
This means that the T&C plus KPI have been set out clearly for any contractor/concession operating public bike hire in ScotlandThis is a detail I highlighted in my 1997! (29 YEARS AGO) report on cycle parking & cycle hire for DETR
It also needs to be extended to cover deliveries by cycle AND by light vans where both are linked to modern slavery & other abuse of gig workers - a detail reported on by Ben Knowles and The Grocer magazine with illegal workers using illegal e-mopeds using black market sales of mobile devices & SIM's to get jobs delivering food &c but exploited by those selling illegal access to the work and taking a further % for this operation (I have URL for articles but need some help to manage this data if anyone available in the West)
When the fire closed Glasgow Central High Level all the VoiBike locations along Paisley Road were swamped with demand from people unable to get a train and squeezed off buses
Back in 1980's RATP ran a bike hire scheme with mobile hire hubs - single deck 2-door buses stripped out and carrying - to hire out or collect in - around 60 bikes for large events - so perhaps imagine an event at Murrayfield with buses loaded with bikes (or trailers loaded with bikes waiting ready to grab & go to clear the crowds - could do some trials at Tynecastle or Easter Road? (or a demo option handing out bikes at the start for PoP26 & collecting them back at Holyrood?)
I have pictures from Velo City in Paris and the square outside
Hotel de Ville rammed solid with hire bikes and 7 buses loading them up to take back to depot a serious 'Critical Mass' eventPosted 2 months ago # -
“trailers loaded with bikes waiting ready to grab & go to clear the crowds - could do some trials at Tynecastle or Easter Road? (or a demo option handing out bikes at the start for PoP26 & collecting them back at Holyrood?)“
Great idea
I have had no contact with Voi (some people on here have) but get the impression they are ‘busy’ managing current operations and dealing with expansion plans (in conjunction with CEC)
No idea how innovative they intend/hope to be
(But then I don’t even know where their maintenance/storage operation is based!)
Posted 2 months ago # -
Cycle boom in Edinburgh and Glasgow as electric bike hires soar past 1 million
Voi said its pink coral coloured e-bikes had been hired 590,563 times in Edinburgh since it started a new rental scheme there in SeptemberMassive success. I hope they keep expanding it.
Posted 1 month ago # -
Some disturbing feedback on the changing arrangements for Voi fleet in Glasgow, which are up in the air as changes are taking place
Nextbike used the original Cyclemotion team who were taken over by Velogik, who were contracted for Leeds (Beryl) and Edinburgh
From the original base in Glasgow West End Voi has a new base in East and seems to be increasingly using vans to drive around changing batteries, with new recruits who seem to be less literate with Glasgow street knowledge. One van driver parked on a footway & sitting with the engine running seemed to have a problem communicating in English when I spoke to him
I sense there may be a level of detachment between the management and those at the coal face with cycle faults not getting cleared promptly Large clusters of bikes are also falling over and 'spreading'
Posted 1 month ago # -
Back of Waverley a week ago
Couldn’t hang around to see what happened next
First time I have seen any ‘servicing’
Where is Ed Voi base?
Posted 1 month ago # -
Bike hire projects are an interesting element of what Tulyar calls TotalMobility here
The Voi scheme is in Edinburgh because CEC considered that a bike hire facility was a good idea (in spite of previous experiences!)
Technological developments meant that, this time, an all electric fleet was an option
In spite of a desire for Edinburgh to have publicly available bike hire, ‘AT NO COST’ was a key factor…
Though presumably CEC staff time is not paid for by Voi(?)
The CEC/Voi contract is (I think) ‘confidential’. Clearly Vol is in it to make money, but presumably CEC has some control over prices/operations?
In transport terms, whether CEC’s relationship with Voi can be thought of as similar to its relationship with Taxis and Private Hire is maybe worth considering
Clearly there are many differences but the emergence of things like Uber is altering the public/private regulated/less regulated mix
Posted 1 month ago # -
Thanks @chdot
Since 1995 I've researched, advised on & studied Public Bike Hire (going back even further to Luud Schimmelpennick's WitFiets free bikes in Amsterdam
Several metrics are apparent from good schemes
- the management & maintenance of the fleet is best done with locally recruited staff, and can provide a combined work & training package for those often described as NEET's but also as offender rehabilitation & a pathway for those living on the streets to progress to a better situation
- the delivery of a space * other resource efficient means to move people (and small parcels) around for a large institution (University, Hospital etc should be a core 'customer, Saving £millions on providing car parks, staff minibus shuttles etc
- bike branding is a useful revenue stream and delivers a media message widely around a town or city - for the same cost as a single poster (at current rates per BRAD/Willeys) you get 40 bikes across your area, underwiting the base costs
- there are 'healthy' rates of use - around 8 hires per bike per day seems to keep stands/hire hubs filled, around 20 registered users per bike usually keeps a good level of services for non-tidal flows. For tidal flows the Roue Libre solution of a stripped out single deck bus bringing in 60 bikes, or taking them away is one solution (as can be a high capacity trailer like the Burtech which can load each bike in under 5 seconds. This was a costly staffed detail at Waterloo & Kings Cross (Waterloo over 500 bikes hired each morning from 124 bike hire stands and a steady stream of staff bringing bikes from the storage compound to the hire point
- the first 15-30 minutes free is a key tool to keeping bikes circulating and hire locations with bikes available 30 minutes is perhaps the right free hire period as it is enough to many a journey and return a bike for the next user, anywhere in the system
- the hybrid "SocialLeasing"model can cross over here, especially with the Brompton or similar folding bikes
A local immediate hire option offers a fully serviced bike ready to use and return when hire complete, or a long term lease of the same machine with the facility to swap the bike when a service is required or a breakdown happens. A bike when you need one and a space when you don'tTo work well this system should be low inertia and seamless hence my preference for the passive ITSO RFID card which can be a bus pass, or any employee i/d etc where the billing is either paid by an employer/sponsor or the user
As noted in an earlier post I am seriously under resourced to deliver this effectively & the loss of the CyclingUK monthly retainer or the ability to be doing this with a team is a void that I need to get filled
PM to have a chat
Posted 1 month ago # -
You have PM
Posted 1 month ago # -
- Rentals 2.5x higher rate than previous Just Eat scheme
- Considering the following areas for expansion: Gorgie, Dalry, Cramond, Porty
A total of 619,500 rides have been taken since the Voi scheme was launched in September compared to 234,500 in the first eight months of the Just Eat Cycles scheme in 2018.
More than 58,500 people have used the Voi bikes, which are unlocked using a phone app, with trips averaging 1.5 miles (2.5km) and totalling near 1 million miles (1.56m km).
Dalton also manages to feature a PoP photo and say ‘look a Voi bike’ without also pointing out there’s an MSP on it ;)
Posted 1 month ago # -
Dalton's figures for the Just Eat scheme are wrong. A blog post by the operator states:
Last, but certainly not least, we were happy to announce that on 13 September, we reached an incredible 100,000 rides on our Just Eat cycles, in the nick of time to celebrate our first birthday on 17 September.
It seems likely that the Voi scheme is literally an order of magnitude more popular than the Just Eat scheme.Posted 1 month ago # -
From Voi workshop slides:
Just Eat Cycles operated across Edinburgh from 2018 to September 2021 and reported 234,500 hires in 2020, its peak year. Voi's first eight months are running at roughly 2.6× that full-year total.
Dalton handed cherry-picked stats from Voi, getting the number context wrong isn’t surprising as not fully briefed.
Posted 1 month ago # -
https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2026/06/bike-hire-scheme-is-most-successful-in-europe/
Not sure if this is any better than the previous article but anyway, there it is
Posted 1 month ago # -
Used a Voi bike to get to an event in town today which I didn't fancy leaving my own bike outside of. Even though it was just after 10am, I got what seemed to be the last bike in the whole of south Edinburgh. Huge swathe of parking spots with zero bikes. I think demand is now outstripping supply, or at least any reallocation of bikes to counter the tidal flows into/out of town.
Posted 1 month ago # -
Used these for the first time last week to commute to work and back.
Kept half an eye on the bike numbers at Morningside Station before leaving the house. They were gradually decreasing and on my arrival there were only three left.
The first two I scanned didn't work. Different messages for each. I got the impression that one had been booked and the other was out of action.
Fortunately the final bike (a wee one) worked and I had a pleasant cycle to Stockbridge. Mainly downhill of course but the the climb up to Church Hill was lovely.
Overall it felt a bit slow as I wasn't much up for pushing past the power assisted limit. In fact I found my speed yo-yoing between 25 and 26kph.
No other bikes at my destination, I might have been more anxious about that if I hadn't previously observed plenty of bikes parked there.
I kept half an eye on the parking spot via the app throughout the day. For much of the morning there were no bikes anywhere near. I would have been thoroughly hacked off if I'd had to *walk* up Comely Bank Avenue (a power assisted ascent was the thing I was looking forward to most).
By leaving time there were a couple of bikes in the local spot so I reserved one (a big one) from my desk and picked it up no bother.
Comely Bank Av was much more pleasant than usual (I hate cycling up there) but still needed a bit of leg work.
I have to say, despite it being warm and dry, I had a slight feeling of unease on the cobbles like I felt the bike might slip out when cornering. I don't think this was justified and may have been due to the way the front rack obscures being able to see the front wheel turning.
It was only on the cobbles I got this feeling - just me?
Later on I got stopped at the red light at the canal going up viewforth. Hill starts aren't terrible, but I could see the initial quarter pedal stroke required to engage power could be beyond some riders' ability.
Descent of Morningside Road was ruined as it always is by people insisting on driving their cars down there.
At Morningside Station I *just* remembered to stop and not go all the way to my front door (some of you must have done this?)
Other observations:
- I've had the app on my phone for ages and was aware it was promising my first ride for free, but this didn't appear to happen. It was approx £2.50 for each trip.
- I didn't know in advance what the difference between the big and small bikes was (apart from the bleeding obvious), but it seems that the small bikes are single speed and the large have two (more?) auto gears. This information doesn't seem to be available on the website/app, at least not obviously. Single speed kind of felt fine I think.
- I missed the mirror I have on my bike, even though it's not great.
- Super creaky pedals. Fall damage?
- This was a fun way to get to work and back, but I can't see myself repeating it when I have my own bike (although I do hanker after some e-assist for that darn hill). Clearly, using these to replace bus journeys makes much more sense.
Posted 2 weeks ago # -
@cb I've yet to try out the bikes but note that one has rear wheel drive the other has front wheel drive, and I want to check on the torque delivered, especially when I demand power assist to kick in
I've noted in debate on EAPC that there is perhaps an ideal torque setting (regardless of the power limit at 250W) This especially affects the front wheel drive bikes of 'difficult surfaces like cobbles, where this can increase the hazerd of front tyre breaking away which can cause a novice to crash down
Must do some serious hard riding to check out the handling of these machines
Posted 2 weeks ago #
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