The Brompton Dock automated cycle hire unit (40 hire points fit onto a single car parking space and can normally operate without any wired connection) has been approved for operation at Guildford Station. The scheme is an expansion of the Stagecoach South West Trains 50-bike operation that has been running from the Lost Property counter at Waterloo since May 2009, and the Virgin Trains scheme due for a public launch on Friday 24th June at Stoke on Trent.
Unlike the bike share schemes (ie Boris bikes) user are encouraged to hire bikes for longer periods and a single storage bin/locker can support 2-4 bikes out on hire (a shared bike system needs at least 50% more docking points than bikes in circulation, more when flows are tidal as in London, or a very costly cycle moving operation)
Small fleets of branded Bromptons also operate with manual issue (eg Daily Telegraph staff bikes) using the same model with the option to scale up to 24/7 automated unit as the units move to a production line version. Hire/leasing bikes may provide a way to deliver without the payroll and other tie-ins of other workplace cycling options, and branding of bikes has for 15 years funded the maintenance of the Copenhagen City Bike scheme.
My experience of cycle hire schemes to date is that they work best so far as another form of public transport which has a significant buy in from a public transport operator. Abellio (NL), Die Bahn (De), Veolia (Fr) Keolis (Fr), SRWT (Be) are all major bus and rail operators in Europe, who have been running modern cycle sharing/hire schemes since 2001, some with 100% interest in the operation. many incidentally also have a shae in their local car (sharing) clubs.
There is a clear benefit to the PT operator, already measured from car club members but not from cyclists (A spokes/Edinburgh survey?). Car club members make more than 6 times as many rail trips, twice as many bus trips, and twice as many cycle trips as the National Travel Survey averages. The key players should thus be selling car clubs to bus pass users and bus passes to car club members, and doing likewise with rail season ticket users. A cycle hire scheme may well have a similar market profile - so do Edinburgh's cyclists use buses, car club, and rail services more than the National average, how many hold driving licences but don't own a car?
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