The Brompton Dock scheme Is a bit different to the bike sharing concepts of the Bixi (London) Hourbike (Dumfries & Blackpool) and Scratchbikes (Newcastle). Unlike the schemes that put up the price to encourgae bike return the Brompton Dock scheme encourages the user to keep the bike out on hire for as long as possible. As a result the manually operated trial scheme which began operating in London in May 2009 (pre Barclays bike) has quietly had 50 and then 100 bikes almost continuously out on hire, and showing up as 0.3% of the 19,000 onward trips by bike in the TfL survey of London Stations morening peak onward travel by mode.
The deal is simple and replicates what you expect from a bus, train or hired car, a bike which is fully serviced for you, and if it breaks down you simply swap it for a working one. There are at present 2 tariffs (just like a mobile phone) a cheap £10 casual user one (with higher hire rates) and £50 for frequent user, which gives a daily hire rate for a month long user of around £1.60/day.
Partners organisations fund a Brompton Dock on their site and Brompton Dock provide the full package of management and revenue collection, with a revenue sharing deal. Because of the varaibles - user profile hire patterns, and whether the branding and colours of the bike are 'sold' as a promotional opportunity. Further given that a London HQ of a major international group has noted for every employee who does not require a parking space on site they save £9000/yr, several companies have worked out that it is cheaper by a factor of between 3 and 15 depending on the annual cost of leasing/rates for a car park space to provide a fully serviced bike than a parking space.
The University of Greenwich is already looking to offer free bike hire to deliver a higher level of service at a lower cost (than hired minibuses) for inter site journeys made by staff & students.
In Newcastle perhaps the most interesting development has occurred which Edinburgh is well placed to deliver with. Go Northeast like all Go Ahead companies has a KeyCard which carries stored value and gives massive discounts on cash fares when used on their buses. The key card holders have an option of free membership of Scratchbikes, and Commonwheels (the car sharing club) if they want to register for either, and pay for the use they make of these schemes. If you have a car to get rid of then giving it to Go Northeast will see them crediting the Key Card with a cash value equal to twice the sum they get for the old car - in most cases at least a year's worth of bus travel.
Edinburgh is well placed to deliver something similar with Lothian Buses established RidaCard, which could offer free membership of the City Car Club and an Edinburgh bike scheme, and a car scrappage deal. This concept has been operating with the Belgian bus & tram operator TEC since 2009 where scrapping your car with them gained you up to 3 years free bus travel, a car club membership and hire of a folding bike for €13/month (a subsidised rate), with the bikes in bus company branding (so the bus drivers smile and wave at cyclists on TEC bikes).
Thing I'll post this last para as a separate thread and offer Anth a piece for City Cycling.
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