Transport for London has announced the date for expansion of its cycle-hire scheme: 8 March. The familiar bicycles, commonly dubbed Boris Bikes, will extend their reach to the north, east and west. Sorry, south Londoners...not this time.
The 'Phase 2' surge will see the number of azure velocipedes increase from 6,000 to 8,300, with 4,800 new docking points. Blessed locations include most of Tower Hamlets, the northern parts of Shoreditch, Camden Town, Canary Wharf and Westfield White City. An official map of the new coverage can be found here.
TfL's press release practically swaggers with impressive-sounding stats about the scheme, which launched 18 months ago. The bikes have made almost 10 million trips in that period (making them almost as popular as Londonist, if we can somehow compare journeys with pageviews for the sake of an idle boast). 150,000 people have registered for the scheme, making 7.7 million hires. Casual users are very much in the minority, with 2.1 million hires.
So, where should TfL expand for a future Phase 3?
