£1 A Day For Short Hop Cycle Hire

Lindsey
By Lindsey Last edited 171 months ago
£1 A Day For Short Hop Cycle Hire

darkobikes.jpg
By Funny Cyclist via the Londonist Flickrpool
We've had a good look at the lop eared, blue bikes and got excited that the foundations for the first docking stations are being laid. Now usage costs have been approved by TFL for the much anticipated Cycle Hire scheme opening in summer 2010. And lo, the first 30 minutes on a Borocycle will be free.

Indeed, for multiple short hops across the city in one day it's looking like pretty good value. A quid upfront gets you access to the Blikes and if you return yours to a docking station within 30 minutes, there's no extra charge. Even better value if you pay the £5 weekly or £45 monthly charge.

TFL's journey planner reckons you can get from London Bridge to Hyde Park in 27 minutes and Tower Hill to Bond Street in 23 minutes. As long as you can pinpoint one of the 400 docking stations, which should be found every 300m or so, as Boris says, "it's amazing how far your bike can take you in 30 minutes if you put in a bit of pedal power."

Should you get waylaid with your Darko, however, you'll be charged £35 for up to 6 hours with the maximum daily charge £50. Payments will be made by credit or debit cards to ensure late return and lost or damaged fees can be easily extracted and 'non-members' (daily and weekly users) will have to have a £150 pre-authorisation check on their card by way of deposit.

Still, with some citysense and a route in mind, we reckon the Bulkobikes could prove both nifty and thrifty. What journeys could you nail in that golden 29 minutes?

Last Updated 11 December 2009