Boris Bikes Face Distribution Problems

It's not surprising that Tuesday's Tube strike was also the busiest day for the Cycle Hire scheme since it launched. Unfortunately, the system stretched users' patience as much as their calf muscles, and there were reports of people struggling to find available docking stations. The problem is that scheme's operator, Serco, has woefully underestimated the logistics of redistributing the bikes around town. The dozen or so electric vehicles that pull bike-laden carts about have proved insufficient, and so they've resorted, as reported by Ross Lydall and the BBC's Tom Edwards, to white vans and even large-sized lorries to ferry the bikes around. Not exactly a vision of the green, emission-free panacea that cycling is supposed to herald.