Bike sharing is caring (first published 17.5.17)

A new app-based bike sharing scheme is starting in Bristol – the first of its kind in the UK. The scheme offers an hour’s ride for just £1. The bikes’ built-in digital technology links to a mobile app which gives cyclists the ability to instantly unlock any of the bikes, wherever they find them.

Schemes like this are already popular in Asia and offer a more modern and convenient updating of the bike hire schemes which hit the headlines seven years ago with the arrival of Boris Bikes in London.

Hiring and sharing of stuff has proved an incredibly popular growth area in recent years. Initiatives such as Airbnb homestays and Uber have spearheaded what has become known as the ‘sharing economy’, and while it is still early days, it points to a future where we will all be far more familiar with the idea of sharing and hiring stuff and services from each other.

From a cycling perspective, the idea of sharing or short term hire offers another way to encourage people out of cars. This can only be a good thing for all of us. New car sales have been at record levels recently and our congested roads are a clear illustration of this. While councils and communities struggle over new park-and-ride schemes to help alleviate congestion, cycling needs to be part of the wider push in tackling the problem.

Make no mistake, I love my car as much as the next person, but I certainly don’t love being stuck in a traffic jam, as I increasingly find myself wherever I go. There’s a popular saying, ‘You’re not stuck in traffic, you ARE traffic’, so if we don’t like it, we all have a role to play in solving the problem.

There is also the issue of the dramatic increase in penalties for speeding. On a recent drive to a business meeting I noticed more traffic police than usual prowling the motorways and A roads. This could be indicative of a clamp down. If a clamp down on speeding is happening and lots of drivers are hit with astonishingly high penalty fines, it will be interesting to see the effect this has on driving habits and congestion, especially in the town or city environment. Drivers are already noticeably slower, especially on motorways, so extra time for journeys needs to be factored in.

And while the commute by car will probably take longer, there will still be the issue of parking. This applies as much to cyclists as it does cars. While it costs nothing to chain a bike up, there is the issues of where, and the safety of your expensive bike. A bike hire or share scheme does away with such concerns.