Is looking like it is taking off just fine with getting a company to run it, who is already doing the same in Montreal and by the looks of it also Boston.
The London Cycle Hire Scheme will be a 44sq mile area covered with 400 “docking stations” to rent any of the 6000 bicycles there will be ready for you to ride. Price is still not set or told to us punters, there is talk about being able to use your oyster card, though I have read that is not the case. But for me that would be the most logical way to do it.
I just wonder how well it will take off, because the scheme that is all ready here (www.oybike.co.uk), can’t be doing that well. Since I have never seen anyone on any of the bicycles and the few “stations” I know off are never empty. The only use I have seen for these bicycles is their baskets as bins.
I don’t know if it is because the way you are renting them is too complicated, they are too expensive or there are too few stations around to rent or park a bicycle.

I really wonder if the Mayor of London is going to say the same as the then Mayor of New York, Giuliani said about the cycle rental scheme that was there at the time. As far as I can remember the speech went something like this…

“The cycle scheme is a great success we have people riding these bicycle all over New York from Harlem, Soho, Manhattan, the village and down town Tokyo.”
I hope that the bicycles will be better than the ones I tried out in Copenhagen. Where you had to pedal to go down hill and the bicycle was heavier than a heavy thing. I never tried out the bicycles in Barcelona which at the time looked like it worked, though it is now 2 years later and I have heard nothing. The very publicised Velib in Paris took Paris by storm and everyone loves it. Though I do read about lots of thefts, vandalism and the general “I can ride a bike but don’t need to think about my own and others safety”.
So all the best for this and I do hope it is not just an extra thing to make London look good for the 2012 Olympics and then forgotten.

LINK : bixi.com
LINK : tfl.gov.uk