By: www.wearittowork.co.uk; the online shop for stylish business clothing


Walking through London, its hard to miss the Barclays Bicycle racks throughout the city. Earlier this month, the initiative, aptly (but not so sexy) named, 'Barclays Cycle Hire', celebrated its 1 millionth trip, and currently enjoys 90.000+ members of the scheme. We love the fact that its environmentally friendly, and great to get out in the fresh air, no parking fees, or cramming in on the tube.

Later this year the scheme is due to open for casual use, in the meantime one must register as a member, using a Debit or Credit Card and a UK billing address. A membership key costs £3. Members must pay an access fee to use the scheme which is £1 for 24 hours, £5 for seven days or £45 for a year. Great news for short trips, as the first 30 minutes of any journey are free from usage charges.
People who sign up for 24-hour, seven-day or annual membership can choose to auto-renew, which means they can start a new hire period whenever they want, by simply inserting their cycle hire key into a docking point and taking a bike.

Of the 92,000 people who have signed up for membership to date, 42 per cent have opted for daily access, four per cent for weekly access and 54 per cent for annual membership, which means they can use the scheme for as little as 12 pence per day.

David Brown, Managing Director of Surface Transport at TfL, said: 'The popularity of our new cycle hire scheme has been phenomenal.

'With one million cycle journeys on the clock and already more than 90,000 members, it is clear that Londoners have embraced the newest addition to the Capital's transport system and are enjoying the freedom and flexibility it gives.

'The vast majority of journeys being made are under the 30 minute mark which means that people are paying no more than a daily, weekly or annual access fee to use the scheme.

'This illustrates that as well as offering those who live or work in London an alternative way to make short trips around the city, they're also getting great value for money too.'

Members of the scheme must be at least 18 years old, and you need to be at least 14 years old to use the scheme

Barclays Cycle Hire operates across central London. Docking stations and hire bicycles are available in Camden, City of London, Hackney, Islington, Lambeth, Kensington & Chelsea, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Westminster and several of the Royal Parks

How does it work in practice?

For members:

• Approach a docking point which has no lights illuminated
• Insert your membership key into the docking point key slot
• Amber light will illuminate while your account is being verified
• Green light: undock your cycle and set off
• Redock the cycle at any docking station at the end of your journey and ensure that the docking point lights turn green

For occasional/ casual users:
Later this year you will be able to buy access to the bikes as an occasional/ casual user. You can make this payment at any of the docking stations or online at tfl.gov.uk/barclayscyclehire. A day's access will cost £1 and a week's will be £5. Once you've paid the journey costs are the same as above, so once again, if you cycle for no longer than 30 minutes on each trip use of the bikes are free. When you pay for access you will be given an access code which will unlock the bikes.

• Purchase your access fee online or at the docking station terminal
• Go to the docking station of your choice and follow the instructions on the terminal screen
• You will be issued with a 5 digit cycle release code
• Enter this code on to the pad on a docking point where no light is illuninated to release the cycle
• Amber light will illuminate when the code is being verified
• Green light: undock your cycle and set off
• Redock the cycle at the end of your journey and ensure that the light turns green

Concerns?
If your nearest docking station is full then the terminal will direct you to the nearest one (they are every 300m so this should never be too much trouble). If this means you will go over your 30 minutes you will automatically gain an extra 15 minutes to get your bike to another docking station. Given that there are 10200 docking places for 6000 bikes this scenario shouldn't be a common one.
The bikes will be constantly repaired and redistributed by staff. If your bike breaks down in any way you can return it to the nearest docking station and press the fault button to alert staff to it.

For those a bit nervous about taking a bike out in London then Transport for London are running training schemes given by qualified National Standards instructors. You can find your nearest training scheme at tfl.gov.uk/cycletraining

There's an app for that!

London Cycle: Maps and Routes is an app made for any i-device that directs people to and from the cycle docking stations around London. It is currently free to download onto an i-phone, i-pad or i-pod touch and is hopefully coming to Android and Blackberry devices soon.
Why not visit the handy journey planner on the TFL website: http://cyclejourneyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/cycle/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en

Now, all you have to do is figure out how to get on that bike wearing your pencil skirt ;)

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