LIVERPOOL'S much-touted cycle hire scheme is a step closer with the appointment of an official operator.
Surrrey-based HourBike Ltd, which acted as consultants on Moscow's cycle hire scheme, won the tender to run the operation from Liverpool City Council. The Liverpool venture, set to be rolled out in April, a year after it was first announced. It will be the biggest cycle hire scheme outside London, the council says.
It will run in tandem to the Bike & Go cycle hire scheme run by Merseyrail at all of its stations.
The announcement comes on the same day that leading cycling charity Sustrans called on the city council to create more cycle friendly roads and pathways. It claimed Liverpool people are put off using the push-bike as a mode of transport despite accident rates fairly low.
Make roads in Liverpool more
cycle friendly with some of
that £80m, say SustransLast week Mayor Joe Anderson revealed plans to invest £80 million in highways maintenance over the next eight years, in an attempt to reduce the backlog.
But Sustrans North West Regional Director Eleanor Roaf urged him not to forget cyclists.
She said: “I hope that some of the money will be allocated towards more segregated cycle paths and other route improvements so cyclists feel safer travelling around the city.
“Although cycling accident rates are actually quite low, poor cycling facilities put people off using this as a form of transport. Making it safer, easier and more enjoyable for people to travel by bike or on foot would unlock huge economic gains and health benefits for the UK.”
April will see the roll-out of up to 100 hire bikes at 10 city centre stations. By July, there will be 500 bikes at 50 stations, it says, with 1,000 bikes at more than 100 stations, across the city, by March 2015.
HourBike launched its Cycle Hire Service in 2007 and is currently running or installing systems in Dumfries, Lincoln, Nottingham, Reading and Southport.
Mayor Joe Anderson, said: “It’s now all systems go for our launch in April. I’m looking forward to seeing a first-class cycle hire scheme delivered in this city, one which will help us cut carbon emissions and make cycling accessible for all.”
The funding for the Liverpool City Cycle scheme comes from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF), allocated by the Department for Transport (DfT). Liverpool has received £2.8m from the fund, of which £1.5 million is being invested in delivering the cycle hire scheme. The remainder of the funding has been committed to a number of cycling and signalling infrastructure improvements, and sustainable transport initiatives in different parts of the city.
Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport, Councillor Tim Moore, said: Our ultimate aim is that wherever you are in the city centre, you will be no more than a three-minute walk from a cycle station.”
