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Today Transport for London announced that they will scrap the £2 hire charge for its popular Santander Cycles, a business decision that coincides with the 6 year anniversary of what we now call the ‘Boris bike’. Introduced to shift our attitudes towards the environmentally-friendly lifestyle the Boris bike successfully did just that, now considered as a popular transport option for Londoners.
With then-Mayor Boris Johnson as the face of the campaign the bikes were rolled out in the capital in 2010, inspired by a similar scheme used by the French.
Free bike hire
On Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th August both tourists and Londoners can enjoy the Boris bike completely free of charge, encouraged to use the code “FREE2016” to redeem this.
As a keen advocator of this eco-friendly mode of transport cycling is still a hot topic for the politician, recently quoted to have said the following.
“Looking back on it, yes. If I had my time again, and if I knew then what I know now, I would have gone straight in with a massive programme of segregated cycle superhighways. I probably wouldn’t have been re-elected, unfortunately. That’s one thing to consider. But that would have been the right thing to do.”
Recently supporting the bike route along the embankment in Central London Johnson commented that the creators have done some great work on this project.
“They’ve done an amazing job, considering how difficult it is in London to take road space and give it to cycling,” he says. “It’s very, very politically difficult. But it’s the right thing to do.”
Now making up 24% of transport in London, according to Andrew Gilligan, Johnson’s cycling commissioner, are we set to give more road space to cyclists? If so, can we afford to? Leave your comments below.
