For all things bikes

There is not reason to rubbish the London bike hire scheme. The Barclays Cycle Hire (BCH) initiative has proven successful and popular among commuters and tourists during the last two years and the blue bikes have become a symbol of the city.

Nevertheless, it's a system far for being perfect. A research carried out in September 2011 by Transport of London (TfL), and recently released, shows how the members' overall satisfaction about the scheme has fallen since last year's poll.

According to TfL "a trend of declining scores across all measures for members suggests BCH novelty has worn off and cyclists are becoming more critical of the BCH offer."

TfL's research reveals that users are not too impressed with the performance of the scheme, particularly in areas like the working condition of the bikes and general maintenance, information on how the scheme works and the availability at docking stations.

The problem with the docking stations has to be addressed and TfL recognises that this is a priority area for improvement. There are two opposite situations that may be equally annoying with these parking lots: they may be empty at peak hours or, even worse, they may be full so there is no space for leaving the bikes after use.

When combining this second scenario with the fact that less than two in five members know how to get 15 additional minutes in order to go to the next station, it's easy to see how dissatisfaction may escalate.

Advocacy, on the other hand, remains strong and 60% of members and 63% of casual users would recommend the scheme to friends and relatives.

BCH has also started the cycling bug for many, with 6% of members admitting they have bought a bike as a result of the scheme and 15% have bought more cycle gear.

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