London Mayor, Boris Johnson (above)
The bikes themselves are pretty bullet proof and designed to be low maintenance and also road legal in terms of brakes, lights etc. The machines do look pretty ugly but this is an anti-theft measure as well as a utilitarian design choice in that they aren't that desirable an object to pinch. And why would you given that you have to pay a deposit, the hire charges are pretty low and so on.
As someone who is a casual observer of the scheme rather than a user, it's good to see that cycling is forming part of the strategic planning approach for the capital city.
Ollie O'Brien at UCL has pulled together a pretty amazing site to track the use of the bikes in real time. There are links and feeds from other cities too.
The London Bike Share live feed showing availability of bikes at the respective docking stations (above).
One thing that is not obligatory with the scheme is the need to wear a cycling helment or the optional extra of the application of common sense or an ability to handle a bicycle.
I've often caught myself shaking my head while watching the occassional "City Gent" pass by suited and booted and also dicing with the London traffic. Inwardly chanting the mantra "there's a potential organ donor". Such as this "non-Boris rider".
Although the scheme did have quite few reported incidents and accidents in its early days there is probably merit in giving it a bit more time to bed in to see how the benefits weigh up against any "Boris Bike" specific bumps and bangs and also against the figures relating to the general cycling population - for example, incidents such as these blogged about elsewhere.
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