Three years of Boris Bikes: How do people use them?
By Dilla at 2013-08-17 11:32:53
London, UK
101 replies
13884 views
Maybe if they were on Oyster it would help. Also if they were more prevalent in zones 2 and 3, so people may possibly use them for local journeys in the region of where they live. If I'm in zone 1, I've perhaps had to get the bus or tube to where I was going anyway.
Oddly, I would say the literal opposite.
They are a bit of a pest for casual users -- markedly working out how to use the access codes if you are not comfortable with them.
But for standard users with an yearly pass they are brilliant for short hops round the place where you might have once used a bus or the tube.
Just take a look in the rush hour to see floods of commuters looking for one to end the mile of their journey connecting train station and office.
So it is now £2 for a day's membership instead of £1. And £90 for a year instead of £45. This happened approximately 6 months ago.
Maybe if they were on Oyster it would help. Also if they were more prevalent in zones 2 and 3, so people may possibly use them for local journeys in the region of where they live. If I'm in zone 1, I've perhaps had to get the bus or tube to where I was going anyway.
Oddly, I would say the literal opposite.
They are a bit of a pest for casual users -- markedly working out how to use the access codes if you are not comfortable with them.
But for standard users with an yearly pass they are brilliant for short hops round the place where you might have once used a bus or the tube.
Just take a look in the rush hour to see floods of commuters looking for one to end the mile of their journey connecting train station and office.
So it is now £2 for a day's membership instead of £1. And £90 for a year instead of £45. This happened approximately 6 months ago.
So something that cost £45 a year was in fact good value and you used it a lot, but something that costs £90 is now such dire value that you wont employ it at all.
That just doesn't make sense.
Also not everybody needs a year subscription. The casual price has also doubled, and when it all of a sudden costs less to take a bus, or just 10p more to catch the tube wherever in zone 1, then yes that value has dramatically changed, markedly when you still only get a miserable 30 minutes.
Bangs head on counter at sheer stupidity of people at times.
Of course when something costs 50p and goes to £1 that is a considerable hike in cost for an item of negligible consumer value.
Would -- for another equally stupid example then -- a 50p price rise on a the cost of a motor car make it poor value for money? Of course it wouldn't.
But for something costing just £45 to be to then transition to being so bad as to be avoided, then I would think the price point to change by more than £45.
It's not just me thinking this - TfL hires heaps of very smart people to crunch these sorts of numbers, and there is no way they would have recommended a £90 price point if the value for money dispute was so poor than the bikes would be abandoned overnight as uneconomic.
Maybe if they were on Oyster it would help. Also if they were more prevalent in zones 2 and 3, so people may possibly use them for local journeys in the region of where they live. If I'm in zone 1, I've perhaps had to get the bus or tube to where I was going anyway.
Oddly, I would say the literal opposite.
They are a bit of a pest for casual users -- markedly working out how to use the access codes if you are not comfortable with them.
But for standard users with an yearly pass they are brilliant for short hops round the place where you might have once used a bus or the tube.
Just take a look in the rush hour to see floods of commuters looking for one to end the mile of their journey connecting train station and office.
I think that's a enormous factor/benefit that never truly gets measured. Raising the appeal and awareness in cycling.
Maybe if they were on Oyster it would help. Also if they were more prevalent in zones 2 and 3, so people may possibly use them for local journeys in the region of where they live. If I'm in zone 1, I've perhaps had to get the bus or tube to where I was going anyway.
Oddly, I would say the literal opposite.
They are a bit of a pest for casual users -- markedly working out how to use the access codes if you are not comfortable with them.
But for standard users with an yearly pass they are brilliant for short hops round the place where you might have once used a bus or the tube.
Just take a look in the rush hour to see floods of commuters looking for one to end the mile of their journey connecting train station and office.
I think that's a enormous factor/benefit that never truly gets measured. Raising the appeal and awareness in cycling.
So something that cost £45 a year was in fact good value and you used it a lot, but something that costs £90 is now such dire value that you wont employ it at all.
That just doesn't make sense.
Maybe if they were on Oyster it would help. Also if they were more prevalent in zones 2 and 3, so people may possibly use them for local journeys in the region of where they live. If I'm in zone 1, I've perhaps had to get the bus or tube to where I was going anyway.
Oddly, I would say the literal opposite.
They are a bit of a pest for casual users -- markedly working out how to use the access codes if you are not comfortable with them.
But for standard users with an yearly pass they are brilliant for short hops round the place where you might have once used a bus or the tube.
Just take a look in the rush hour to see floods of commuters looking for one to end the mile of their journey connecting train station and office.
Maybe if they were on Oyster it would help. Also if they were more prevalent in zones 2 and 3, so people may possibly use them for local journeys in the region of where they live. If I'm in zone 1, I've perhaps had to get the bus or tube to where I was going anyway.
Oyster wasn't an option due to the limitations of the card not the scheme, the card can only retain a limited quantity of information and there wasn't sufficient space on it to handle the oyster information along with the bike information so it wasn't built-in despite being investigated.
In actual fact i imagine that the stats illustrate that the best part of users are boris-esque. White middle aged men who use it as another way to get about. Ill see if i can the article.
EDIT: The article (although a bit old now) http://www.standard.co.uk/news/boris-bike-users-are-like-boris-johnson-6551622.html
Uick noob user ion - can you check them out at any stand and return them to an alternative or must they be returned to same location?
Maybe if they were on Oyster it would help. Also if they were more prevalent in zones 2 and 3, so people may possibly use them for local journeys in the region of where they live. If I'm in zone 1, I've perhaps had to get the bus or tube to where I was going anyway.
Oddly, I would say the literal opposite.
They are a bit of a pest for casual users -- markedly working out how to use the access codes if you are not comfortable with them.
But for standard users with an yearly pass they are brilliant for short hops round the place where you might have once used a bus or the tube.
Just take a look in the rush hour to see floods of commuters looking for one to end the mile of their journey connecting train station and office.
I think that's a enormous factor/benefit that never truly gets measured. Raising the appeal and awareness in cycling.
