Bike & Go hits road in Liverpool

WAIT for a cycle scheme to come along and, like buses, they all come at once.

Mayor Joe Anderson’s Boris-bike like hire scheme is heading this way. That hire scheme, though, has suffered a slow puncture and won’t start till next spring, said a Town Hall spokesman (sorry about that). 

What has arrived on time is a rather similar, Merseyrail-backed scheme called Bike & Go. Bikes can be hired for the day at 17 railway stations across Merseyside,  at a cost of £3.80 for 24 hours. 

Sound familiar?

It could well be an attractive way of getting around for day-trippers, but whether the pinstriped brigade will want to used pedal power to reach high-power executive meetings remains to be seen. 

Thanks to the likes of Sir Bradley Wiggins, more people are being attracted to cycling. But car drivers will need to learn quickly they are not the owners or custodians of the highways, they have to accept sharing.

Cyclists are second only to caravanners as villains on the Queen’s highways in the eyes of many impatient car drivers. 

Hopefully increased numbers will eventually earn the right of cyclists to take their rightful place in the road network. 

Holland

The network of cycle ways across Liverpool are also seen by some as convenient parking lanes. There seems little point in creating special cycle lanes unless there is enforcement of the rules. 

The national launch of Bike & Go took place at Liverpool’s Central Station, claiming to be the UK’s first major train station cycle hire scheme. It’s a joint venture involving three rail companies, Merseyrail, Northern Rail and Greater Anglia. 

The scheme is modelled on a hire scheme operated by train operators in Holland. 

Phillip Darnton, executive director of the Bicycle Association of Great Britain, and a one time executive with Lever Brothers at Port Sunlight, returned to Merseyside to launch the scheme. To use the cycles people have to sign up and pay a £10 annual fee and then hire a bike for £3.80 a day. It works out at more or less the cost of a return bus fare. 

Mr Darnton said: “ Bike & Go provides a great new way for people to fall back in love with cycling. It’s also a practical way for commuters to try a different way of transport for getting to their final destination after travelling on a train.” 

It has cost £2m to set up Bike & Go, with £1.65m coming from the Department of Transport. 

Meanwhile Liverpool City Council is assessing which of seven operators will be chosen to operate its own scheme, due to launch next spring. 

That scheme will see about 1,000 cycles available for hire with the ability to return them to any docking station. The Liverpool Council scheme is being championed by cycling hero Chris Boardman. 

For details of Bike & Go visit their website