Boris and his bikes

Boris Johnson has just announced plans to deliver a London rent-a-bike scheme, similar to Paris’ successful ‘Velib’ programme.

It’s got a lot of good press. There will be 6,000 bikes – okay, that’s a bit behind Paris which has 10,000 – and they’ll be at 400 locations across the city.

But it’s not going to happen overnight. Manufacturers have only just been asked to tender for the project and Boris will also need to get London Boroughs and the Royal Parks to agree where he can put the bike parks.

What really gets my goat though is that the press doesn’t seem to have picked up on the fact that this is the second time we’ve seen the same press release.

Back in February 2008 Ken Livingstone – then still Mayor of London – promised Londoners a rent-a-bike scheme. So Boris isn’t doing anything new.

And in fact the number of bikes Ken proposed was exactly the same. So I’m racking my brains to see how Boris has improved or progressed this scheme in any way. He’s just  claiming credit for what was going to happen under Ken – and expects to get swome more nice press pictures of ‘Boris on a bike’.

I did want to give Boris the benefit of the doubt. But so far, on London transport policy, he’s either delivering exactly what we would have got under Ken, or rather less.

And I’ll have a little bet with you. When this scheme comes in, I bet that the prices will be a lot higher than in Paris!

Picture credit – a Velib in Paris by Austin Evan on Flickr