Oxford to get its own 'Boris Bikes' (From Oxford Mail)
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Oxford to get its own 'Boris Bikes'
11:07am Thursday 7th July 2011 in News By Oliver Evans
Boris Johnson launches the London scheme
OXFORD is to trial its own “Boris Bikes” cycle hire scheme in the hope it will be rolled out in a city-wide scheme.
Visitors to Thornhill Park and Ride will be able to park up and hire a bicycle under the plans, which mirror a scheme introduced by Mayor of London Boris Johnson.
Oxfordshire County Council chiefs say the trial will go to the city’s four other park and rides if successful.
It is part of a Government cash boost that has also given the green light to a 500 space expansion of 850-space London Road park and ride for 2013.
Two new buses will also connect it to John Radcliffe and surrounding hospital sites and the city centre. It currently only stops at the Churchill and Nuffield hospitals.
And a new bus lane will also be installed along the London Road to the “hamburger” roundabout that connects the road to the northern and eastern by-pass.
The £3.5m plans were last night hailed as a key move towards cutting congestion and street parking, particularly among Oxford Brookes University and hospital workers.
Rodney Rose, cabinet member for transport at Oxfordshire County Council, said of the bike scheme: “It will be so much quicker for workers to get to work that way and relieve congestion for everybody else.”
He said it was too early to give prices for the scheme and how it would work in practice.
Bikes would be hired from Thornhill and returned there or at drop off points in the city, he said.
Mr Rose said of the long-mooted extension, on which work will start early next year: “It will make a big big difference.”
The news was welcomed by Delbrush Avenue resident Sue Barton, who said park and ride users often leave their cars across her drive and on grass verges.
She said: “If it has the desired affect then I will welcome it with open arms. The idea of supplying bikes is absolutely brilliant.”
Yet she said county plans to charge to park - yet to be agreed - could still hit residents. The £1-a-day charge was scrapped in 2008.
She said: “If they do that then people will start parking in residential streets.”
James Styring, spokesman for cycling campaign group Cyclox, said the cash could be better spent on other cycle schemes such as two-way lanes under Botley bridge.
He said: “To really work, it would need to be rolled out across the whole city.
“We wouldn’t want the scheme to fail if it wasn’t ambitious enough in scale.”
Brookes spokesman Edward Reed said: “We support initiatives which encourage sustainable transport and that aim to reduce peoples' reliance on cars.”
Oxford Bus Company managing director Philip Kirk said he was “delighted” with the news for the “extremely popular” park and ride.
He said: “The extra spaces will help keep more cars out of the centre of Oxford.”
The council has been given £5m, of which £1.8m will go on the extra spaces, £500,000 on the bus lane and £1.2m on the new buses.
The rest of the spaces cash will come from contributions from developers given as a condition of planning permission and council funds. Precise figures were not available.
The remaining £1.5m will go on the cycle scheme and other projects such as promotion of its car sharing scheme.
* Yesterday’s Oxford Mail reported a new cycle lane would be installed on London Road. This will in fact be a bus lane.
The article was based on incorrect information provided by the county council.
Comments(24)
Mike Ratcliffe
says...
12:05pm Thu 7 Jul 11
rickenback
says...
12:11pm Thu 7 Jul 11
with fuel prices there so many bikes...they dont like slowing down..
Dilligaf2010
says...
12:37pm Thu 7 Jul 11
When is somebody going to wake up and smell the coffee?
Am I the only one to notice that buses actually cause congestion in Oxford?
Bus lanes are a great idea, but only if they're continuous, and in Oxford they're not, the buses still spend most of their journey on the main carriageways, which just so happens to be where most of the bus stops are too, which causes congestion.
We don't need more buses coming into the centre, we need less.
The cycle scheme is a good idea, but as Mike said, surely Thornhill is too far out, and I agree with Bart about cyclists needing to be taught that traffic rules also apply to them.
Robie
says...
12:53pm Thu 7 Jul 11
Redbridge would be a lot flatter and encourage more to pick up a bike for the free half hour whizzing past the traffic at a stand still on the Abingdon Road.
King Joke
says...
1:35pm Thu 7 Jul 11
Danny A
says...
1:57pm Thu 7 Jul 11
Botley and Redbridge would be better sites to have bikes from the park-and-ride. Alternatively they could have a ski-lift style system to get back up Headington hill!!!
rickenback
says...
2:02pm Thu 7 Jul 11
Bart_Simpson1
says...
3:14pm Thu 7 Jul 11
McDave
says...
3:18pm Thu 7 Jul 11
Lord Peter Macvay
says...
4:23pm Thu 7 Jul 11
King Joke wrote:Go and stand by KFC or Manzil Way on the Cowley Rd and you will answer your own question.
Diligaf, most of the main radial roads into Oxford have something less than 50 buses per hour and something over 1,000 cars. How do the buses manage to cause congestion?
Headington mum
says...
5:11pm Thu 7 Jul 11
And are they going to consult on the road widening?
rickenback
says...
9:18pm Thu 7 Jul 11
Beechtree
says...
11:57pm Thu 7 Jul 11
But I like Danny A's thought of ski-lift on Headington Hill. Moving pavements? They manage it in Hong Kong.
phil-g-
says...
12:01am Fri 8 Jul 11
McDave wrote:Just because cyclists can use them doesn't give them right of way. Too many think that their bell means "get out of the way, I'm coming through". How would you react if a car driver used their horn in the same way?
rickenback, tow-paths are a bridle way so cycles can use them. Pedestrians need to realise that they share the path with other people and walking three a breast is inconsiderate. My biggest gripe with the tow path is that the university rowers have no thought or consideration for other river or tow path users.
CLLR KEN TIWARI
says...
9:27am Fri 8 Jul 11
Pundit
says...
11:46am Fri 8 Jul 11
Floflo
says...
4:10pm Fri 8 Jul 11
Pundit wrote:A quick win for the police in protecting pedestrians would be better enforcement of speed limits.
More cyclists to break the law by cycling on footways? It is about time Cyclox started a proper education programme for anti-social cyclists. Why don't the police protect pedestrians?
A pedestrian is at a far greater risk from a driver of a car than a cyclist.
Wanchai
says...
4:42pm Fri 8 Jul 11
Lord Peter Macvay
says...
1:50am Sat 9 Jul 11
Floflo wrote:So Floey when was the last time a pedestrian was mown down on a pavement by a speeding car? or forced to jump out of the way at 2pm in Cornmarket by a car breaking the law? It just doesn't happen, because it is only cyclists that do this. Then number of fines for cars driving on the pavement of through Cornmarket zero, the same for cyclists 100s. NUFF-SAID
Pundit wrote: More cyclists to break the law by cycling on footways? It is about time Cyclox started a proper education programme for anti-social cyclists. Why don't the police protect pedestrians?A quick win for the police in protecting pedestrians would be better enforcement of speed limits. A pedestrian is at a far greater risk from a driver of a car than a cyclist.
Lord Peter Macvay
says...
1:54am Sat 9 Jul 11
Whitto
says...
8:32am Sat 9 Jul 11
CLLR KEN TIWARI wrote:That is priceless..........
If Boris Johnson want to Return for-Second time London Mayor, then he have to do more for Londener's, and Not just cycling stunts here in Oxford ?
If you really are a Cllr those you represent must be so glad that you read everything before commenting.
Floflo
says...
11:51am Sat 9 Jul 11
Lord Peter Macvay wrote:The figures are on public record. Look it up and you'll find that even when on a pavement a pedestrian is at greater risk from injury from a car than a cyclist. Fewer cars, more cyclists results in safer streets.
Floflo wrote:So Floey when was the last time a pedestrian was mown down on a pavement by a speeding car? or forced to jump out of the way at 2pm in Cornmarket by a car breaking the law? It just doesn't happen, because it is only cyclists that do this. Then number of fines for cars driving on the pavement of through Cornmarket zero, the same for cyclists 100s. NUFF-SAID
Pundit wrote: More cyclists to break the law by cycling on footways? It is about time Cyclox started a proper education programme for anti-social cyclists. Why don't the police protect pedestrians?A quick win for the police in protecting pedestrians would be better enforcement of speed limits. A pedestrian is at a far greater risk from a driver of a car than a cyclist.
Lord Peter Macvay
says...
9:26pm Sun 10 Jul 11
Floflo wrote:I don't believe you simply because 99% of people hit by a cyclist on a pavement can do nothing about it because the cyclist rides off at breakneck speed and has no ID so the pedestrian does not report it. I can remember no story in the Oxford Mail of a pedestrian being hit by a driver choosing to drive on the pavement rather than the road. (choosing, being the operative word) Pedestrians that are hit by cars are nearly always at fault as it is their wandering in the road that caused it, (that is why we have roads for cars, and pavements for pedestrians, and errant cyclists). Whilst nobody can deny getting hit by a car will damage you more than by a cyclist, you have a next to nothing chance of being hit by a car on a pavement, and a zero chance in Cornmarket St, but you have a very good chance of being hit by lawbreaking cyclists at both of these places. The problem lies with your and cyclists mentality that we should all treat them with kid gloves, and that they can do as they wish. Until cyclists accept that being a road user brings with it responsibility and a legal requirement to obey the law, then we will argue forever. For the sake of nothing better to do (well I can have a few pints in The Kings Arms after) I will sit in Cornmarket from 12 till 1 and count how many cyclist and private cars break the law, then move to the Parks/S parks junction for half an hour and count how many cyclists and cars use the pavement and pedestrian crossing to avoid the traffic (IE road user) Red Lights, that way we will be able to see the real danger to pedestrians.
Lord Peter Macvay wrote:The figures are on public record. Look it up and you'll find that even when on a pavement a pedestrian is at greater risk from injury from a car than a cyclist. Fewer cars, more cyclists results in safer streets.
Floflo wrote:So Floey when was the last time a pedestrian was mown down on a pavement by a speeding car? or forced to jump out of the way at 2pm in Cornmarket by a car breaking the law? It just doesn't happen, because it is only cyclists that do this. Then number of fines for cars driving on the pavement of through Cornmarket zero, the same for cyclists 100s. NUFF-SAID
Pundit wrote: More cyclists to break the law by cycling on footways? It is about time Cyclox started a proper education programme for anti-social cyclists. Why don't the police protect pedestrians?A quick win for the police in protecting pedestrians would be better enforcement of speed limits. A pedestrian is at a far greater risk from a driver of a car than a cyclist.
Bart_Simpson1 says...
11:39am Thu 7 Jul 11
What does he expect the council to do, widen the bridge?? Doh
Money would better spent on training and educating cyclists that, Red traffic lights means Stop, One Way streets does not mean you can travel in one direction even if it is the wrong way, other road users can not see you at night without lights, do not come up the inside of vechicles when they are indication to turn left.. That would be Money well spent