Boris Bikes for ED?

[Emily00]

I think it would be great if ED got a bank of Boris Bikes!

Does anyone know if TfL have considered the area before?

Perhaps with the new sponsor, Santander, it would be a good time to 'suggest' it is somewhere that would use them.

https://www.tfl.gov.uk/modes/cycling/santander-cycles/suggestions-and-complaints

[Earl Aelfheah]

Would be great.

[Earl Aelfheah]

With no tube, no superhighway, painfully slow bus services and trains into London Bridge hugely disrupted for the next few years at least, a little investment in SE London transport infrastructure in the form of 'Boris Bikes' doesn't seem unreasonable.

[sandyman]

I think it's way to hilly around here, but what would seem viable to me would be a rack of bikes at Camberwell Green that you could use to go up Walworth Road to Elephant or along Camberwell New Road to Oval tube. Saw three kids in Walworth Road KFC late last night with their bikes in the shop.

[SebsC]

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,1489548,1496198#msg-1496198

I think this was a previous discussion on it......

[DulwichFox]

Boris Bikes are now called Santander Cycles...

Perhaps E.D. should have Foxton Bicycles..

That should go down well. :)

Foxy. (no Relation)

[Jeremy]

You can't just have a bank of boris bikes with no others for miles around... would need to hit Camberwell first. Also Camberwell probably has the greater need, and as sandyman said, the local topography is more suitable. Brixton's another one which would undoubtedly get them first.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Clearly, they couldn't just come here, but they should be extended southeast, to camberwell and brixton, peckham and yes, Nunhead and Dulwich. The topography is irrelevant, there are plenty of areas with hills, which have then already. Bear in mind, they're not just for cycling into town, but for making short local trips - or connecting to train and tube stations. It would be great to be able to cycle to brixton tube for example, or into Peckham.

[Jeremy]

I agree the topography would be irrelevant if there were lots of local docking stations. I just meant it's one reason why you can't have isolated ones.

Mind you, saw a couple of young lads on boris bikes outside the chicken shop on East Dulwich Rd last week, it didn't seem to put them off.

[malbourneroad]

I think it very unlikely that ED would get Boris Bikes due to Dog Kennel Hill and the potential risk or injury coming down it.

Having used Boris Bikes on occasion, the reliability of the brakes effectiveness in slowing down such a heavy bike have been poor (for me) more times than not. And the potential speed of coming down that hill is fairly great. The bikes themselves seem to have been geared in such manner to limit high top speed, not saying you can't encounter a hill whilst using a Boris Bike but looking at a map of the current docking locations they don't seem to be situated near any (looking forward to being called out on that.)

Also can't think of a suitable place for the docking station bearing in mind the space needed for the support vehicle used to ship the bikes from one dock to dock or back to their repair centre.

[wulfhound]

Saw three young women with Boris Bikes at the top of Camberwell Grove a few days back. Seems they'd had no problem with the hill.

Have also seen a couple of lads with them at the top of the big hills in Norwood - one on Knight's, one on Gipsy - but I'm not sure they came by them entirely legitimately. Something of a pattern lately.

Reckon they'd be fine down Dog Kennel - it's not all that much steeper than some of the central London bridges, just longer. I've ridden a bakfiets down Green Dale many a time.. just have to be sensible, as with any bike.

But to get from ED to Central London within the first 30 minutes of hire (& therefore not have to pay extra), you'd need to be pretty darn fit.

[monica]

I heard the bikes were going to go to Brixton, then were coming to Dulwich after. A few years ago, SNUB my old green group, were at a meeting with Boris, and after we presented Mr Johnson with a SNUB bag, we asked about the bikes, and I am sure I heard Brixton being mentioned. Mr Johnson does like Dulwich, but Brixton will probably get the Santander bikes first.

Edited for typo

[Emily00]

There's an ongoing petition - "Boris Johnson: Bring 'Boris bikes' to south-east London"

Please sign!

https://goo.gl/LjKw5b

The map says it all...

[mikeb]

Dog Kennel Hill would pose no problem for a Boris Bike - the gears are so low that going up would be fine and my experience is that the brakes going downhill are also fine (I gave them a decent test one memorable morning coming down Ditchling Beacon)

That said, they clearly need to be part of a network i.e. gradual expansion is more likely. And tbh, I think Camberwell / Peckham / New Cross would be the likely limit

[Earl Aelfheah]

Whether or not they were to come to ED itself, I can see no justification for Ken Bikes not coming to SE London at all (i.e Camberwell, Peckham etc). It's a disgrace when you look at that map. No tube, trains into London Bridge blighted until 2018 and buses halted by construction of our first and only superhighway (which like the tube, stops in zone 1).