Mizter T wrote:


There'll be various bits of info buried around the TfL site I'd think
(e.g. in the Board papers), but I haven't really delved into that side
of things much. In the grand scheme of things, I don't think it's a
very expensive project overall in terms of the total transport budget.
I doubt it'll never be self-sufficient, even taking into account the
Barclays sponsorship - but I'll stop spouting vagaries now and leave
it open to others to supply rather more concrete specifics!


Boris originally said it was to be provided at no cost to London, but
later backtracked on this, and at about £40-45m a year for the last two
years it's not hard to see this as a pretty expensive project overall.
Barclay's £25m over five years (IIRC) is for both Cycle Hire and Cycle
Superhighways so has to be seen as about 1/10th of the total £250m odd
cost of both schemes, if the 12 CS routes are ever completed. That's
pretty hefty, about half a Victoria Station rebuilding or a quarter of
an East London Line.

Basically, whatever the running costs, TfL's put in a lot up front,
mostly IIRC nicked from existing cycle scheme budgets (e.g. LCN+).

On the holistics point, I suspect the main abstraction will be from
buses, then taxis. In that sense it possibly increases the bus subsidy
per passenger, although a lot depends on the kind of user who'll take
it. I'm still not sure who it's aimed at, given that they're
specifically avoiding trying to provide for commuter flows from terminal
stations (they'd need a hell of a lot more bikes and vans to move them
about, since catering for commuter flows is highly capital intensive in
vehicles). It's more likely they're aiming it at short trip casual
users who may have business in a couple of areas of town on the same
day, and can take a bike between them instead of a cab or working out
which bus goes there or dropping down into the Tube for a short,
expensive Zone 1 trip.

I'm still in favour of a licensed pedicab scheme, personally. Could
even combine the two, and it has the benefit of being usable by post-pub
crowds - I'm so looking forward to the first drunk freewheeling through
London on a Boris bike (yes, it's banned, no, Boris doesn't think it's a
problem, at least for himself).

Even better, how about hire-pedicabs? Two up front pedalling, two in
the back? That would be *ace*.

Tom