I've just had an email with that subject:
"Following customer feedback, we are upgrading Barclays Cycle Hire so
that you can set up separate bike access periods for any additional
keys, hire a bike from the docking station terminal using the payment
card registered to your account and view 12 months of transaction
history online. ..."

Until now, I've had 2 keys: 1 annual and 1 daily.
To do so, I have to have 2 accounts with distinct credit cards and email
addresses.
It is a particularly stupid arrangement. When I opened an account, I
wanted to have 4 keys: 1 annual and 3 daily - each account can have up
to 4 keys. The trouble is that using one key on an account charges all
keys on that account. I decided not to go for 4 accounts.

This is a HUGE improvement.
Users now need bikes and empty slots at all stations.

This is an arbitrary snapshot, taken from
https://web.barclayscyclehire.tfl.gov.uk/maps
Bikes Slots Stations 11/09 21:11
0 20 St. Mary Axe Aldgate
0 19 New Globe Walk Bankside
0 18 Barbican Centre Barbican
20 0 Bishop's Bridge Road East Bayswater
19 0 Globe Town Market Bethnal Green
31 0 Hollybush Gardens Bethnal Green
19 0 Pott Street Bethnal Green
0 25 Great Russell Street Bloomsbury
18 0 Limerston Street Chelsea
9 0 Royal Avenue 1 Chelsea
10 0 Royal Avenue 2 Chelsea
22 0 Great Percy Street Clerkenwell
0 18 Earnshaw Street Covent Garden
0 17 High Holborn Covent Garden
0 12 Charlotte Street Fitzrovia
0 23 Foley Street Fitzrovia
0 28 Howland Street Fitzrovia
0 13 Rathbone Street Fitzrovia
0 15 The Guildhall Guildhall
0 16 Wood Street Guildhall
27 0 Pitfield Street (North) Hoxton
21 0 Pitfield Street Central Hoxton
27 0 Shoreditch Park Hoxton
26 0 Wenlock Road Hoxton
28 0 Holy Trinity Brompton Knightsbridge
0 20 Imperial College Knightsbridge
0 22 Baker Street Marylebone
18 0 Bell Street Marylebone
0 14 Old Quebec Street Marylebone
0 12 Farm Street Mayfair
19 0 Green Street Mayfair
0 18 Sackville Street Mayfair
0 35 Clinton Road Mile End
0 19 Great Tower Street Monument
0 21 Lansdowne Walk Notting Hill
18 0 Warwick Square Pimlico
20 0 Curlew Street Shad Thames
22 0 Garnet Street Shadwell
0 39 Great Marlborough Street Soho
15 0 Moor Street Soho
30 0 Walworth Road Southwark
0 23 Lord's St. John's Wood
0 13 Houghton Street Strand
0 13 Southampton Street Strand
21 0 Borough High Street The Borough
0 29 Fire Brigade Pier Vauxhall
17 0 St. Martin's Street West End
34 0 Christian Street Whitechapel
18 0 New Road 1 Whitechapel
18 0 Old Montague Street Whitechapel

That is 50 unusable stations in 549.

Has anyone details of a Windows Mobile Boris Bike ap?
I'd even pay a small sum.
--
Walter Briscoe

Paul Corfield wrote:

I've never considered the scheme to be particularly attractive for me.
I know my way round by bus and tube and using a Boris bike rarely
makes any sense to me.

I use them because it means I can get some exercise in my journey where
it's a bit far to walk. These journeys would tend otherwise to be by Tube.
I find the app essential for planning the journey based on bike and space
availability, though.

Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK. Put first name before the at to reply.

In message of Thu, 12 Sep
2013 00:56:55 in uk.transport.london, Paul Corfield
writes
On Wed, 11 Sep 2013 21:23:22 +0100, Walter Briscoe
wrote:

I've just had an email with that subject:
"Following customer feedback, we are upgrading Barclays Cycle Hire so
that you can set up separate bike access periods for any additional
keys, hire a bike from the docking station terminal using the payment
card registered to your account and view 12 months of transaction
history online. ..."

[snip]


I've never considered the scheme to be particularly attractive for me.
I know my way round by bus and tube and using a Boris bike rarely
makes any sense to me.

I have read far too many stories and tweets about the lousy
availability of bikes and space to return bikes that it's put me right
off. What is the point of a scheme that means you ride for 10 minutes
but take over 30 mins to find a space to return your bike and you end
up away from your destination? I mean why on earth bother with that
sort of uncertainty?

It IS bad, but my experience does not mirror your fear.


The idea of a bike hire service is theoretically attractive but
London's execution just seems dire. The scale of subsidy is also
nightmarish for what is a niche service both in terms of its role in
the transport network and also the limited demographic that seems to
use the scheme. Spend the tens of millions on improving bus services
instead.


I can't argue with that either. It may act as a catalyst for increasing
low cycling rates in London. For that it will need to go a lot further.

I use it to speed walking. Given the southbound Moorgate station bus
stop is indefinitely shut, a bike from Fore Street to Bank of England
Museum is faster than walking to Bank Station. I check before leaving
home to estimate the chance of not finding a bike or a slot.
It is OK in the early morning, rubbish in the evening.

I would suggest one key and a daily service, 3UKP for the key and 2UKP
per diem for journeys of less than 30 minutes. (You can add 15' free if
you can't find a slot.) I've never had to pay for a longer journey. If
you don't like it after trying it, the cost has not been enormous. I am
paying 45UKP annually, rather than 90UKP until Dec 27.

I can do Moorgate to the southern end of Blackfriars Bridge in 15'.
(Fore Street - Poured Lines.)
The alternative of Underground to Farringdon and a bus does not work
while Crossrail is disrupting Farringdon Street. The 100 often seizes on
Ludgate Hill. Alternatives other than a taxi/car take about 30'.
I've just had a chat with a Chantal at the CSC.
It seems the station software is also being improved.
It can be hard to find an available station at an unavailable station.
They will also improve casual access - using a credit card as a key.
No mention of using an Oyster Card.
--
Walter Briscoe

I walked from Liverpool St to a hotel quite close to Tower Gateway
station earlier this week. I didn't take the tube to Aldgate [to reduce
the walk] as I wasn't convinced it would be quicker.

En-route, I don't recall seeing any Boris-bike-racks at all, although
perhaps I tune them out.

It seems this one was half-way http://goo.gl/maps/43vyo but what I
really need is one each end.
--
Roland Perry

On Thu, 12 Sep 2013 14:39:12 +0100, Roland Perry wrote:
I walked from Liverpool St to a hotel quite close to Tower Gateway
station earlier this week. I didn't take the tube to Aldgate [to reduce
the walk] as I wasn't convinced it would be quicker.

En-route, I don't recall seeing any Boris-bike-racks at all, although
perhaps I tune them out.

You could hire a bike from Wormwood Street (at the junction with Liverpool
Street). There are a few docks around Tower Gateway but as an example if
I was going to the Grange Tower Bridge hotel I'd dock the bike on Leman
street, just north of the junction with Prescot Street. You wouldn't pass
either of those docks if you walked between the end points but they are
short detours.

Not much fun cycling round the Aldgate gyratory though.

On Thu, 12 Sep 2013 00:56:55 +0100, Paul Corfield wrote:
I have read far too many stories and tweets about the lousy
availability of bikes and space to return bikes that it's put me right
off. What is the point of a scheme that means you ride for 10 minutes
but take over 30 mins to find a space to return your bike and you end
up away from your destination? I mean why on earth bother with that
sort of uncertainty?

It depends a bit on the journey. I often get the train to Moorgate and
then use a hire bike to get to my office on the edge of zone 1, with the
return in the evening. Since this is against the main commuter flows in
the area I don't have bike/dock issues at either end.

The idea of a bike hire service is theoretically attractive but
London's execution just seems dire. The scale of subsidy is also
nightmarish for what is a niche service both in terms of its role in
the transport network and also the limited demographic that seems to
use the scheme. Spend the tens of millions on improving bus services
instead.

What is the subsidy per trip and how does it compare to the bus or tube
which are the alternatives I sometimes use?

Roland Perry wrote:
I walked from Liverpool St to a hotel quite close to Tower Gateway
station earlier this week. I didn't take the tube to Aldgate [to reduce
the walk] as I wasn't convinced it would be quicker.

En-route, I don't recall seeing any Boris-bike-racks at all, although
perhaps I tune them out.

It seems this one was half-way http://goo.gl/maps/43vyo but what I really
need is one each end.

5 seconds with Google produced:
https://web.barclayscyclehire.tfl.gov.uk/maps

Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK. Put first name before the at to reply.

Wow! 39 slots on Great Marlborough Street. I'm trying to visualise where that sea-serpent of bikes might be.

In message , at 15:25:45 on
Thu, 12 Sep 2013, David Walters remarked:

Not much fun cycling round the Aldgate gyratory though.

And it was raining very lightly. Not something I'd anticipated, but
walking one can shelter next to most of the buildings en-route.
--
Roland Perry

On 2013\09\12 15:25, David Walters wrote:

You could hire a bike from Wormwood Street (at the junction with Liverpool
Street)

You mean the junction with Bishopsgate.