cycles

Santander Cycles (formerly Barclays Cycle Hire) is a public bicycle hire scheme in London in the United Kingdom. The scheme's bicycles are popularly and colloquially known as Boris Bikes, after Boris Johnson who was Mayor of London when the scheme began operating.The operation of the scheme was initially contracted by Transport for London (TfL) to Serco. Bikes and docking stations are provided by 8D Technologies. The scheme is sponsored, with Santander UK being the main sponsor from April 2015. Barclays was the first sponsor, from 2010 to March 2015.Credit for developing and enacting the scheme has been a source of debate. Johnson has taken credit for the plan, although the initial concept was announced by his predecessor Ken Livingstone, during the latter's term in office. Livingstone said that the programme would herald a "cycling and walking transformation in London" and Johnson said that he "hoped the bikes would become as common as black cabs and red buses in the capital".A study showed cyclists using the scheme are three times less likely to be injured per trip than cyclists in London as a whole, possibly due to motorists giving cycle hire users more road space than they do other cyclists, although trips by hire bike users seemed to be much shorter on average. Customer research in 2013 showed that 49 per cent of Cycle Hire members say that the scheme has prompted them to start cycling in London.As of July 2022, more than 111.2 million journeys had been made using the cycles, with the record for cycle hires in a single day being 73,000.In October 2022, TfL introduced new e-bikes to the scheme, the first docked e-bikes in London.

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