Pilot cycle hire scheme for Oxford (Status: press release)

PLANS to develop a cycle hire scheme for Oxford have gathered pace following a decision by Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet to take the project to the next level.

The authority is planning an 18-month pilot to test the potential for a permanent cycle hire scheme in the city.

Cycle hire schemes have been successfully introduced in a large number of cities – particularly in mainland Europe. A number of small scale schemes already exist in parts of the UK including Cheltenham, Bristol and Reading.

Picture: Velib Paris bike scheme

The bicycles are usually picked up and returned by users at ‘hubs’ or ‘docking stations’, with swipe cards or some other electronic technology to unlock the bicycles and trace the use of a bicycle to a registered user.

The railway station, the city centre and Headington are areas being looked at for hubs – for example, discussions with the ORHT (Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust) have focused on ways of establishing cycle movements between the city’s hospitals as part of a pilot scheme. Discussions about the project have also taken place with Oxford City Council.

Current estimates indicate that a 12-month pilot scheme based on 130 bicycles, or an 18-month pilot based on 90 cycles, would cost in the region of