Boris bikes

This week I was lucky enough to get a trip to London to see how Boris Johnson's cycle hire scheme is going. Serco, the private sector company running the back end logistics operation and "the biggest company no-one has heard of", opened the doors of their HQ and welcomed a group of 15 visitors.

Their ubiquitous blue bikes seem to be creating quite a buzz around cycling in London with the scheme attracting an average of 18,000 winter weekday trips on their 5000 or so sturdy, lumbering bicycles.

Walking around their compound I was able to take in the sheer scale of their operation, which employs 170 staff and mans 360 docking locations. Statistics quoted claimed that the scheme attracts 20-25% 'non-cyclists' (ie people who don't consider themselves 'cyclists'), which is commendable as it gets people out of cars and buses and onto a healthier, cheaper and more environmentally friendly form of transport.

The scheme does appear to have its critics, although these accusations tend to be concerned with the limited geographical spread of the project and how it is being financed. Whilst there's obvious public interest in the scheme being seen as value for money, surely there's a bigger picture here when the public purse is considered.

If London manages to raise its modal share for bicycles from 2% to the 4% of several other major UK cities, that's around 150,000 people getting fitter, saving money, reducing the strain on the health service and doing so in an environmentally friendly manner. I understand that this project needs to show value for money but how do you put a price on those benefits?

Amendment: No more than an hour after posting this I saw a fairly damning piece on the 10 O'Clock Show about Serco. Lauren Lavern made reference to Serco's reluctance to give accurate financial and performance information about a host of public sector projects, including work in the hospital and prison sector. Indeed, that may explain why my follow up emails about the financing behind the bike hire scheme have gone unanswered. Undoubtedly, a bike hire scheme for a city of 7 million people is a good thing and, from what I saw, Serco are running a tight and efficient ship. It's just a shame that the management of the scheme becomes the story rather than the bikes themselves. Still, that's the news industry for you.