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Barclays Cycle Hire bikes have won the Transport Category prize of the Brit Insurance Design Awards, beating the likes of Fiat 500 Twinair, Yikebike New Zealand and Riversimple UK.
There’s a chance the hire bikes, which have made over 2.8 million journeys since being introduced to London’s streets last year, will go on to win the overall winner of the awards on Tuesday March 15th at the Design Museum in London.
Transport for London has a number of enhancements planned for the hire scheme over the next two weeks, including 12 additional languages available at all terminals, brining the total number of languages to 17. The red light will remain illuminated permanently when a customer presses the falt button within ten seconds of docking a bike, saving customers from attempting to unlock a faulty bike. Finally, a new Docking Station Status website page will be updated each week with information about new or out of service docking stations.
"I need no convincing that London’s blue bikes are simply the best way to travel," enthused Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. "With the backing of the aficionados of the design world I hope this is the first sign of the bikes becoming a design classic like London’s iconic red bus or black cab."
David Brown, M of Surface Transport at TfL, said: “These new changes, in response to customer comments, will improve the service we are offering. The new Docking Station Status website page will keep people up to date with new or out of service docking stations and the additional languages will enable more visitors to the Capital to take full advantage of London’s newest public transport system. Winning the transport category of the Brit Insurance Design Awards is a great achievement, we are delighted to hear the bikes are now recognised for their design as well as their reliability, convenience and value for money.”
Deanna Oppenheimer, Vice-Chair, Global Retail Banking, CEO Western Europe and CEO UK Retail Banking at Barclays, said: “This award win is further recognition of the enormous success of Barclays Cycle Hire. It is an iconic and innovative scheme, which continues to be embraced by both Londoners and visitors to the city.”
Chris MacLeod, Director of Marketing at TfL, added: "The BRIT design award transport category was very tough this year, and the fact that the Mayor’s Cycle Hire scheme came top in the transport category demonstrates the quality of the design of the entire Barclays Cycle Hire system."
