BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
TfL’s Santander Cycles scheme passed 100 million hires earlier this month, marking a significant milestone in the scheme’s ten-year history.
This equates to more than ten rides for every Londoner and follows record-breaking hires in February.
Saturday 27th February saw the scheme’s busiest ever winter day with more than 52,000 hires. The following day there were 31,474 hires, making it the busiest February weekend in the scheme’s history. This followed hire numbers for 2020 surpassing 2019 by around 6,000 hires.
Recent TfL figures also show that 24 hour Santander Cycles membership registrations rose by 167% in the year to December 2020, representing the largest increase in the scheme’s history. Meanwhile, registrations for new annual memberships increased by a quarter.
Santander Cycles continue to support NHS staff and key workers by offering free cycle hire access codes and to date, these have been redeemed more than 100,000 times and used by more than 18,000 people.
“London’s cycle hire scheme has become an integral part of our city and the past year has shown that it is more important than ever to Londoners,” said Will Norman, London’s walking and cycling commissioner. “Reaching 100 million hires is a significant milestone – I’m thrilled that so many people are enjoying the benefits cycling brings and making the most of our rapidly expanding network of safe routes, including our incredible key workers. We have been delighted to support them by offering free Santander Cycles hires throughout the pandemic.”
Nathan Bostock, CEO, of Santander UK, added: “It’s fantastic that Santander Cycles continues to break records, demonstrating the important role the scheme plays in keeping communities connected and mobile in a sustainable way, particularly during this challenging time.
“We’re delighted that among those using the scheme were thousands of key and critical workers who we’ve been supporting with free journeys during the pandemic. With the gradual easing of restrictions, we look forward to the scheme continuing to play a part in helping people and businesses across London to prosper.”
To celebrate its tenth anniversary year, TfL and cycle hire scheme sponsor Santander awarded a free annual membership to a dedicated cycle hire user for each month of 2020 as well as naming a bike in their honour. Nurse Habiba Khanam was one of the Cycle Hire ten competition winners and talks about how Santander Cycles support her to do her job.
“What a tough year it has been for all of us, especially for my colleagues in the NHS,” said Khanam. “Looking after our wellbeing has never been more important. I’m so grateful to be able to cycle safely to and from the hospital where I work with Santander Cycles. A big thanks to TfL for offering NHS workers free cycle hire access during the pandemic – it’s been so helpful for so many of us.”
TfL introduced cycle hire to Londoners on 30th July 2010 with 350 docking stations across eight London boroughs. Today, these numbers have more than doubled. Londoners now have access to more than 750 docking stations and more than 14,000 bikes. To keep up with the increasing demand for cycling, TfL recently introduced new docking stations in Clapham, Bermondsey and Rotherhithe.
Read the March issue of BikeBiz below:
