Official cycle hire figures published today show that there were 1,473,824 (1.5 million) fewer people using the bikes in 2013 than during the previous year. The figures show that 2013 saw a 15% fall in people hiring bikes compared to 2012.
The London Datastore statistics further reveal that during 2013 there was a total of nine months with less people using the bikes than during 2012, including eight months in a row since May 2013, confirming that the fall is a clear trend and not due to any exceptional factors.
A further concern is that the figures show that there was even a further fall in the use of bikes during the month of December 2013, despite the recent expansion of the cycle hire scheme seeing far more bikes and docking stations in Lambeth, Wandsworth and Hammersmith and Fulham starting from last month.
Commenting on the latest figures, Caroline Pidgeon AM, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group said:
“As one of the strongest supporters of the cycle hire scheme it is immensely frustrating that the Mayor of London remains in denial over these appalling figures. The falling ridership is even worse when seen in context of the scheme expanding so much over the last two years.
“It is time the Mayor faced up to the fact that the poor running of the scheme and doubling of hire costs has contributed to many people just giving up using the bikes.
“A bit of honesty is now needed by the Mayor and TfL over what is going wrong so that we can turn around these dismal figures.”