London Part 1: The City’s Micromobility Story
London is a true international city. It sits alongside other metropolises like New York or Tokyo as a place on the cutting edge of culture and progress. In other words, change is in its DNA.
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Contents:
Introduction
Phase 1 (2010-2017): The “Boris” bike era
Phase 2 (2017-2019): The bike litter crisis
Phase 3 (2020-today): The micromobility boom
Where we are today
The future of micromobility in London
Introduction
London is a true international city. It sits alongside other metropolises like New York or Tokyo as a place on the cutting edge of culture and progress. In other words, change is in its DNA. This means it’s cities like London that are the training grounds for emerging technologies — and micromobility is no exception.
Over the past 20 years, what people want and expect from cities has altered drastically. The internet made our lives easier in a myriad of ways, and we now expect that convenience in other parts of our lives. Movement is one. These days, many of us don’t want to sit in stuffy public transport for short journeys or suffer the inconvenience of “driving” a car that’s constantly stuck in traffic. Combine this desire for convenience with an increasing focus on the environment, and you have the stage set for a new mode of transport.
It’s this gap that micromobility has filled — and London has been at the heart of this change, becoming an incubator for this new era of movement. While some of these schemes haven’t always been successful for the city, they are interesting and instructive for the evolution of the sector as a whole.
This article is the first in a pair that takes a deep dive into micromobility in London. Today, we’re looking at how the city has developed hand-in-hand with micromobility — and what the future might hold.
Phase 1 (2010-2017): The “Boris” bike era
Any Londoner will recall the launch of the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme, as it flooded the city’s streets with the bikes. Although, saying that, many Londoners might not recognise the name, instead being more au fait with their unofficial moniker: “Boris bikes.”
