Ready Bike celebrates first birthday
Wednesday, 10 June 2015
ReadyBike first birthday cake
Today (Wednesday 10 June), Reading Borough Council together with the University of Reading celebrated the first birthday of ReadyBike on our Whiteknights Campus. Now with more than now 200 hire bikes across 29 docking stations across Reading, the scheme has proved popular with staff, students and visitors to the University. Our Whiteknights docking station behind the library saw almost 1700 rentals in the first 12 months.
Other statistics relating to the first full year of the scheme include:
- 26,336 individual bike rentals set across 7,370 total subscriptions (both annual and casual users)
- 16,940 hours rented
- 6.1 average rentals per person
- An average rental time of 38 minutes
There are now more than 200 annual subscribers who regularly use the ReadyBikes across the town, and more than 7,000 casual subscriptions.
The distinctive purple and orange ReadyBikes have quickly become a regular sight in and around the University Campus.
Sir David Bell, Vice-Chancellor, said:
"Congratulations to ReadyBike for a hugely successful first year. The University has been a strong supporter of the ReadyBike scheme since its inception. We work hard to promote sustainable travel and are extremely pleased that university staff and students are making good use of the bikes, both on and off campus. I'm sure the ReadyBike scheme will continue to grow and we look forward to more birthdays to come."
Karen Stanbridge, Sustainable Travel Co-ordinator, added:
"It's great to see so many staff and students making good use of the Readybikes. Cycling is a great way to get fit and get around the University and town without contributing to congestion or the University's carbon footprint. A big thank-you to everyone at the Uni for getting on the Readybikes and supporting sustainable travel! Readybike is a great way to get into cycling without having to worry about the cost of buying a bike or having room to keep a bike at home."
Why not try them out during national bike week next week - don't forget to log your cycling as part of the University's team challenge on Love to Ride.com You only need to cycle for 10 minutes to contribute to our team effort! A perfect way to do this would be to sign up to one of our lunchtime guided rides on 17th June. Email travel@reading.ac.uk for details.
Tony Page, Reading Borough Council's Lead Member for Transport, said:
"Today marks the first anniversary of ReadyBike and the Council is pleased the first year's figures show it is proving popular. That is particularly the case with students and commuters for relatively short journeys in and out of the town centre.
"The Council always said it would review the elements after the first year of the scheme. Now that we have the first full year's figures we can do that, taking into account things like seasonal changes in usage and the possibility of creating new docking stations where there is a demand. We want to further tailor ReadyBike so that membership will continue to rise over the next year."
Further Information
For members, use of ReadyBike is free for half an hour at the start of every rental and then £1 an hour after that, with a maximum rental cap of £4. As well as the place to register, www.readybike.co.uk
For people who do not want to be members, ReadyBike is also available for occasional or one-off use by users registering their details online. The tariff for non-members is the same as that for members (£1 an hour) but they do not get the first 30 minutes of every rental free and the maximum rental charge is £7.
ReadyBike is simple to use. For a video guide on how ReadyBike scheme will work go to: http://youtu.be/5xu1gjWEYUg