London’s Boris Bikes speed past their first birthday, TfL celebrate with a feast o’facts -

Today sees the first birthday of the ‘Boris Bike’ scheme in London, with Transport for London celebrating the occasion by announcing a westward expansion while scooping up another £25 million in sponsorship money from Barclays.

I’ve been a huge fan of the scheme from the start, even if the stations can be a bit flaky at times (I once tried seven bikes and not one of the buggers would respond to my pre-paid key, and I’ve got the helpline on SpeedDial).

Londoners have also embraced the ‘hop on. hop off’ cycling service, with over 6 million journeys registered to date, with little of the anticipated mass thieving takingplace: TfL reports that just 200 of the 6,000 bikes have had to be scrapped.

More importantly, there has been no serious injuries recorded by users moving around London on these stately steeds.

TfL have prepared a vertible calvacade of facts about the service – scroll down and soak ’em up:

	Week ending 24 July 2011	Since scheme launch (or since Casual User launch 3 Dec 2010)
Number of new Members	482	128,803
Total cycle hires	146,022	6,041,149
Total cycle hires by Members	98,371	5,049,524
Total cycle hires by Members on weekdays	81,060
Total cycle hires by Members on weekends	17,311
Total cycle hires by Casual Users	47,651	991,625
Total cycle hires by Casual Users on weekdays	26,329
Total cycle hires by Casual Users on weekends	21,322
Percentage of total hires by Members	67 per cent	84 per cent
Percentage of total hires by Casual Users	33 per cent	16 per cent
Average journey time for weekday journeys	14 mins	16 mins
Average journey time for weekend journeys	28 mins	23 mins
Top five docking stations for hires	1. Waterloo Station, Waterloo – 2,426 hires	1. Belgrove Street, King’s Cross
	2. Speakers’ Corner, Hyde Park – 2,040 hires	2. Concert Hall Approach, South Bank
	3. Hyde Park Corner, Hyde Park – 1,602 hires	3. Waterloo Station, Waterloo
	4. Belgrove Street, King’s Cross – 1,600 hires	4. Hop Exchange, The Borough
	5. Black Lion Gate, Kensington Gardens – 1,341 hires	5. Queen Street, Bank
Top five docking stations for docking	1. Waterloo Station, Waterloo – 2,399 docks	1. Concert Hall Approach, South Bank
	2. Speakers’ Corner, Hyde Park – 1,857 docks	2. Belgrove Street, King’s Cross
	3. Belgrove Street, King’s Cross – 1,586 docks	3. Waterloo Station, Waterloo
	4. Hyde Park Corner, Hyde – 1,481 docks	4. Hop Exchange, The Borough
	5. Black Lion Gate, Kensington Gardens – 1,245 docks	5. Finsbury Circus, Liverpool Street
Total page views to BCH webpage	26,338	2,620,862