Dragon Interviews: Support Shown for Proposed ‘Boris Bikes’ for Guildford Scheme

Published on: 7 Aug, 2018
Updated on: 8 Aug, 2018

By Amina Sahbegovic

A proposal for a Boris bike type scheme in Guildford has received the backing of a cross-section of representatives spoken to by the The Guildford Dragon NEWS.

The interviews were conducted in the week the University of Surrey launched their own on-campus bike scheme operated by nextbikes.

A bike scheme stand in Dublin – is this what we should expect in Guildford?

The proposed Guildford Borough Council (GBC) scheme would be a new way to travel around Guildford by hiring a bike, riding it in and around town and then return it to a docking station.

In 2010, London started implementing a cycle hire modelled on the Velib network in Paris with the main aim being an environmentally friendly form of transport. Findings show that, within the first ten weeks of the scheme, 90 000 users registered and the scheme has since extended to all areas of the capital.

Given the success elsewhere, GBC’s Executive approved a similar scheme on July 17 (2018), to make travel in Guildford and across the borough easier, with a completion date in spring 2021.

According to the council, the bike scheme will be a highly visible project that shows the borough’s commitment to sustainability while improving air quality and public health. It also intends to encourage economic growth in the area.

This scheme is the first phase of the town’s Sustainable Movement Corridor (SMC) which intends to build better pedestrian and cycle routes.

Cllr Matt Furniss

Cllr Matt Furniss, deputy leader at GBC and lead councillor for infrastructure and environment, said in a council press release: “These planned improvements on our local road networks should help solve transport issues and address local ‘hotspots’ to make it easier for people to travel around our borough. We’re working towards a future transport system which will be greener, safer and more reliable.”

The total estimated cost of the bike scheme is £1.13 million, including the infrastructure improvements and the implementation of docking stations which, similar to the ones in London, will be installed about 400 metres apart, at key destinations across the town.

So far, a £600,000 grant has been applied for from the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership (a public/private partnership set to support and sustain economic growth at a local level) and the remaining £530,000 has been allocated by the council.

The council also noted that, “depending on whether external grant funding can be secured, the community bike share scheme could include 100% electric cycles”, which would suit the town’s topography as electrical assist requires less effort, particularly to ascend Guildford’s hills. If this was the case, Guildford’s scheme would be the first all-electric scheme in the South of England; only Derby is launching a scheme of similar size.”

Cllr Caroline Reeves believes the scheme has a great potential, as investigation showed it will be popular. In an interview for the Dragon, she explained how beneficial to the town a bike share can be and hopes it will take people off the road, thus decreasing Guildford’s traffic problems.

Cllr Tony Rooth, a cyclist himself also believes finds the scheme is a good idea but stresses the fact that “a good idea needs good luck and good planning.”

While the bike scheme proposal is intended to link with and complement the University of Surrey’s imminent new scheme, Rooth thinks the council should learn from the latter in order to avoid possible obstacles.

He also stresses the dangers of the town’s streets with their potholes and says that they need to be made safer.

Guildford’s Electric Bike Shop owner, Chris Ogle, welcomes the transformational aspects the scheme might have on the whole town. As well as councillor Rooth, he emphasizes the need to improve the roads in the area in order to make biking safe.

He finds it difficult to see a “downside” to the proposal unless it is not planned properly but is positive that the team doing a feasibility study is doing a good job.

Lastly, we interviewed Barbara Ford, chair of the Twinning Association who sees a great opportunity to link local councillors to councillors in Freiburg, Guildford’s twin town which is currently looking at a similar bike share scheme.

She believes that the borough can learn a lot from its twin as 34% of the Freiburg’s travel is by bike but the German city has about 420 kilometres of bike lanes.

On the whole, from those interviewed, Guildford’s bike scheme seems to be the hope for an easy, environmentally friendly, healthy and cheap way to travel.

But there is also a common view that the town’s infrastructure does not, at the moment, offer decent cycling routes and the council will have to make road improvements before the bike hire scheme sees success.

In the meantime, the council hopes to find sufficient funding for a proportion of the bikes to be electric as it “would prove useful in introducing a wider audience”.

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