The dawn of the Mobike was game-changing news in Finsbury Park. They arrived without warning, cheery orange and grey bicycles lined up outside Tesco one morning before Christmas. Riding is easy. Download the app, unlock your steed using Bluetooth, pedal wherever you like (at 50p per half hour) and then close the lock to dock.
Unlike with Santander Cycles, there’s no frustrating hunt for an empty dock space (which has made me unforgivably late and angry on occasion) — you can leave them anywhere, ideally responsibly parked. The Mobike elves drive them back to designated hotspots overnight. But now, as mysteriously as they arrived, they have disappeared. Finsbury Park is no longer a hotspot. And I want them back. I even forgive them their clunky frames, which made cycling up Highgate Hill an ordeal.
For six glorious months, Mobikes set me free. I’ve long been campaigning (well, moaning to anyone who will listen) to bring Boris Bikes to areas such as my corner of north London, where buses are slow; and for going to places the Tube doesn’t stretch to that are just too far away on foot, even though they are close by car.
I have my own bike but often I don’t want to use it because I’ll be coming home in the dark, the freezing rain or drunk, and I don’t want to leave it locked somewhere unsafe. Hire bikes should be an easy and spontaneous solution.
Thousands of Londoners agree. Santander Cycles (they will always be known as Boris Bikes, to my mind) have more than 300,000 regular users. Last year, four rival bike-share companies arrived in the capital. There’s acid green Urbo in Waltham Forest, Ofo, OBikes and Mobikes — a Chinese company and the world’s largest shared bicycle operator. It put 500 in Islington and is considering moving into Haringey.You can hire Bromptons in Leytonstone.
Admittedly, there is a safety issue. If you’re hiring a bike spontaneously it’s unlikely that you’ll have a helmet with you but light, foldable protective headgear is being developed by companies such as Old Street-based Morpher, so in theory soon you could keep one in your bag just in case.
Fingers crossed, because I like London better when I can cycle. The Mobike app tells me I’ve burned calories and saved carbon but what I really prize is getting to see the city above ground, without being dependent on unreliable Tubes. Whizzing to work in the morning I get to see the changing light hitting the Serpentine, the trees bursting into blossom and tiny birds racing overhead.
There are even studies that say cycling makes you better at your job — your brain wakes up on the commute, you practise making split-second decisions and you become more resourceful, having to find your way, navigate around white vans and repair tyres.
We’re on the right track — but as with everything, location matters. So, Mo, please give Finsbury Park another go.
