Dublin peddles cycle hire tips to Boris Johnson

The man behind Dublin's successful bicycle hire scheme today offered tips to Mayor Boris Johnson.

The demand in Ireland was more than three times higher than expected and city bosses are now rushing to provide extra bikes and rental stations for the 17,000 people who have signed up.

The London rental scheme will start this summer with around 400 bicycle docking stations in Zone 1.

Andrew Montague, a Dublin councillor, said: "We learnt a lot from Paris when we set up the scheme, and I think London could learn a lot from us. We found that bike stations need to be in areas of very high footfall. If these stations are in public places, people won't try to steal them."

The Dublin scheme, which launched last September, has 450 bikes and 40 rental stations. The team found they needed to move bikes around to stop stations getting empty.

Each stand in London will have around 26 bikes. Users pay £45 annually and get a bike key, or £150 caution money on a credit card. They will then pay an access fee (£1 a day, £5 a week), plus rental charge. The first half hour is free.

A TfL spokesman said: "We've looked at successful cycle hire schemes around the world and have the advantage of being able to take those into account."