Spoiler alert: what you are about to read is cycle advocacy.Lime bikes are not authorized to enter Hounslow. That is not their trial area. We are all told they are geo-fenced which, in reality, they are not. They appear all over Chiswick sometimes smack dab in the middle of the pavement in the middle of the day. A few weeks ago people posted a photo of Lime bikes completely blocking the pavement by St Michaels. I regularly send photos to Hanif Khan asking why they continue to block pedestrian movement including the newly reduced pavements due to CS9 construction outside the Best Western. Thankfully, the bikes get removed quickly. But Lime bikes are plunked down wherever whenever because of human behavior which is always unpredictable. I recently had some guy pull up and leave one immediately next to one of our tables out by the garden. I asked what he was doing and if he couldn't leave it a few feet away by the layby. He insisted he wasn't doing precisely what he was doing and then left having done what he claimed he had not. A docking station would go a long way toward mitigating a cyclist's denial. It would also go a long way toward minimizing risk for all pedestrians but particularly for vulnerable pedestrians something LBH and TfL has been criticized for neglecting. I have enquired with LBH past and present about Santander docking stations. Prior to the CS9 consultation and debate we were told by the Santander reps there was not enough demand in this neck of the woods to justify the investment. During the debate we learned that investment is approximately £100,000 per docking station. I always found it amusing that with the likes of Chiswick Business Park, SKY and GSK all coming out in support of CS9, not one of them could pony up £100,000 to connect their employees to the Santander network. Really? And with the original £70 million or so budget of CS9, it seems odd a mere £100,000 isn't included to connect with the other existing dots as it were. So the thought occurred with various experiments being played out on our streets in the form of the "temporary" permanent installation of granite kerbing (nothing says temporary quite like granite - the choice for headstones) I've enquired again with the council regarding the feasibility of connecting to the Santander network now that cycling has supposedly increased. I've no clue what the threshold is to qualify, but I imagine someone here will.
David Lesniak ● 1704d