Julian is correct. Unless you buy a pass, Forest Bikes are significantly more expensive from the get go. Without a pass, Voi is half the price of Forest. Voi has zero unlocking fee and only 19p per mile. With Forest you have to pay £1.90 before you start to pedal plus the 29p per mile (£1 to unlock and 90p for service - or just because as I see it). And you have to pay again for each time you want to unlock a bike for subsequent trips. A round trip to/from wherever will cost you £2.90 in service fees exclusive of mileage. Another pertinent example: a Forest subscription is £70; a Lime subscription £8.99. With Lime you then add minutes as you wish to suit your means and need. That Forest subscription gets you 1000 minutes. Period. A risky proposition given they are a second tier provider and their bikes are not always available the way others are in other boroughs. Ergonomically Forest are inferior for taller people. It's like riding a kid's bike even when the seat is at the highest setting. So what was an enjoyable ride on a Lime is now unpleasant on a Forest.Voi Bikes are not allowed in Hammersmith. And the motor dies out when you cross Goldhawk Road. You can't leave the bike in Hammersmith. You have to double back into Chiswick to park it. Slogging along without the battery. Voi bikes are allowed in Kensington and beyond. So the patchwork approach doesn't work. That's not on Hounslow, per se, but it is on them not to have taken this into account when selling us "economics" and "choice." There is none. It is a monopoly for Forest for anyone wishing to ride west of Goldhawk Road. And they are the most expensive of the options. You'll note there is no discussion re Santander. Although I saw recently there was. Twice we engaged on that front. Once with Santander direct when we first arrived in Chiswick when we were told there wasn't enough demand. Then during the cycle debate where we were accused of being anti-cycling when in fact what we were asking was where are the Santander bikes in this expensive proposition called CS9 or whatever its called these days. As for Guy's comment, you can easily tell which is a scooter and which is a bike on the Voi app. If there is only a number showing, zoom in and it will tell you how many of each option is at that location. Usually scooters. So the track record for Hounslow is they have given access to a mere 20% of provisions for e-hire schemes. This after TfL spent millions to connect town centers. Katherine Dunne, et al, disconnected town centers and reduced the number of bikes because they couldn't manage the challenge. They simply couldn't handle the volume. So their choice was to reduce the volume. Not a very sustainable proposition for future growth by any measure. And now we have the Lime report about the uptick of riders on Hammersmith Bridge. Sadly, none of those potential customers will make it to Chiswick.From a user perspective, the Forest app is full of promotions and ads galore. And that's with a subscription. It always takes two tries to get a bike. And they do that inane bit of taking a deposit and refunding it after each ride. So you then get the bank alerts as well. All I want is the bike. Not the rest of the garbage they send my way. Voi I walked up and got it. Simple. Lime was the same but in the early hours they double check to see if you're fit to ride so one additional click is needed. In case anyone is curious, I have used all three apps and services. I am a Lime customer as my day-to-day takes me to Chiswick, Hammersmith and Kensington. I now have two subscriptions to cover my bases. A needless increase in expenses.And yes, I still think the cycleway is garbage. Poorly designed, and poorly signed. But thank heavens for those professional TfL designers everyone was going on about. They managed to create a flooded cycleway when it drizzles. Bravo.
David Lesniak ● 30d