A fleet of up to 700 shared electric bikes, set to be rolled out in Nottingham in the coming months, have been described as a leisurely travel solution. Similar to the e-scooter trials, the bikes would be made available to hire across the city on a pay-as-you-go basis, potentially from as early as March.
The scheme comes from a partnership between Nottingham City Council and e-bike providers Lime, which runs the same scheme in London. Councillor Audra Wynter, portfolio holder for transport at the city council, told Nottinghamshire Live they could be used for both commuting and leisure
"With e-scooters you can't carry your shopping but with the e-bike you can," she said. "They will be a more leisurely solution when people travel but they can also take people to work."
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The e-bikes will be available for hire via the Lime app, which can be downloaded on Apple or Android smartphones, and will work only within city council boundaries. Hal Stevenson, senior public affairs manager for Lime, said the company was delighted, adding: "Our new service will offer residents and visitors an active and sustainable travel option to get around the city."
The scheme was mentioned during the Nottingham Transport Summit, held by Midlands Connect - the body responsible for bringing transport projects to the Midlands - and the city council at Nottingham Trent University on Monday, January 16. Also discussed were multi-million pound plans for cutting train travelling times from Nottingham to Lincoln.
The plans, which would come at a cost of £18 million if approved by the Department for Transport, would reduce travel times between the two East Midlands cities by two to five minutes. Tracks would be renewed and signals changed in order to increase the speed capacity from 70mph to 75mph.
Tawhida Yaacoub, senior rail programme manager at Midlands Connect said the improvements would be delivered in 2026 at the earliest but would encourage more people to ditch their cars when travelling in either direction. “Two minutes on a train is different to two minutes in a car," she said.
"Reducing your journey time by to to five minutes is much more beneficial and encouraging to make the decision, rather than opting for a car you'd go by train. She said it would benefit commuters and be a boost to the leisure industry.
"More people are travelling by train to visit historical locations, attractions on the line than business commuters. You've also got those who are trying to access education and employment," said Ms Yaacoub. Midlands Connect also aim to increase the number of trains on the route to two per hour, but this is dependent on HS2.
Ms Yaacoub also outlined proposals for a direct line from Nottingham to Coventry which state the fastest end-to-end journey time would be slashed from 104 to 70 minutes, creating transport and wider economic benefits of £170 million.
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