Cycle hire: how poor parking put a spoke in the wheel of city schemes

Dockless hire bikes lie in a pile on a pavement in central London, where authorities have been trying to find solutions to the problem. Photograph: Joe Dunckley/Alamy

On the narrow streets of Soho, the bright, bulky silhouettes of London’s many hire-scheme bikes are visible on every turn – parked freestanding on roadsides, in docking stations, whizzing past slow-moving traffic and (a particular bugbear for many Londoners) lying horizontal across pavements, sometimes in piles.

The proliferating schemes – the biggest of which include Transport for London’s (TfL) Santander Cycles, founded in 2010, and relative newcomers Lime, HumanForest, Dott and Tier – are undoubtedly popular. Usage of hire bikes appear to be at record levels, with the summer months expected to further increase popularity, and easy access to electric bikes have transformed the lives of many.