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Brighton close to getting cycle hire scheme - but are cost-benefit figures ludicrously optimistic?

Council awaits £1m funding decision this week based on hopeful reports of benefits

Brighton and Hove is close to gaining approval for a ‘Boris Bike’ style cycle hire scheme with up to 430 bikes.

The scheme, funded to the tune of £1.5m, will have operating costs of around £700,000 per year, and require six full time staff to restock and run the 50 docking stations.

£290,000 of the start-up costs of the scheme could be provided by Brighton and Hove Council, with proposed funding of £1.16m from the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

An independent assessment of the scheme said: “The promoting authority (Brighton and Hove City Council) claims that the scheme would have a benefit to cost ratio (BCR) of 4.99 to 1.

“If confirmed, this would mean that the scheme was very high value for money as defined by the Department for Transport,” Brighton and Hove News reported.

However the report does not that the estimates are very high, given that the the outturn BCR for the London Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme is 0.7: 1, which would be classified as ‘poor’ by the Department for Transport.

This casts doubt on the claimed BCR of 4.99: 1 for the Brighton bike share scheme.

It continues: “The promoting authority disputes this assessment, stating that the assessor has placed too much emphasis on the London scheme.

“They contend that a number of unfavourable outcomes would be needed for a poor BCR, eg, low or no sponsorship, increased costs, lower than expected usage.”

We have been reporting on the proposed scheme since 2011 at road.cc, since the council first conducted a feasibility study on the possibility of implementing one in the South Coast resort.

Green councillor Ian Davey told the BBC at the time that he was glad that plans for a cycle hire scheme were being studied, but added “whether they're looking at it seriously or not is the big question. There's a real danger of it not being done properly."

Paul Topham, owner of bike repair and maintenance business South Coast Bikes, told the BBC: "It's just to try and distract from spending a million pounds ripping up the cycling infrastructure," referring to plans to remove a segregated bike lane in Hove.

A council spokesman maintained that there was substance to the plans, however, saying: "We're always trying to encourage visitors to see as much of Brighton and Hove as possible whilst they are in the city.

"So having a quick, healthy and non-polluting way to explore all the city's sights would help people get more from their stay, whether they are here on a business or leisure visit."


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12 comments

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Iamnot Wiggins | 9 years ago
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Shame they won't spend a similar amount of money on fixing Preston Park track.

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LarryDavidJr replied to Iamnot Wiggins | 9 years ago
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Iamnot Wiggins wrote:

Shame they won't spend a similar amount of money on fixing Preston Park track.

Well, they haven't said anything at all yet, so lets not get too down about it  1

On that subject, something happening at the town hall 3pm this Thursday (March 26th) if anyone can attend. It's too late notice for me to take off from work sadly but the more people than can attend the better.

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Manchestercyclist | 9 years ago
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It'd be rather more worthwhile just to buy a whole load of 3 speed town bikes and give them away to people likely to use them. That's the best way to kickstart a cycling 'revolution', for that sort of money you cna buy a lot of bikes.

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Municipal Waste replied to Manchestercyclist | 9 years ago
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GREGJONES wrote:

It'd be rather more worthwhile just to buy a whole load of 3 speed town bikes and give them away to people likely to use them. That's the best way to kickstart a cycling 'revolution', for that sort of money you cna buy a lot of bikes.

Couldn't have said it better myself!

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A V Lowe | 9 years ago
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Perhaps if those commentators actually did a bit more research, they would a) understand why London's scheme incurs such crippling AND avoidable operating costs and b) how to deliver a bike hire scheme, faster, and at a fraction of the set-up costs incurred by TfL.

Such systems must work fairly well some have been running for over a decade - commercially - you don't do that with a BCR of less than 1 for very long.

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LarryDavidJr | 9 years ago
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Now if they could re-invent the 'park and ride' to mean ride a bike instead of the bus and try to keep as much tourist motor traffic out of the city centre in summer as possible .... that would be a winner.

A big, just out of town, v cheap car park with a large bike rental station in it, and a safe, separate, as flat as possible cycle path into the town ..... bingo.

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Kadinkski replied to LarryDavidJr | 9 years ago
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LarryDavidJr wrote:

Now if they could re-invent the 'park and ride' to mean ride a bike instead of the bus and try to keep as much tourist motor traffic out of the city centre in summer as possible .... that would be a winner.

A big, just out of town, v cheap car park with a large bike rental station in it, and a safe, separate, as flat as possible cycle path into the town ..... bingo.

Yeah, a car park and bike hire station just outside of town is a great idea!

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Nick T | 9 years ago
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They should stick a few more giant concrete plant pots in the middle of London Road with the money.

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LarryDavidJr | 9 years ago
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Can't see the point in Brighton to be honest. Its nowhere near the size of London, so you simply don't need to travel around that much. People who want to travel by bike generally already have one. Plus, its quite hilly once you leave the seafront.

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Kadinkski replied to LarryDavidJr | 9 years ago
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LarryDavidJr wrote:

Can't see the point in Brighton to be honest. Its nowhere near the size of London, so you simply don't need to travel around that much. People who want to travel by bike generally already have one. Plus, its quite hilly once you leave the seafront.

Yeah, if they're anything like the tanks that the boris bikes are they'd be a nightmare on the hills around Brighton. I imagine they'd be popular in the summer, along the promenade and down to the marina. Might be okay for getting up to Falmer and back too. Not sure how much use they'd get in the winter, but I'll always support anything that gets more cyclists on the roads.

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LarryDavidJr replied to Kadinkski | 9 years ago
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Kadinkski wrote:

Might be okay for getting up to Falmer and back too.

I now have images of hordes of pi**ed up away fans weaving their way along the falmer road to/from the stadium or, god forbid, along the A27. All to the tune of 'ride of the valkyries' for some reason.

The promenade would be nice to use them on, but have you ever tried using that cycle path in the summer? There are simply far too many pedestrians to make using it anything other than a nightmare.

Ah, there I go, being all glass half full again ....

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Wolfshade | 9 years ago
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It would be very interesting to see how they calculated their bcr ration.
Since most cycle schemes suffer that the decongestion savings are eclipsed by the reduction in money through tax (fuel duty + vat).

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