Edinburgh launches two-year e-bike hire trial ahead of festival season
Posted on in Business News , Cycles News
A new e-bike hire scheme is set to launch in Edinburgh on a two-year trial basis, with the aim of having bikes on the streets ahead of this summer’s Fringe Festival.
The pilot is expected to begin in August, with 100 to 200 e-bikes concentrated in the city centre, possibly scaling up to between 600 and 800 bikes in wider parts of the city depending on demand.
Several companies, including Dott and Lime, are in the running to operate the service, with the final provider expected to be chosen through a competitive process. The scheme will come at no cost to the City of Edinburgh Council, with all funding and operational responsibilities falling to the chosen operator.
The e-bikes will be speed-limited in high-footfall zones, with automatic restrictions applied to reduce risks to pedestrians.
The scheme marks a fresh attempt at bike hire in the Scottish capital, four years after the previous Just Eat Cycles initiative was scrapped following widespread theft, vandalism, and high running costs of £1.5 million per year. Advances in technology have played a key role in enabling the trial to move forward, allowing for tighter control over bike speeds and designated pick-up and drop-off areas.
Transport convener Stephen Jenkinson, who has backed a summer launch since December, said the city was taking a measured approach. He said: “It’s reasonable to have a trial predominantly focused in the city centre to prove the demand is there before expanding it out. If the demand is there, I can certainly see the scheme expanding, with the coverage moving across much of Edinburgh.
“One of the advantages of a newer form of this scheme is the technology has advanced to such an extent that the service can flex quite quickly. If there are areas that either we or the provider are uncomfortable with, that can be discussed and managed. We can control not only the locations where the bikes can be picked up and dropped off but also the speed with which the bikes can be used in different parts of the town.
“You might allow a bike to go a certain speed in a certain part of town, but in other, more pedestrian areas, you might want to govern the speed at which the cycles can travel from a safety point of view. We have a level of control that previously wasn’t technically possible.”
Mr Jenkinson added that only electric bikes would be available under the scheme, given Edinburgh’s hilly terrain.