07 Sep 07

Staff at Oxford University are to be offered a free 'pick up and pedal' bicycle service in an effort to combat traffic congestion and reduce carbon emissions.

The University is to introduce a pilot scheme this winter for its staff, creating bicycle stations in Headington and the city centre. Initially the scheme will only involve a few dozen bicycles, but there are plans to eventually roll it out to include students, and later the whole city, with up to 2,000 hire bicycles being made available. Oxford Brookes is also expected to sign up for the trial.

Users will have to register and give debit card details as a security precaution so that bicycles are returned. The national firm OYbike is likely to be the bicycle provider - it has developed a system, which allows bicycles to be hired and returned via mobile phones, with pin codes sent by text.

The University has already been involved in discussions with Oxford city council and bus companies about a scheme covering the whole city, with bicycle-hire stations in the Park-and-Rides. The pilot scheme by the city's universities will be a test-bed, upon which the local councillors and bus companies will base their decisions on how to proceed with the citywide project.

The first bicycle stations will be set up around the city's hospital sites in Headington, as well as at Brookes University's Gipsy Lane campus and the Marston School of Health in Marston Road. There are plans for other stations at the University's Old Road Campus and in the city centre.

The University's Sustainable Travel Officer Ed Wigzell said: 'Self service bicycle hire has been tried in the past, but failed due to problems with theft and bike design. Advances in technology have enabled more recent schemes, such as those in Paris, London, Lyon and Brussels to be very successful. The University is very excited to be involved in introducing a similar scheme in Oxford.'

Recent staff surveys indicate that 30 per cent of University staff already regularly cycle to work, a figure that is ten times higher than the national average. Ed Wigzell said: 'The University is still keen to do even more to help reduce congestion in the city centre and contribute towards the University's carbon dioxide emissions reduction target.'

Such bicycle bank schemes are already running in other European cities, most notably in Paris where in July thousands of bicycles were made available for the first time at hundreds of high-tech stations.