[Brighton] New hire E-bikes in Brighton

[Marty___Mcfly]

Some of the new hire bikes have now popped up along the seafront. Currently only running from the seafront stands - the marina to King Alfred, and Brighton station. Starting with 75 bikes but there will be 900 eventually.

Beryl, A bike & scooter sharing scheme in UK towns and cities

Beryl began back in 2012 with Laserlight. To date, over 350,000 riders have used our bikes, e-bikes, e-scooters and cargo bikes. Download the app and start riding today.

beryl.cc

They seem to be more expensive than the previous pedal bikes- I went from the Palace Pier to the marina and back and that was £4.45. Previous bikes seemed to be around £1.70 for most journeys.

The electric is a bit of a help but there is nothing on the stands to charge the bikes so when the battery runs out - the bike goes out of service until a charged battery is brought out to replace it.

 

[BNthree]

Love the idea and used to use the previous scheme regularly. I could cycle the 6 miles from work and it would cost about £2. With this new scheme it will be cheaper to get the bus. The tourists will love it sauntering along the seafront but as a viable alternative to other forms of transport it is too pricey unless they introduce a tier with an annual payment that includes X amount of minutes a day in it.

 

[Bozza]

I saw the very same Beryl ones in Bournemouth ahead of a gig last week.

They had scooters, e-bikes and pedal bikes.

 

[MattBackHome]

Some of the new hire bikes have now popped up along the seafront. Currently only running from the seafront stands - the marina to King Alfred, and Brighton station. Starting with 75 bikes but there will be 900 eventually.

Beryl, A bike & scooter sharing scheme in UK towns and cities

Beryl began back in 2012 with Laserlight. To date, over 350,000 riders have used our bikes, e-bikes, e-scooters and cargo bikes. Download the app and start riding today.

beryl.cc

They seem to be more expensive than the previous pedal bikes- I went from the Palace Pier to the marina and back and that was £4.45. Previous bikes seemed to be around £1.70 for most journeys.

The electric is a bit of a help but there is nothing on the stands to charge the bikes so when the battery runs out - the bike goes out of service until a charged battery is brought out to replace it.

That sounds very pricey to me

 

[Marty___Mcfly]

The charge is 15p per minute plus an unlocking charge which is think is £1. You can buy ‘bundles’ of minutes in advance but it doesn’t actually work out any cheaper. See if they introduce any other deals.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

I think I've got this right.

The area that the scheme covers is much smaller than the previous one. Basically along the sea front and two thin strips going up to Hove and Brighton stations.

If you leave it out of those areas, you have to pay an additional £10.

Again, I think it's welcome that thre are e-bikes as this is bloody handy if you have to get up Elm Grove or something, but as the scheme doesn't allow you to park your bike up there, it's pointless. I don't really see why you need any electricity to get along the coast. It's all flat.

The whole thing seems like more of an attempt to fleece tourists rather than contribute to a genuine transport solution for the City.

And yes, it's several times more expensive than the previous scheme.

Who signed all this off?

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

The charge is 15p per minute plus an unlocking charge which is think is £1. You can buy ‘bundles’ of minutes in advance but it doesn’t actually work out any cheaper. See if they introduce any other deals.

From memory the old one was 3p or 4p per minute or something.

 

[Marty___Mcfly]

You can’t reserve a bike which is a shame, it was handy to book a bike and know it would be there when you got to it.

The area covered is a bit odd just the seafront and around the 2 stations as you say. To be fair it does go Portslade to Saltdean you just need to park on the seafront.

Is the idea that the scheme will eventually cover all of the previous area and all stands will be able to be used? I did think people are just going to assume they can use any of the stands and then get charged extra.

Maybe the idea of the ‘stands’ goes out the window as they can just be parked anywhere in the zone? The previous bikes you were charged extra if you didn’t park in a stand. That will see them parked all over the place within the zone.

Wow it’s £10 charge to park outside the zone - but if it stays outside for more than £24 hours they charge £80!

 

[Bozza]

I'd guess on two points....

Cost - electricity is a lot more expensive now.
Area - there's a bit of a kick back going on against these schemes. Paris has just voted to ban them - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65154854 - I guess limiting where they can go is designed to mitigate that to some extent.

 

[Stat Brother]

It's a shame they appear to be pricing the natives out of the market.

 

[ditchy]

I guess we have to wait until Lime decide they want to be in the city . That will reduce prices

 

[nickbrighton]

This is crazy pricing, £9 an hour plus a £1 unlock fee - , if you buy bundles in advance you only save the £1 unlocking fee . The current operating area is a tiny strip basically covering the sea front road and two small corridors to hove and brighton stations, so if you actually want to go anywhere on the bikes, you have to return to the seafront or face a £10 fee for which they dont collect it, but will charge you £80 if it isnt returrned to the zone in 24 hours

Why didnt they wait till they had enough bikes to cover the city and have a reasonable operating area, and enough parking bays , at least the scheme would have been useful for people to use the bikes to get around the city.

 

[The Grockle]

I saw the very same Beryl ones in Bournemouth ahead of a gig last week.

They had scooters, e-bikes and pedal bikes.

The scheme works very well. It works out to be pricier than the bus but Bournemouth has terrible road infrastructure and in the holiday season the roads can be gridlocked.

The ones in Bath are much quicker though, hopefully Bournemouth gets those to contend with the hills.

 

[The Grockle]

This is crazy pricing, £9 an hour plus a £1 unlock fee - , if you buy bundles in advance you only save the £1 unlocking fee . The current operating area is a tiny strip basically covering the sea front road and two small corridors to hove and brighton stations, so if you actually want to go anywhere on the bikes, you have to return to the seafront or face a £10 fee for which they dont collect it, but will charge you £80 if it isnt returrned to the zone in 24 hours

Why didnt they wait till they had enough bikes to cover the city and have a reasonable operating area, and enough parking bays , at least the scheme would have been useful for people to use the bikes to get around the city.

It seems pricey but you would cover a huge distance within a city in an hour. They are marketed towards people who what to do relatively short trips i think. They do around 12 mph so you'd probably do the station to the amex in 15/20 minutes so the journey would only cost you a few £££

 

[Marty___Mcfly]

This is crazy pricing, £9 an hour plus a £1 unlock fee - , if you buy bundles in advance you only save the £1 unlocking fee . The current operating area is a tiny strip basically covering the sea front road and two small corridors to hove and brighton stations, so if you actually want to go anywhere on the bikes, you have to return to the seafront or face a £10 fee for which they dont collect it, but will charge you £80 if it isnt returrned to the zone in 24 hours

Why didnt they wait till they had enough bikes to cover the city and have a reasonable operating area, and enough parking bays , at least the scheme would have been useful for people to use the bikes to get around the city.

You only save the £1 unlocking fee on pedal bikes but I think Brighton is going to be all E-bikes so no saving.

 

[Fungus]

Just been introduced in Truro too… not very popular due to the cost, and being ”dumped” everywhere because they don’t have stands. Not very powerful uphill either, which is everywhere from the city centre. Plus reports of kids joy-riding, though I don’t know how they would access them without paying?

 

[dejavuatbtn]

More crazy stuff from the council. Is it making money out of this? Are they safe? How many people will get killed by them in the summer when it’s busy? They should be encouraging walking. Bikes don’t really replace any non green form of transport.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Just purchased an e-bike …promise to TRY not to run anyone over

 

[Stat Brother]

It seems pricey but you would cover a huge distance within a city in an hour. They are marketed towards people who what to do relatively short trips i think. They do around 12 mph so you'd probably do the station to the amex in 15/20 minutes so the journey would only cost you a few £££

If there's somewhere to leave it!

As I always say, The AMEX is excellent to cycle too.
An assisted bike extends that radius and quantity of users massively.
Which obviously in turn removes more pressure from the club and yet the reluctance from all parties is there to see.

It's a real shame the price is ridiculously high - if it were to fail it'll be because 'Brighton is too hilly for bikes, that's why I drive everywhere'.

I bet the amount of people who might have tried and now wont will be quite substantial.
You'd have thought there would be a subsidy available from somewhere, the EU perhaps...





...oh.

 

[The Grockle]

If there's somewhere to leave it!

As I always say, The AMEX is excellent to cycle too.
An assisted bike extends that radius and quantity of users massively.
Which obviously in turn removes more pressure from the club and yet the reluctance from all parties is there to see.

It's a real shame the price is ridiculously high - if it were to fail it'll be because 'Brighton is too hilly for bikes, that's why I drive everywhere'.

I bet the amount of people who might have tried and now wont will be quite substantial.
You'd have thought there would be a subsidy available from somewhere, the EU perhaps...





...oh.

You can leave them anywhere in Bournemouth but you pay slightly less if you park them in a bay which is just painted area on the pavement. They are literally everywhere here and vans come around and switch the batteries frequently and redistribute them.

I thought it was a gimmick at first but I use them regularly in the summer and the slightly higher price compared to the bus is offset by the convenience of being able to travel and park them anywhere within the boundary which round here is probably twice the size of brighton.