Pedal bikes will be rolled out across the city as part of the cycle hire scheme, as well as new cheaper pricing options.
Beryl will add 100 new e-bikes and 50 pedal bikes to its fleet of 125 e-bikes across Brighton and Hove from next Friday (August 18), with more set to be added in the near future.
By the autumn, a total of 780 bikes are set to be available, including 478 e-bikes and 312 pedal bikes.
The new pedal bikes will be available at a reduced cost, with two-day, seven-day and 30-day riding passes also offering discounted hire rates.
Two-day passes will cost £12 for 100 minutes, amounting to 12p per minute. A seven-day pass will cost £24 for 300 minutes, amounting to 8p per minute. A 30-day pass will cost £32 for 800 minutes, amounting to 4p per minute.
Each pass has a journey cap of 30 minutes, at which point charges move to a “pay as you ride tariff” - costing 8p per minute for pedal bikes and 16p per minute for e-bikes, plus a £1 unlock fee for either bike.
Additional hubs are also set to be brought back into use across the city, expanding the cycle zone from the seafront and city centre to include Seven Dials, Kemp Town, Round Hill and Brunswick.
Since the relaunch of the bike scheme in April, the bikes have been used for almost 44,000 journeys, spanning more than 166,000km across the city - equivalent to cycling around the world four times.
Councillor Trevor Muten, chairman of the transport and sustainability committee on Brighton and Hove City Council, said: “It’s great to hear that we’ll soon be seeing more Beryl bikes on the streets of Brighton and Hove and that users will be
offered cheaper pricing options.
“We have heard what people have said about pricing and so I’m really pleased to see that the new riding passes will bring down the cost to users. This is really important if we want more people to cycle around our great city.
“The new scheme has been very popular since the relaunch. More bikes and a bigger hire zone mean they’ll be accessible to thousands more residents and visitors.
“Beryl BTN Bikes are an easy and affordable way to get around the city. The new e-bikes have made even some of the hilliest areas so much easier to access and for those that still want the full pedal bike experience, that’s now an option too.”
Beryl CEO and co-founder Phil Ellis said he has been delighted with the initial reaction to the scheme and thanked users for their “valuable feedback”.
He said: “It’s really exciting that we can now focus on expanding and making our bikes more convenient and accessible to even more people, opening them up to a wider range of uses, such as shopping or commuting.
“To coincide with expansion, we’re also offering a brand new range of pricing options that will enable people to ride as cheaply as 4p per minute.
“With bike share also removing the additional costs of fuel, insurance, tax, MOT, maintenance and storage associated with private vehicle ownership, it really is a cost-effective way to get around the city.”
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/23712848.brighton-pedal-bikes-return-bike-hire-scheme/
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)