Our Story
In summer 2019, Herefordshire Council worked with Beryl to launch a bike share scheme in Hereford.
The scheme launched on the 29th of July 2019 with an initial roll-out of 70 bicycles across the city and 39 marked bays. There are now 145 pedal bikes and 75 electric bikes available for everyday travel, business and pleasure trips across the city. The scheme has 12,470 registered users.
To hire a bike, people register on the Beryl app and then pick up a bike from one of the marked bays across the City. Ending a ride is as simple, people park in a convenient bay, close the lock and go on their way. The Beryl app shows the locations of bikes so it's easy to find the nearest available bike and bay.
There are now over 70 bays across the operating area in Hereford; 95% of residents live within 5 minute's walk of a bay.
Riders can choose between various payment options including Pay-As-You-Go, Minute Bundles or Day Passes, 24 hours of unlimited riding. Once their ride is complete, users simply close the lock on the bike to complete their ride and make it available for the next person to use.
The bikes have a step-through design suitable for riders from 4'11" to 6'5" and are fitted with Beryl's Laserlight that projects an image of a bike onto the road making the bikes more visible at night and forewarning drivers of the rider's presence.
The introduction of e-bikes has been very successful in supporting more people to try cycling and enabling people to cycle for longer journeys. The e-bikes are averaging three to four journeys per day and to date, with well over 200,000 local journeys have been made, covering almost 495,000 km.
It has also had a significant impact on road congestion, with feedback from users showing that 25.5% of the bike and e-bike journeys in Hereford have replaced road transport journeys - including driving a car/van, being a passenger in a car/van, and using a taxi or riding a motorbike or moped. This equates to a significant environmental impact, saving 16.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of 1,100,915 kettles boiled or almost 96 flights from London to Edinburgh!
Our advice
The bike share scheme implemented by the Council's delivery partner was launched in July 2019 and has been very successful, enabling affordable and convenient access to sustainable travel.
Working closely with Beryl Bikes was critical in enabling this project to be developed.
The use of a local bike-based courier company (Pedicargo) to redistribute the bikes and another (Bike Hub) to maintain the bikes has also increased the sustainability of this project.
Locally, this is seen as a "community project" which significantly benefits the City. The incidence of vandalism and theft has been incredibly low. The Council continues to work with Beryl to provide new promotions to engage with even more potential riders.
Our Changeprint
Our Changeprint can be measured by the number of journeys made using the bike scheme; the number of registered users; the number of kilometres travelled; the number of vehicle journeys replaced by car journeys and consequent savings in CO2 emissions.
