Bike scheme gains thousands of new users in Edinburgh

More than 5,000 trips were made using Edinburgh's new city bikes last week after Just Eat Cycles made the scheme free to use for seven days.

More than 5,327 miles were covered with the bikes in seven days - the equivalent of 409 times along Edinburgh's 13 mile long city bypass, or 57 return trips to Glasgow.

The bikes were launched in September in the capital.

Between Sunday 5 May and Saturday 5,045 trips were made by 3,344 new users.

The free week was planned to coincide with Edinburgh hosting the UK's first ever Open Streets event on Sunday 5 May.

A number of city centre streets will continue to close to traffic on the first Sunday of each month for residents.

Officials said the free week was the busiest to date since the scheme launched and had brought new users.

The figures compare with the average number of trips per week in the first quarter of 2019 being 1,150.

The average number of users per week in the first quarter of 2019 was 550.

The number of trips made in the first week of the scheme going live was 1,203.

Charles Graham, Serco's general manager for Just Eat Cycles, said: "We're really pleased that so many people jumped at the chance to try out the bikes during the free week.

"It's our hope that usage rates will continue to grow, especially as the weather begins to improve and more people uncover the benefits of cycling in the city."

About 500 bikes are positioned around the city's network which is made up of 80 hire points, with yet more set to come over the summer.