B1 reading: City bikes for everyone

Five years ago, if you wanted to cycle in our city, you needed your own bike and a lot of courage. There were few bike lanes, and the traffic was heavy. Today there are bright green bikes at more than two hundred stations across the city, and on a sunny morning it can be hard to find a free one.

The bike-sharing scheme is simple. You download an app, register your bank card and scan the code on a bike to unlock it. Members pay forty pounds a year, and the first thirty minutes of each journey are free for them. After that, every extra half hour costs one pound. When you finish, you leave the bike at any station.

The scheme has been more popular than anyone expected. In the first year, people made about one million journeys. Last year the number was almost four million. Many users cycle to work or to the station, but the bikes are also popular with tourists, who use them to see the sights.

The city has also built forty kilometres of new bike lanes, separated from the cars. Sarah, a nurse who cycles to the hospital every day, says this has made the biggest difference. "I tried cycling before, but I was scared of the lorries," she says. "Now I feel safe, and I get to work faster than by bus."

Not everyone is happy, though. Some drivers say that the new lanes have made the roads narrower and the traffic worse. Shop owners on one busy street complained that they lost customers when parking spaces were removed. And there are practical problems. In the morning, the stations in the centre are full of bikes and there are none in the suburbs, so the company has to move hundreds of bikes by van.

Overall, though, the city council says the scheme is a success. Air quality in the centre has improved, and a survey found that one in five users had not cycled for years before the scheme started. The council now plans to add electric bikes for people who live on the hills around the city.