00:00Commuting around Canterbury has never been easier with the launch of Kent's first Community Bike Hire Scheme.
00:06From today there'll be a launch number of bikes that'll get up to 120 over the course of the next
00:10couple of weeks
00:10and the scheme is operated on a fixed parking bay basis.
00:16So there'll be coming up to almost 30 parking bays implemented across the city centre
00:20and into the residential areas where people pick up the bike, go for a ride and drop it off back
00:26at any one of the parking bays.
00:28In practice, I wanted to see just how simple this really was, though I think I might have been a
00:33bit too short.
00:35Now, getting about on a beryl bike is fairly straightforward.
00:39You download the app, unlock the bike with a code and then you're away to go.
00:46As you can see, they're really quite fast and you're able to cycle from one end to Canterbury to another
00:51in about 15 minutes.
00:54But this all might seem easier said than done.
00:58Residents might recall a trial in 2020 that left Bird e-scooters strewn around the city.
01:04Though the council at the time of the launch were confident that such a thing wouldn't happen again.
01:09I think it's a very different scheme to the e-scooters.
01:15I think you would be crazy if you were to hire one of these bikes and then dump it alongside.
01:20You have to fill the account and you have to go through that whole process.
01:23But I don't think we foresee those problems and their measures look really, really watertight for that sort of thing.
01:29Yet, come evening, the bikes have met a similar fate.
01:32And there's also a bigger issue around e-bikes, which has frequently made headlines over the past few years.
01:40Safety.
01:41Though beryl seems confident that riders won't need to worry.
01:45Safety is the first and last line in any conversation associated with cycling and particularly hire bikes.
01:52We do absolutely everything we can to encourage safety.
01:56I mean, you do that in several different ways.
01:58First of all, we have a local-based operations team directly employed by beryl who are responsible for maintaining the
02:04assets.
02:05Keeping an asset really well maintained is the most important thing we can do in the first instance for safety.
02:11And then, you know, we have the opportunity to make as many refinements for the bike to fit the area
02:17where we're operating in.
02:18But while the council might be crossing their fingers in the hopes that the bikes won't be left to cause
02:23a nuisance like last time,
02:25I'll be waiting for a five-foot and under model before I can cruise the streets.
02:30Megan Shaw for CAME TV in Canterbury.
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