Knowing and Making

I am impressed. After the last incident, my new key showed up the very next morning. It worked immediately and I have had no problems since. What's more, I have only been charged once  for each of my daily hires and not twice, as I feared. I even made it home tonight with two shopping bags hanging from the handlebars, though I'm not sure if I'll repeat that experiment. In fact, I have nothing to complain about at all, which is both pleasing and strangely frustrating. Sorry if that makes this post a bit boring.

The latest twist in this stupid saga is that my Barclays Cycle Hire key has stopped working altogether. Seems to be a physical failure - the docking stations do not respond at all to the key being inserted. Previously they at least showed a yellow then a red light when I tried. Now it just does nothing. 12 minutes on the phone with TFL did not improve matters: first they claimed that one of the docking stations might be faulty, then that the problem was with the auto-renew feature (same as last time). Then she claimed that I had made a journey already today (not true). Finally she charged my credit card for another day and then, as I fully expected, the key still did not work. The new access period has been confirmed to me by email - twice - so perhaps they've charged me for two. The web interface has no record of anything that's happened today, which makes sense if it's a physical failure. They're sending out a replacement - which will take three working days,...

I've been a fan of the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme ("Boris bikes") since it launched, and have been using it regularly. It is quicker and cheaper than public transport, and has been getting me fitter too. I did hear of a couple of anomalies from friends and media - but if I'm honest, I thought they were probably the fault of the user and not of the system. Clearly some people were not returning the bikes to the docking stations correctly - TFL has been reminding us incessantly to make sure the green light goes on  when you take the bike back - and this was the reason for the extra charges. However, when it happens to me , then clearly it is a fault with the scheme. And in the last couple of days I've had some very annoying experiences. The first was just a bit strange. I logged onto my account and saw the following screen: I can say with complete confidence that I did not cycle in Kensington, Hyde Park or the Strand during those days. The Milroy Walk/Abbey...