Yesterday, I got back to work from my holiday. I quickly noticed one thing - the hirebike scheme had really taken on, and there were no bikes at the docking stations around Waterloo when I arrived. I walked for ten minutes between the different docking stations from Waterloo to Blackfriars bridge, just to find them all empty until I managed to get a bike from someone that just left his.
I didn't think at the time that empty docking stations at Waterloo would mean full docking stations everywhere else. But it did. When I got to where I was going in Holborn, the first four docking stations I tried were full, and it wasn't until I got into deepest Bloomsbury that I could find a place to get rid of the bike.
I guess the bike redistribution hasn't really followed the usage patterns, and I really hope that someone is looking at the statistics for people trying to return their bikes. The amount of confused biking novices in London competing for the last vacant docking point is sure to affect the accident rate in London.
Today the tube has not been working due to a strike. Oddly enough - at the same time as a major strike is happening in France. I am sure they are not connected, but it certainly makes working in London for a company with French headquarters a bit of a challenge...
I have never seen so many people walking the streets of London as today. The massive train of lemmings leaving Waterloo for the City on foot was outright impressive. But it also meant even fiercer competition over the hirebikes, and I had to walk even farther than yesterday to get one. Returning it proved to be almost impossible, and I had to race two others for the last spot at the only docking station not ridiculously far from where I wanted to go. I won.
Tomorrow, I'm going to go to work at least an hour earlier than I use to, to avoid the struggle and the awkward feeling when walking away from the docking station in front of the two that didn't get to return their bikes...
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