Plymouth’s Beryl Bikes going down a storm as janners ‘cycle five times around the Earth’

More than 26,000 people signed up to the Beryl Bikes scheme in Plymouth last year – and together cycled the equivalent of almost five times around the Earth. Data provided by the company behind the electric bike hire scheme comes after one resident sent pictures of an abandoned bike to PlymouthLive and said ‘is this what Beryl Bikes is all about?’. The e-bikes – which are also found in similar schemes across the country – were introduced to Plymouth in March last year, as part of a sustainable transport initiative developed by .

The fleet of 500 bikes were introduced together with 28 docking stations across the city, and have since been used for more than 75,000 journeys, covering almost 200,000 kilometres. In June, Plymouth City Council said the scheme had been a huge success in its first three months, with more than 15,000 journeys made – and use of the bikes only seems to have accelerated. The company behind the scheme said that 75,669 journeys have been made in Plymouth between the launch and December 27, with 19,575 directly replaced private vehicle journeys.

Together, riders have travelled 196,103 kilometres. That means that more than five tonnes of carbon emissions have been saved. With 26,685 people having signed up to the scheme, users had clocked up 21,158 hours of physical activity.

Mutley man Ian Anderson recently called into question the scheme having found a Beryl Bike abandoned and damaged behind the former Toys R Us building on Western Approach. Mr Anderson said: “I wonder how many others are lying around the city in the same state?” But a spokesman for Beryl Bikes said that on the same date, just 16 e-bikes in Plymouth were unavailable as they had been taken in for repair. Each Beryl Bike has a self-contained suite of onboard sensors to alert the system to events of interest as they occur, such as whether a bike has been left outside of a parking area.

Alerts are processed, logged and quickly made available to on-street teams, who can collect it and either bring it in for repair or use it to rebalance hubs in key locations. A spokesperson for Beryl said: “Guided by our industry leading GPS technology, our on street and customer service teams work incredibly hard to look after scheme practicalities, such as moving vehicles to empty bays or swiftly locating and returning lost or stolen ones. “This approach enables the team to always/often exceed their target of rebalancing the bikes at key hub locations within one hour, ensuring the scheme remains as user friendly and convenient as possible.

“We will continue to work with and Plymouth City Council and will review and take action against serious incidents of vehicle misuse and criminal damage. ” Between March 20 and December 27, 2023: 75,669 journeys across 196,103 kilometres (nearly five trips around the Earth) 21,158. 4 hours of physical activity from users 19,575 of these journeys have directly replaced private vehicle journeys average distance of these trips as 2.

59km and the average duration as 17 minutes our most popular day is Saturday (17. 62% of journeys) and the most popular hour is 5-6pm (7. 82% of journeys) 5.

28 tonnes of carbon emissions saved 26,685 people have signed up to use the scheme Incidents of vandalism or antisocial behaviour involving Beryl branded e-bikes can be reported to a dedicated customer support team 020 3003 5044 between 7am and 9pm Mon-Sun, by email at or through the Beryl app. .