I love using the Boris Bikes in London for the first time a couple of weeks back - nice big sturdy things, but oh my word the system is shakey. The app crashed a lot, then the terminals at the bike parks were "disconnected" and couldn't process a hire. But is there much room for competition in bike hire? Surely these things need massive city subsidies?
The official Boris bike app is lame, but fortunately no user of Boris bikes ever has to use it, as they have a solid API. You can get a fantastic experience with apps like CityMapper, which incorporate Boris bikes into the overall public transport landscape. They show you live maps with availability. (Hopefully they'll integrate the newer bike platforms too soon.)
What has stopped me from using the Boris bikes is how unreliable the payment system is. It seems like there's a 25% chance that any given bike station will reject my card for an unknown reason.
