Photo: Tristan Poyser for Swapfiets
One of the biggest barriers to the mass adoption of cycling in the UK is the fear that your bike will get nicked.
It is fine if you have a secure place to keep it locked up. But often that is not the case.
A new initiative in London seeks to change that.
Swapfiets, which was founded in the Netherlands in 2014, has already gained 3,000 paying customers in the UK since it launched in the summer.
The concept is refreshingly simple. Customers pay a monthly fee for a bike – starting at £17.
There are four models to choose from – from a simple bike suitable for commuting through to an e-bike that a delivery rider might clock up thousands of miles on.
As Bloomberg reports, “Lights and locks are included in the price, along with a guarantee that the company will fix or repair any problems, such as a flat tire, within 48 hours.”
But the real clincher for many is that Swapfiets will replace any bikes that are stolen for a flat fee of just £40.
And the bikes are less likely to be stolen in the first place because they are designed for function rather than style and come complete with a distinctive bright blue front tyre (inspired by the iconic Delftware pottery from where Swapfiets was established).
Bike theft is not the only barrier to cycling, of course. Another major issue is traffic. This helps to explain why the areas in which significant investment has been made into separate cycle lanes – including Hackney, Islington and Southwark – are the areas where Swapfiets is finding the most customers.
Swapfiets is already operating in several other European countries beyond its Netherlands base, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
In Amsterdam, which is famously friendly to cyclists, it has over 60,000 subscribers.
The company now has plans to expand to other UK towns and cities. It says it needs a minimum of 5,000 paying customers in a given area for the price model to work. Birmingham, Manchester, Cambridge and Oxford are all up for consideration.
“We feel that lockdown revealed a huge desire people had for an easier and more comfortable commute,” says Swapfiets CEO Marc De Vries. “It has presented a great opportunity to accelerate the cycling agenda and transform our cities into healthy, green, social environments – bikes are a transport solution for life, not just for lockdown.”
