51Âþ»­

Britain has seen a bicycling boom during lockdown with sales of cycles soaring and studies showing a surge in cyclists, particularly among children and teenagers.

Now Leicester is set to become home to the UK’s biggest ebike share programme with 500 bikes being hired out to the public from this spring.

And next week, the people behind the Santander Cycles Leicester project – cycle organisation Ride On and Leicester City Council – will be giving insights into the scheme, how it will work and how it fits with the city’s growing reputation for sustainable and environmentally-friendly travel.



Deputy City Mayor, Councillor Adam Clarke, Jack Holland of Ride On, Robin Pointon of Go Travel Solutions will join host Dr Andrew Reeve of Sustainable 51Âþ»­ for the

The Demo series is run by 51Âþ»­ Leicester (51Âþ»­)’s Innovation Centre to highlight innovations and inventions that are happening here in Leicester.

Coun Clarke will share insights into the city’s plan to encourage more people to use cycles and its work to introduce electric buses, along with the new plans for St Margaret’s Bus Station, set to be the first carbon-neutral bus depot in the country.

Robin Pointon, the founder of Leicester company Go Travel Solutions will talk about the future of travel and the projects in the city.

Jack Holland of Ride On will showcase the technology behind the Santander ebikes programme, which runs from an app that gives cyclists a virtual keycard that will unlock the bikes. Kiosks will also be installed around the city printing cards that also give access.

Ride On launched an ebike scheme in Dundee in November which has been a huge success, and Jack said they are hoping for a similar reaction when Leicester’s programme officially launches in Spring.

The £600,000 ebike scheme will be tested before the launch date with key workers and major Leicester businesses being offered the chance to try out the bikes and feed back.

He said: “The response in Dundee was phenomenal. We saw a large number of people using them in the evenings and weekends to get their daily exercise in, and we also tapped into people who hadn’t been on a bike in years. One woman sent a picture of her mother, 73, who had not been on a bike in 40 years trying the ebikes.

“We’ll be showing people how the app works and once the test period is over, we’ll be opening it up to key employers across Leicester.”

Santander UK is sponsoring the scheme following a successful bid for Government funding. 51Âþ»­’s Innovation Centre has been chosen to be one of the on-street docking stations for the bikes across the city.

Dr Andrew Reeves, of 51Âþ»­’s Institute for Energy and Sustainable Development, is hosting the event. He will be asking his Master’s students to be part of a study assessing the effectiveness of the scheme.