130 e-bikes will soon be available for hire feom the South Yorkshire Combined Mayoral Authority for free for up to three months to promote community and cycling. Mayor Oliver Coppard sets out what he wants to see from the scheme.
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00:00Thank you Oliver, thank you for meeting us here today. We're here in Sheffield City Centre and
00:03there's an awful lot of bikes out today. Can you tell me what we're here to see at all?
00:06Yeah we're still part of South Yorkshire's Cycling Summer so we've got the Grand Prix
00:10event today which is a race across Sheffield City Centre. We've got the Rockburn Ride so
00:14people can just take part in the ride around Sheffield City Centre but we're also announcing
00:18our e-loan bike scheme and our South Yorkshire by bike route which has been designed by Emily
00:23Chapel. 250 kilometre cycle ride across South Yorkshire with eight family-friendly sections
00:28so people can get out and see the best of South Yorkshire by bike.
00:32Especially that about the e-loan bike or the e-bike loan system I suppose, that's a new one
00:36and one that's quite conducive to Sheffield. There are a lot of hills that you might want to not want
00:40to cycle up instead but they're also quite a hard technology to access until the prices come down
00:45one day. Can you tell me what people will be able to access through this and what are the kind of
00:50hurdles towards getting that for themselves? Hopefully no hurdles by bike but look
00:54I can say from personal experience it's obviously not always the easiest place is it to cycle
00:59South Yorkshire and so giving people access to an e-bike through a loan scheme that we've now got
01:05funded through Active Travel England means that more people have that freedom, that choice,
01:09that opportunity to try an e-bike see how it works for them in their day-to-day lives and
01:14move differently across South Yorkshire which is ultimately what we're here to try and do
01:17to support. So look it's a really great scheme we're really confident about that giving people
01:22freedom and choice, that opportunity to try a new way of moving and those e-bikes will be
01:26available through our local councils across South Yorkshire. How many have we got access to now?
01:30So we will have 130 that are immediately available and then through that £500,000
01:34scheme we'll have a load more that are out through our council so that people can access
01:38them between one and three months to try moving differently across South Yorkshire. I've got a
01:41note here saying that it's free for those first three months but people can sign up to it and
01:45there's 130 to get hold of I suppose. How will this screen develop as time goes forward I hope?
01:50So I want to give people more freedom, more choice, more opportunities to move differently
01:54across South Yorkshire. We're taking big steps obviously around the seat ramp, around the bus
01:58franchising system but we also want people to move differently in terms of wheeling, walking
02:02and cycling so we'll have more opportunities through infrastructure that we're putting in
02:06place but also offering people the opportunity to hire, loan or try bikes out in different ways as
02:11well and that will be happening over the next months and years to come. What do you hope to
02:16see out of races today and sort of people enjoying themselves? I just want people to try out cycling
02:22in South Yorkshire in a different way. I want people to see that cycling is something that you
02:25can do for fun, for competition, you can get out and be a bit healthier, a bit fitter and
02:30have a bit of fun in Sheffield City Centre and it's great to see so many people here.