If you own an Android phone and think your going to give the cycle hire scheme a try then you’ll be glad to hear an App has been developed. It is called London Cycle Hire and can be downloaded from Android Zoom for just 50p.
The app helps you find the nearest cycle hire station. It also integrates a clever little timer to keep track of how long you have been using the hire bike so you don’t go over your free 30 minutes.
See also:
Or you could use the free Augmented Reality app Layar:
layar://tflcyclehire (Android)
http://m.layar.com/open/tflcyclehire
Does this app display the number of available bikes and places also ?
Is there any API to access the data similarly to what we have in Paris with Vélib like http://www.velib.paris.fr/service/carto and http://www.velib.paris.fr/service/stationdetails/01001 ?
This API is used for example to display availability on a Google Maps http://www.parisavelo.net/ .
I think the App I featured will display information about how many bikes are available.
kael, TfL doesn’t actually have a useful API for the bicycles yet (Oct 2010), but in the meantime you can use the following site to get that info:
http://borisapi.heroku.com/
We have an app (also free) which was showing live bikes & spaces data by 10am this morning. I think it’s very useful, although obviously I’m biased. 🙂
Look for Cycle Hire Widget in the Market if interested.
Hi Andreas, Just thought I’d let you know the London Cycle Hire app has been updated to include live data on bike and space availability! More screens can be seen here http://blog.ifuller1.info/?p=104
Cheers,
Ian
Hi All,
I got frustrated with the lack of a simple and quick mobile app to find the nearest docking stations so I wrote a quick one that seems to work pretty well:
http://www.cercalondon.co.uk/borisbikes
It’s not an app, you don’t have to download anything and expecially it works on all browsers.
It does not use the the GPS on your phone so you have to enter your current location, it accepts coordinates, postcodes, addresses, places of interestes, anything you can find on Google maps basically.
You can search for available bikes or docks (updated every 15 mins) and it returns the nearest 5.
I’m not trying to make money out of it, just like to know what you think.
Thanks,
F.