Beryl and Dorset Council are offering the service through the new Southeast Dorset bike share scheme, which links up with the existing Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) scheme.

It is being funded through Southeast Dorset’s Transforming Cities Fund (TCF)1 programme.

The new scheme launched ahead of national Cycle to Work Day on Thursday 4 August. The event aims to encourage workers all around the country to get on their bikes and get into work on two wheels.

By providing 122 bikes and more than 50 bays across the area, it is hoped that the scheme will inspire even more people to take up sustainable travel, helping to improve air quality and public health.

Beryl CEO Phil Ellis said: “As with all of our schemes, this scheme has been designed to provide the best possible service for users by being delivered both in partnership with the local authority and in consultation with communities and key stakeholders.”

Cllr Simon Gibson, Dorset Council’s lead member for Highways, said: “Active travel is a core part of our Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy, and will help us reduce Dorset’s carbon emissions to net zero. This means we need to make cycling easy and accessible for as many of our residents as possible.

“Setting up the Beryl Bike scheme in Dorset is an exciting opportunity not only to help protect the natural environment, but help people get active and even save money at a time when fuel is so expensive. And with local cycling infrastructure currently being developed through our Transforming Travel programme with BCP Council, there has never been a better time to hop on a bike in East Dorset.”

Launched in April 2019, the BCP bike share scheme currently has 900 bikes and 250 e-scooters. The Dorset scheme will increase the total number of available bikes in the region to more than 1,000. As of 1 August, riders made over 1,099,500 journeys over a distance of more than 4,147,780 km since the launch.

Feedback from users shows that over a quarter of journeys in the BCP Council region have replaced road transport journeys – including driving a car/van, being a passenger in a car/van, using a taxi or riding a motorbike or moped – and it is expected the Dorset scheme will achieve the same.

This equates to over 607 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions saved: the equivalent of around 40 million kettles boiled or more than 3,551 flights from London to Edinburgh.

Riders can hire a Beryl Bike through the Beryl app, available for download on the App Store for iOS, and the Google Play Store for Android users. The bikes can be picked up and dropped off in marked ‘Beryl Bays’.

Riders have a payment choice of Pay-As-You-Ride (£1 unlock fee + 5p per minute), Minute Bundles (no unlock fee and bundles starting at 100 minutes for £5) or Day Passes (24 hours of unlimited riding for £12). Once their ride is complete, users simply close the lock on the bike to complete their ride and make it available for the next person to use.

For more information on the Beryl Bikes scheme, visit https://beryl.cc/bikeshare/riders