The introduction of so-called Boris Bikes into London has mostly had positive effects on health, researchers say today.
But a question mark remains about their benefits for women cyclists in the centre of the city – where there have been deaths of riders.
Overall the health benefits of the bikes have outweighed the effects of accidents and air pollution, researchers report in the British Medical Journal.
The bike scheme was introduced by London Mayor Boris Johnson allowing travellers to hire bikes from stands.
Similar schemes are in place in other major European cities.
Researchers found that in a single year nearly 600,000 people used the scheme in London, making 7.4 million trips and spending more than two million hours cycling.
Researcher Dr Anna Goodman, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "When the cycle hire scheme was introduced, there were widespread concerns that increasing the number of inexperienced cyclists in central London would lead to higher injury rates. Our findings are reassuring, as we found no evidence of this.
"On the contrary, our findings suggest that the scheme has benefitted the health of Londoners and that cycle hire users are certainly not at higher risk than other cyclists."
Fellow researcher Dr James Woodcock said there were limited benefits for many of the younger adults using the bikes.
He added: "If cycling in central London was as safe as in cities in the Netherlands, the health benefits from initiatives like the cycle hire scheme would be far more substantial. The Netherlands manages to achieve high levels of cycling with low risks, not by focusing on helmets and hi-vis, but by providing high quality infrastructure that physically protects cyclists from busy, fast moving traffic."
* Mr Johnson was helping the government today launch a new scheme to promote physical activity as part of the legacy of the 2012 London Olympics.
The project was being launched at a primary school in Hackney, where Mr Johnson has funded a portable swimming pool to help children learn to swim.
BMJ 14 February 2014 [abstract]
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