A friend who died far too young was an early adopter. He had the first iPod, the first mobile phone. So when some cool new invention comes along, I like to explain it to him in my head.
“Dan, there are these electric bikes for hire on every street corner. You pay with your phone and —wheeee! — off you go, anywhere in London. Then you park it and just take another one home.” I imagine his disbelief, then delight, that these sophisticated high-end devices would be there to whizz him from Soho to Notting Hill.
London is divided between users, who love electric hire bikes, and non-users, who complain that they’re cluttering pavements every-bloody-where. Especially Lime bikes, the most ubiquitous brand. There are