Edinburgh’s cycle hire scheme is gearing up to celebrate its first anniversary later this month by announcing it is close to racking up 100,000 trips so far.

A total of 98,176 unique trips have been made since the scheme, run by Serco on behalf of Transport for Edinburgh, launched on 17 September 2018.

Currently, there are 75 hire points around the city, and around 500 pedal bikes across the fleet.

Due to the good weather and festival season, August was Just Eat Cycles’ busiest month with approximately 565 trips a day. 17,529 rides were made overall during the month.

Throughout the year the average length trip has sat at around 3km and 23 minutes – although the longest trip made on the bikes is a whopping 65km. The scheme’s is at its busiest during rush hour, with hires spiking between 5pm and 6pm, and also around lunchtimes.

Some of the keenest users have racked up almost 500 trips each on the bikes.

Just Eat Cycles has also recently engaged with the student population of Edinburgh, installing a hire point at the Queen Margaret University campus. Bristo Square, near the University of Edinburgh, continues to be the most popular bike hire point for tourists and students alike.

Charles Graham of Serco, General Manager of Just Eat Cycles said: “People cycling around the streets on our bikes is now a common sight in Edinburgh, and we’ve become part of the transport landscape. In the last year we’ve learnt so much about what people want from their city bike scheme and how they want to engage with cycling in the city.

“Encouragingly, we have seen significant growth over the last six months as well as particular spike in usage between May and August, which leads us to believe we’ll far surpass 100,000 trips in year two.  We’re excited for what the next year holds and to get even more people on our bikes.”

A One Hour Pass is available from £1.50, and a Day Pass is £3, whereas an annual pass costs £90. The Just Eat Cycles app is available to download from the App store and Google Play.