Boris Bikes at a docking station pic: ZanMan

Boris Bikes will move into Tower Hamlets and Hackney on March 8 as part of Transport for London’s expansion of the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme.

The move will bring an additional 20 square kilometres of London within reach of the bicycles. The whole of Tower Hamlets, and North Shoreditch in Hackney will benefit from the scheme, with the addition of 2,000 new bikes. Docking points will be established near Bethnal Green, Bow, Mile End and Poplar.

The bicycles are free to use for the first 30 minutes, and TfL suggest journeys in the newly accesible zones, such as Victoria Park to Shoreditch, and Canary Wharf to Liverpool Street.

Since the launch of Barclays Cycle Hire in July 2010, nearly 10 million journeys have been made on the bikes and almost 150,000 Londoners are members of the scheme, hiring bikes frequently.