The number of TfL’s bike hire units being declared lost has reached a record number.

The Evening Standard has seen Transport for London figures which show a total of 1,164 of the hire bikes, sponsored by Santander, were lost in the nine months to the end of last September – well up on the 934 lost in the whole of 2020.

TfL classifies a bike as “missing” if it isn’t returned 24 hours after being hired, but waits three months before declaring it “lost” as many are found within days.

The Standard says the number of lost bikes has been rising steadily since 2019, which TfL attributes to “an increase in crime and change in customer behaviour following the launch of dockless bikes”.

The report says this suggests that some riders fail to realise that the Santander-sponsored bikes have to be re-docked in a docking station rather than left in the street.

I says that in addition, 41 so-called “Boris Bikes” were stolen in the first nine months of last year, compared with 77 in 2020, and 65 were broken.

(Picture – Transport for London)