Forest’s Shared eBikes Roll Into Ealing
Shared eBike scheme Forest has switched on its service in Ealing, pushing its London footprint to 20 boroughs. The west London borough joins a growing patchwork of docked and dockless hire zones that riders can now access via the operator’s app, with bikes appearing on residential streets and near transport hubs across the area.
Forest says the rollout forms part of a steady expansion strategy that has seen it fill in gaps across the capital’s outer boroughs, areas often overlooked by earlier hire schemes that focused on central London. Ealing’s addition means commuters and leisure riders in the borough can now pick up a pedal-assist bike for short hops without needing to own one.
For everyday riders, the significance lies less in racing headlines and more in access: cheap, on-demand eBikes lower the barrier to cycling for people who might otherwise drive or rely on buses, and every new borough added chips away at London’s reliance on cars for short journeys. It also puts more electric bikes, and more new riders, on the capital’s roads, which matters for how drivers and infrastructure planners think about shared space in the years ahead.
Forest’s expansion continues a broader trend among London’s eBike operators, who have been racing to cover as much of the city as possible amid competition from rival schemes and tightening regulations on dockless parking. Whether Ealing residents take to the scheme in similar numbers to more central boroughs will be a useful test of demand beyond the capital’s traditional cycling hotspots.
More from e-bikes on On Track Magazine.
Reported from an announcement by Cycling Industry News. Read the original.
