LONDON’S Boris Bikes - or something similar - could soon be coming to York.

City highways bosses are expected to rubber stamp a report tomorrow which will set aside £50,000 to investigate the possibility of a London-style bike rental scheme, complete with docking stations where bikes could be collected and returned. They will also look into the possibility of a rental scheme that doesn’t use docking stations.

Cllr Ian Gillies, the council’s executive member for transport, said no decision had yet been made. Many questions would need to be answered before the authority could commit to a scheme, he said.

Nevertheless, on the face of it, and with the right provider, this sounds like a great idea.

We accept that cyclists and motorists don’t always get on. There will always be problems when two such different modes of transport share the same road space. And while the council has done its best to introduce a network of cycle lanes, some off road, there is a limit to how far that can go in a city with a street-plan determined so much by its history.

But cycling is hugely popular in York. And the more people we can encourage to take to their bikes and so leave their car behind, the less polluted and congested the city will become.

Boris Bikes have the potential to encourage locals and visitors alike to take to two wheels.

We’d favour a system with fixed docking stations: the last thing we want is to find bikes being dumped across the city, as has happened in some places. But that aside, we’d welcome this proposal. Just one thing: what on Earth are we going to call them?

Barbara Bikes, perhaps, if they’re brought in while Barbara Boyce is Lord Mayor?