Chinese company ‘Ofo’ have announced plans to launch its bike-sharing scheme in Cambridge this March, allowing users to hire bikes through an Uber-style smartphone app. The self-standing yellow bikes can be dropped off and picked up from publicly accessible locations, with each trip estimated to cost under £1.

Cambridgeshire County Council transport officer Hilary Holden expressed the Council’s eagerness to “continue to develop a leading transport network for the future” in partnership with Ofo. Speaking to Cambridge News, she asserted that “the City Deal will continue to work with partners in the community, higher education, and business to ensure that our transport system is fit-for-purpose and uses opportunities from new and emerging technology.”

“Further proof, if any is needed, that Cambridge is the biggest small city in the world, and ready and able to embrace innovative new technology.”

Founded in 2014, Ofo currently have 10 million registered users in China, and claim to be the first company in the world to operate a ‘non-docking’ bike rental system online. Ofo is available in 24 cities and 200 universities in China, with plans to also expand to Singapore and Stanford University, California in 2017.

In 1993 a similar scheme was launched in Cambridge, called the Green Bike pick-up-drop-off, where the bicycles were from the police pound and had been painted green by offenders during criminal service. However, this scheme was abandoned after six months as most of the bikes went missing after the launch.