TfL Ref: 2163-1617

Thank you for your email received by us on 6 February 2017 asking data sets providing the number of Santander Hire cycles and free slots available at all docking stations sampled throughout the day from 2013 to present.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. You asked for the following:

I would like to analyse the occupancy of the cycle hire docking stations. Currently you provide live data about the occupancy of the docking stations through your unified API. While this is extremely good for providing up to date information, I would like to look at the historic data if it is available.

I would like to request a set of data containing the number of cycles and the number of free slots at all docking stations, sampled throughout the day, maybe every 15 minutes. Ideally this data would cover the same length of time that the cycle hire usage data statistics that you publish on the tfl website, i.e. 2013 to present.

Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

We receive a weekly file which provides the status of each docking station at five to ten minute intervals. Each week contains around one million rows, therefore it would not be feasible to extract this volume of data. Even when looking at 15 minute intervals, we would expect 96 events per docking station per day. Consequently on a daily basis there would be 75,000 rows of data based on an approximate 96 x 780 calculation, or over 27 million per year. Therefore to extract the data you are seeking would take weeks to complete.

Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.

To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. If you want to refine your request or make a Freedom of Information Act request in future, please bear in mind that the Freedom of Information Act allows you to request recorded information held by us. You should identify the information that you want as clearly and concisely as you can, specifying the types of document that you are looking for. You might also consider limiting your request to a particular period of time, geographical area or specific departments of the organisation.

Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, we do not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request.

Please note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request.

In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.

Yours sincerely

Jasmine Howard
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London