Clumps of bright yellow bicycles are springing up around BBC Television Centre like weeds.

Inquiries reveal that they're for a pilot scheme called OYBike, which will allow the public to zoom around Hammersmith and Fulham on bikes hired through their mobile phones.

Aside from the prospect of cyclists being crushed under the wheels of the heavy goods vehicles that rumble over Hammersmith Flyover, the scheme seems interesting and worthwhile.

How long the bikes will survive in the al fresco crack den that is Shepherd's Bush Green, though, remains to be seen.