I was living in London circa 2010/2011 when some friends from the US came to visit. I recall having to use my card to hire bikes for them (the Barclays/"Boris"

I was living in London circa 2010/2011 when some friends from the US came to visit. I recall having to use my card to hire bikes for them (the Barclays/"Boris" bikes) because it required a tap from a chip+pin card to release them from the locks. My US friends had no such cards. Yet they were clearly ubiquitous enough in the UK at the time to make it a hard requirement for getting a bike.