Why does melb ned helmets when cities with traffic just as heavy and just as few bike lanes, don’t require them, and mantain very good safety records. Helmets make things worse, actually. They encourage more risky riding and drivers are less careful around riders with helmets.

1950s…

I just came back from Osaka, Japan, and was very impressed with the bike culture there: http://www.runmuki.com/paul/writing/japantrip.html

Bikes are everywhere, thousands of them, on footpaths, and no one making any fuss! I saw a policeman straightening bikes near a subway station to so more people can fit in!

Here is another picture of bikes in Osaka: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1734176

Cheers,

Pyotr

Feel free to get back to me with a nyah, nyah, na, nyah, nyah when you witness people actually doing this in decent numbers.

As others have said there are (comparatively) few bikes and few places to pick them up and leave them. People commuting into town and planning to complete their journey to work require absolute certainty and convenience – they need to be absolutely certain that there will be a bike waiting for them, near where they get off the train, and they need to be absolutely certain that there will be a space very near their place of work to get rid of the bike when they arrive. 10 or 15 minutes in total of dicking around looking for bikes, looking for docking stations, walking from docking stations to the office etc etc = LATE FOR WORK!!!

Tangentially, and regrettably (speaking as a “sit up” rider) , the types of bikes available in the scheme do not match the types of bikes that most Australian cyclists ride or consider normal. Whether this has the effect of turning them off the scheme, or turning them on to “sit up” bikes remains to be seen. I’m not sure the average weekend Beach Rd peloton merchant with his competitive mindset will submit his ego to the indignity of tootling through the city on a bike that he considers suitable for a Dutch granny.

You may be interested to read my test ride of Melbourne Bike Share here http://cyclestyle.com.au/test-ride-melbourne-bike-share/

I agree. To make this work for locals it has to be a better alternative to public transport and just plaing walking. I don’t see locals using the system if it fails them just once in this respect. Imagine cycling to your destination to find no docking station or a full docking station.

Most people would be better off just buying their own cheap bicycle and leaving it locked in the CBD with their own helmet for them to use when needed. A much simpler solution.

Regards,

Dr Paul Martin
Brisbane, Australia

Wearing a helmet for me is like wearing a seatbelt, I always wear one and carry it with me when I’m not on a bike. I see more and more people doing this. I figure carrying a helmet for a few minutes a day to and from the Bixi stations is way less troublesome than having a head injury! It definitely helps to have a bike available every time I need one though and can see how it would be frustrating otherwise.

Re the 4 cyclists killed on Quebec roads recently, all of them were outside of the city not on Bixis… 3 were part of a group of 6 that were struck down on a country highway while they were on their way to a triathlon training weekend, the 4th was in a small town and was hit by a drunk driver. Tragic!

Anyway, I hope it works out for you guys. I love, LOVE the Bixi!

Tourists will be happy to stumble on an available bike and bring it back, if needs be, to the same spot. Local riders have to be much more demanding. The bike has to work like a two wheeled bus for them. The operators promise the bike, and docking station numbers will quickly rise . I do wish the Mixis well, (My name for them. Bixi plus Melb=Mixi) but the helmet problem hasn’t been given enough thought. Mike

Tourists will simply laugh at it and ignore the fines.

It will be an interesting clash of cultures between foreigners and Australians who have become emotionally attached to their helmets.

Maybe the rest of the world can help Australia wake up on its silly and ineffective bicycle helmet law. How much more stupid can they be with this law?

Wouldn’t a bike sharing scheme work in Australia if it catered to local residents. Couldn’t they carry their helmet around with them and hop on and off the bikes as needed?

It seems to me that the helmet issue is more of an issue for tourists rather than residents.

The scheme cannot and will not work, because of the helmet law. As cheap as 15 bucks is for a helmet (if it is a long-term investment) , it is a punitively expensive price to pay in order to borrow a bike on the spur of the moment for half-an-hour or an hour to get from one part of the city to another. No one will do it.

Life would be so much easier without that helmet law too

This hobbled scheme in Melbourne meant to encourage the use of people-power to push people, while the very latest news is…

“…When the top kill began on Wednesday, BP said it would need up to 48 hours to gauge its success. But Hayward extended the timeline another 24-48 hours on Friday.

He said the top kill’s chance of success remained at 60 to 70 percent, although experts put the odds at 50 percent.
…”