I’ve done my own bit of analysis on the Melbourne Bike Share system’s very poor implementation.

http://www.ikaink.net/blog/?p=696

It’s a pity that the Victorian Government has managed to get this system so very very wrong when there are so many glorious examples of success they could (and should) have learned from.

I’m glad you’re doing this. I heard about your protest today and would have liked to come but really could not afford the fine at all.

I have mentioned the bike sharing and you protest on my blog too.

http://thequietmelbournite-alexandrapearl.blogspot.com/

Good luck and I hope the law is revoked!

You don’t win converts to a cause by berating non-participants for being weak.

Scott, it is the excuse that is weak; I thought that sentence was quite clear. The reason why more people don’t use bikes for transport is that it hasn’t been made convenient enough to make the switch for ‘ordinary folk’; it is easier for people to just make an excuse.

If my 60 year-old mother can cycle up hills, albeit very slowly – still faster than walking – in normal clothes on her new dutch bike then anyone can. She hasn’t ridden a bicycle for 40 years…

I do it everyday myself on my (perhaps even heavier) Indian bike. I wasn’t offering an excuse for myself. I was pointing out why people who don’t do it everyday might not be inclined to do it on a casual basis. It is simply not the case that the city centre of Melbourne is flat. You need to get out of your own shoes and put yourself in the shoes of a non or at least non-regular bike user if you want to figure out why the take-up is so poor. You don’t win converts to a cause by berating non-participants for being weak.

The helmet laws are part of what makes the attitude of the drivers. Helmets (and fluoro clothing) are accepted apparel in activities which carry a high level of danger – ergo cycling must be a dangerous activity. And as long as cycling is viewed as a dangerous activity, then drivers will (consciously or subconciously) believe that the onus on keeping cyclists safe lies entirely with the cyclists.

Cars travel much quicker than bikes, and many more people die or suffer head injuries each year in car accidents than on bikes, and yet there is no helmet law for cars. This leads car drivers to believe that they are engaging in a safe, normal activity, while cyclists are engaging in an unsafe, aberrant one.

So do you have any magical suggestions for changing said driver behaviour?

Firstly, vehicular cycling (ie. on roads with cars) is a complete failure and is dangerous – it will never, ever encourage ‘everyday’ folks onto bicycles for transport. Mixing cyclists and pedestrians with cars travelling over 30km/h is dangerous and a helmet will offer no protection whatsoever.

I can assure you that if we don’t change direction soon, this is where we will be heading, and we don’t want to end up like London: Why Integration is a bad idea

To all those folks that want to ‘train’ on the roads, go for it, if you think it is worth pushing the point that everyone must ‘share the road’. There is no point being right if you’re going to get hurt.

Car drivers’ attitudes have not been getting any better over the last few decades so I don’t know why you think their behaviour will be easy to change, if at all. There is only one way to guarantee a change in their behaviour – make sure they all ride bicycles for utility every day, if not then at least weekly.

By pointing out the ridiculousness of bicycle helmets as a serious safety strategy I would hope that we will see safety initiatives directed at things that DO work: separated infrastructure, eduction (cyclists & motorists). This is what works: Three types of safety . You cannot argue that this is not the way to go.

Regarding the hills: nobody is saying you have to race up these slopes as if it were a Tour de France stage. If you can walk up it without breaking a sweat then you can cycle up it without breaking a sweat. I do this everyday in my normal clothes on my 20kg dutch bike. A weak excuse.

If you really think I’m talking nonsense, picture this:
A road with two lanes of traffic moving at a mere 60km/h. Immediately to their left is a 1m wide ‘cycle lane’ with a row of cyclists travelling at 15km/h. Now imagine these people are not on bicycles but are instead walking, single file in the same painted cycle lane on the road, still wearing helmets. Is that safe? Even if we drop the speed to walking speed and drop the car speed accordingly to 50km/h, I would not want to be walking next to cars travelling at 50km/h…

Surely this highlights how 1) helmets are a smokescreen, and 2) that proper separated infrastructure is required if cars are travelling faster than 30km/h.

What the ‘weekend racers’ don’t realise is that if this sort of decent infrastructure for cyclists was built – properly, not silly narrow cycle paths on the road – then they would have a fantastic place to train as well – separated from cars on a smooth path with priority at intersections. Surely this is a win for all cyclists?

Dr Paul Martin
Brisbane, Australia

But hey, enjoy your groupthink!

But I will take some issue with the idea that it is not hilly in the CBD. True enough, if you ride “across” the city along, say, Swanston St from St Kilda Rd to Carlton, it is a pretty flat run. Or along Elizabeth St in the Parkville direction.

But once you get off the mini-plain bounded by those 2 streets, the city area undulates significantly, both “across” the grid (e.g. along Queen St) and end-to-end (e.g. up Bourke St). I’ll admit that these aren’t exactly category 3 climbs, but I reckon they might put off the odd potential casual picker-up of a Mixi, dressed in business gear.

Now, Wade, the genius: “If you don’t own a helmet, you probably don’t have the basic skills to ride in heavy traffic.” Spoken as a true idiot, well done Wade!
In most of Europe you can ride without a helmet, bicycle use is massive and most people seem perfectly fine in the heave traffic in narrow streets.

Fantastic bike!

I have been converted to the proper upright dutch bike and there’s no going back. I too don’t think twice about whether to take the bike based on what I’m wearing – it is the bike all the 99% of the time.

If I want to enter a race I’ll use a racing bike but for getting around, nothing beats a proper city utility bike.

Dr Paul Martin
Brisbane, Australia

I can assure you that a little isopropyl alcohol does very little to sterilise anything… in hospitals they use sterile sheaths for the thermometers and they are wiped with chlorhexidine if required.

More importantly, as Mike has pointed out, there is more to it than whether the helmets are ‘clean’ or not.

To comply with the mandatory helmet legislation the helmet must conform to the Australian Standard (like the heart foundation ‘tick’); must be undamaged (not a single crack); must be appropriately sized; and worn correctly.

I find it odd that the police only care if you don’t wear. They should be inspecting all helmets to ensure they conform to all of the above points if they really think it is a sensible road safety strategy! Every second cyclist I pass is not wearing their helmet correctly, particularly children where I see the straps loose and the helmet tilted back so that their entire forehead is exposed. It is safer to not wear one at all than to wear one incorrectly.

Did you know that it costs a helmet importer $20,000 AUD to have a helmet approved to the Australian Standards and receive a little sticker?

Regards,

Dr Paul Martin
MBBS, FANZCA

Helmets are a daft idea, if cyclists are endangered by motor traffic lower the speed limits instead.

Well, my dear … today I did and it felt wonderful to have my hair blowing in the wind. I felt like a young girl again. (I’m just about to turn 50 in Aug.)
I plan on riding without one from now on except perhaps at night when I commute home from work. (I work till 11:30 pm) It’s not as easy to see the road/path at that hour and I’m often dodging animals on the trail section. This is quite possibly leftover irrational fear.

I right an upright comfort bike … nothing fancy … it’s a Canadian built Raleigh that I bought several years ago. It has 5 speeds, fenders, baskets fore and aft, chainguard … in short, it’s a perfect bike for commuting and running errands and being a free spirit. ☺

The city in which I live is gradually becoming more bike-friendly with more off road paths and bike lanes being installed yearly.
Thankfully, as I mentioned, it is NOT a requirement for an adult to wear a helmet. There are too few cyclists out as it is. I think many people regard cycling as dangerous and they just couldn’t be more wrong. It’s such a wonderful activity to engage in. I’m running more and more of my errands on my bike, I commute to work and I also meander the trails around here for pure pleasure. I’m trying to encourage people to get out and ride by example. ♡

Ride On!

Here’s my new imported Dutch baby, Wilhemina …

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moylek/4491083601/

If the helmet situation is the downfall think of a creative solution around it… Go Mixi! Melbourne needs bike share!

You can read my review of the Melbourne bike share scheme on my blog ‘slow-RPM.blogspot.com/’. Its a big thumbs up from me.

cheers,Ian