http://www.borisbikes.co.uk/

What you find below is such an important letter, that I rush to post it in it’s entirety. it’s written by someone high up with inside knowledge of what’s happening with Dublinbikes, the bike share scheme of that city.

Milo Hurley, a rather mad Irish Brompton rider living in South Australia, managed to get this letter written to him, and passed it onto us with permission to publish

Here’s Milo, framed by his beloved Brompton in a state of fold.

Why it is so important? because the Dublin scheme is about the same size as that of Melbourne, Melbourne Bike Share, which I’ve dubbed, in the hopes of making it more agreeable, the Mixi share scheme

Maybe the letter will be useful to Mixi’s parents. It’s published in that hope. Its all about Dublinbikes.

Dear M,

Regards,
A.

Milo, who passed the letter on to me, along with some interesting further info, revealed that the helmet trap is well known globally. He writes.

“Dublin Bike Share learned their lesson from Australia, a place that almost destroyed commuter/utility cycling on its own turf, by seeking to ‘improve’ things for its citizens..by force of law.. under pain of swingeing fines.

Not only do Mandatory Helmet laws not work, they sabotage what they seek to improve. ”

I must get up to the Northern territory where I hear they’ve done away with compulsory helmets. Do did they manage that, I wonder since is supposedly undo-able in the south.

Dick Smith and Simon Nasht created some great TV last night, a doco on growth and population followed by a feisty Q and A on the ABC.

I’m hoping Dick might take an interest in bikes as transport. He’s a convert to sustainability and the most sustainable transport, apart from legs, is surely the bike.

I’ve sent them my film, Tony Abbott. Not the Man.

The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, delivered an impressive performance, Sunday night on the ABC show, Q and A. But, as usual, nothing was said about cycling.

I think bikes should be part of this election. I’ve made a short film, called; , Tony Abbott, Not the Man. on that idea.

It’s a challenge to Tony who should “own” the cycling issue, he being so keen to be seen on a bike.

I argue, though, that he does not have the vision to see where bikes could take us. I try to help him along by inventing a line of thought for him if he was to see the light, linking him up with a much more visionary conservative when it comes to bikes, London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson.

I admit that Labor’s not much better but that if they were to win , and the Greens hold the balance in the Senate, then we might make some progress.

Is this a fruitful path folks? Abbott will be on Q and A next Monday. Would you like to see him asked a bike question?

Apropos of the debate we are having about helmets and bike share, this article in the Irish times is quite fascinating.

Note that Dublin, like Montreal, is reporting an extroadinary safety record for Dublinbike (cycling in Dublin)

One that goes against all expectations for the 400 share bikes they’ve thrown onto their streets.

More proof that the climate of cycling fear that we live in here, that we cant be safe without helmets, is a phony construct.

It might have seemed no big deal before, but as it brings down Melbourne Bike Share, as I think it will, then it becomes a very important issue

I did not realize just how gloomy was my reporting till the Barclays Bike news started flooding in from London, and I realized that our bike share scene suffers by comparison with all the British excitement.

We are talking about virtually the same bike by the way, here in Melbourne and in London.

They are both made in Bagotville, Quebec by a clever company called Devinci .

Sturdy Devinci built step through sit-ups are now are winning bike share contracts around the world, beating out, it seems the more fragile Paris bikes, the Velibs.

Treehugger blog describes them thus.
…they are built like two-wheeled tanks: they weigh 23 kg. (50 lb.) so that they can’t be vandalized easily.

Unlike the new Barclay’s bikes, Montreal’s version, again the same bike, carries no advertising.

These Bixis were cleverly named through a local competition. The name, Bixi, is mix of bicyclette and taxi, stressing that this this not a fun hire bike primarily, but a bit of public transport.

I think Melbourne Bike Share as a name, is a dull mouthful for the bikes I rode last week, and I’m hoping that something more playful and fun, like Mixi, might catch on.

Barclays Bicycles has certain a ring to it, but some Londoners apparently resent Barclays buying naming rights for $25 million.

Already, instead of Barclays Bikes, they are being dubbed Boris Bikes, which sounds like it might stick, given the color which London mayor, Boris Johnson, brings to them.

Some peace protesters don’t like the bank’s connections with military spending and have plastered some bikes with stickers.

I must agree with the anger towards any institution funding depleted uranium, a nightmare substance whose impact on Iraq is not well known.
The doc. Blowin in the Wind, is a good way to find out more.

In any case, excitement is literally spilling out of London, along with some friendly mockery, as Londoners hop on Boris Bikes in really impressive numbers.

1000 were rented in the first hour, 6000 in the first day.

Oh, we wish it was like that here!. Melbourne Bike Share (MBS) would be struggling to claim 6000 riders for the whole two months that they’ve been open.

But to be fair, London has 5000 bikes on the street, and Melbourne, just 400.

As for the teasing the new Boris Bikes, Zoe Williams, writing for The Guardian echoes Treehugger.

“The bikes are roughly the weight of a small shed…You look like a keen young employee of Barclays bank who’s been given an apprentice’s bike and is proud to be seen with it, all over town..

It’s a Miss Marple-ish steed, with a comfy saddle and no crossbar, a sit-up- and-beg classic.”

Another Guardian writer, Helen Pidd, admits to being immediately won over by the new bikes, saying says she felt like a celebrity as people watched her pass on her first ride, and shouted encouragingly,

“You’re on one of Boris Bikes!”

Builders on sites called out; “What’s it like to ride?”

Helen dubbed the bike, “smooth riding,” and said she felt “invincible,” a very interesting comment since our bikes, the Mixis, are suffering from the general aura of weakness and fear we’ve managed to create around all city cycling in Australia.

On ours, we’re vincible, I guess.

Here’s Helen, clearly already a convert to the step through way to ride.

Whilst here it’s been pretty quiet, London Twitter and the blogsphere have erupted with comment.

A pretty good “trundle” one blogger wrote. “Heavy, but very smooth,” someone else twitted, noting that these bikes are built to stand, “Careless cyclists and late night drunk who’ve missed the Tube.” Worrying thought, that.

Mayor Boris is front and centre, cleverly mocking himself if not the bikes. He describes himself on the Barclays as looking, “a bit like an elderly french onion seller.”

Not true of course. With his mighty mop, Boris has got style, flair and humor to spare.

He ended a launch speech about the place these bikes will have in London lives, like this:

“In 1904, 20% of journeys were made on bikes. I want to see those kinds of figures again. If you can’t turn back the clock to 1904, ladies and gentlemen, what’s the point of being a conservative?”

What Boris brings is what is so lacking here, a sense of the fun in cycling as well as its importance as a sensible way of getting around.

Our continual harping on danger with; Helmet, Helmet, Helmet. is so corrosive.

Don’t those who chant this mantra realize the pall it casts over cycling one which is far more dangerous than any safety they may wish upon us individually?

On that great London blog, Real Cycling, I find amongst the pics of the first days of the London roll-out, not a single helmeted rider.

(Real Cycle photo)

And yet Rob who writes the blog, has nothing against people wearing helmets if they so choose, and I’m sure has not selected his photos to make the point.

(Real Cycle photo)

There have been glitches in London. But people seem to be having a good time at docking stations, teaching each other how it works.

Actually, I had no trouble with the new Mixi bikes in Melbourne when I staked out a docking station last week (see previous post)

They slid out of the docking stations smoothly once my key was inserted , and rode with the sort of stately stability that people in London have also discovered.

From London twitter, I’ve learned that on some of their bikes, the brakes are too tight, so that you might get one whose back wheel hardly turns at all.

The instant experts suggest that you should always lift the back wheel and make sure it rotates smoothly , and then if turning well, pull out the bike by the saddle with the wheel still in the air. Easier to free that way apparently. No such problems with the bikes I tried.

A London blogger warns that if you don’t return the bike solidly to the notch, if it does not click in loudly and the green light come on, then the bike may seem to be back home, but may still be yours, eating up your credit card as you walk off.

This did happen to me which I discovered when I tried to take another bike later in the day, and found my key would not work. I’d not properly notched my previous rental

Having guessed what had happened, I phoned MBS from the docking station and spoke to someone who could see the problem on a screen. He told me which bike to re notch, and then gave me a refund of an hour.

In London that happen so often on the first day, that general refunds in the thousands of pounds have been promised to inexperienced notchers.

One woman reported the computer had recorded her as riding for 11 hours 11 minutes and eleven seconds.

So, hear the click and see the green before you go.

I suspect that bike notching will become such a part of city life, that we’ll wonder how it was ever difficult, just as we now wonder how mobiles once had us fooled.

There have been grumbles here and there about the lack of locks on the bike itself, though students of the system point out that this is intentional.

It ensures rapid turnover of the bikes. They don’t want you lingering, shopping or stopping for a coffee, but want you putting the bike back for someone else.

Strange that, since they make no money till you go over the free half hour.

But I did notice that our Melbourne bikes, unlike those in London, have a loop of strong wire behind the seat which almost looks like it might work with a lock if you happened to bring one with you.

But then, there’s no explanation on our Mixies for this curious loop which slides up and out, and so maybe, they haven’t quite decided on its role yet.

The basket is generally dubbed too small by most, though one disturbing blog suggests that you could stuff a passenger into it. This might be an explanation as to why they’ve kept it that size.

They’ve had to devise these bikes to withstand all sorts of strange abuse which might be in store, as this video of free riding Velibs in Paris shows. No wonder so many Velibs are soon unserviceable.

Both our bikes and the London ones, have a red breakdown button you can push on the docking console, alerting roving teams of maintenance people who then swoop and fix, I’m told.

The first day in London reported no bikes stolen. None have been stolen here either that I’ve heard. This may be because they are undesirable, or, rumor has it, that they have a tracking device in board.

The London clientele has quickly worked out some tricks. For instance, if you want to stay within the free half hour, it’ll help to have a stop watch with you and map of the docking stations.

If you want to re-borrow the bike for a longer ride, that is a second free half hour, you’ll need to notch in, and then wait five minutes between returning the bike and being able to release another.

This will no doubt lead to a new sort of time -based conversation etiquette, as Boris bikers wait together at docking stations for release.

It could become like those generally satisfying conversations at the end of flights. Those you know it’s safe to start because there’s only five minutes to go before landing.

Of great interest to me, having stood guard over the lonely Melbourne Mixies of two days, is that the London chatter has not brought up the topic which obsesses us, and which keeps our bike unused, our helmet law.

Maybe some people are wearing helmets on Boris Bikes, or would like them supplied, but it’s not mentioned.

Compared with us, who don’t dare ride a meter without a lid, it seems as if everyone else must have some sort of heavenly protection to feel so safe on such bikes in London traffic.

One person notes that on the flat bit between the handlebars, there is a message sticker on the Barclays bikes to remind you to look out for vehicles turning left, a very sensible warning.

On our bikes, the space is also occupied by a sticker, ours to warn you that you are breaking the law if you are wearing no helmet.

And so our bikes stay in the racks since who walks round with a helmet? Will we ever look as carefree as London’s looking these days?

Fooled you! That’s a Melbourne couple, doing some under cover cycling as it were.

I’ve just discovered this delightful film on Melbourne as it should be, the city with flair. Seeing this it’s hard to imagine they can’t liberate their share bikes as they’ve liberated their laneways.

A great watch, folks, from Streetfilms

We wanted to make the point that the scheme, hardly used since opening, is crippled by our compulsory helmet laws.

The day before the Age has run a story by Clay Lucas on our ride and an astonishing 12,000 readers voted on our proposition, that this sort of sit-up bike be exempted from the helmet law.

(Age photo of me from Clay’s article. Pat Scale)

Helmets are a very emotive issue here. Many local riders claim their lives have been saved by helmets, and the idea that adults might be allowed a choice, appalls some.

So, we were chuffed to see that 72% of respondents to the Age poll agreed with our exemption idea.

Time will tell if bike share is the Trojan horse they pulled into helmet-land

Here’s Paul Martin and his wife, Veronica who came down from Brisbane to be part of the ride. Paul was also a spokesman, and as a doctor, extremely credible.

Here’s Unity Finesmithh, her husband in cap, myself on the left and Mikael Colville Andersen, before the ride.

Mikael took lots of photos of our encounter with the cops and will hopefully have them on his famous blog, Copenhagenize.com

Mikael was in Melbourne to give a talk at the State of Design Conference, and it was his coming which initially also brought us all to town, me from NSW., the others from even further.

Unity, you may know from her great blog , Auckland Cycle Chic.

Underneath the worry we all felt, being about to break the law and incur a hefty fine, was the pleasure of meeting each other for the first time.

I feel I know Mikael, Paul and Unity quite well from our blog work, but we had never met.

So 21st century, eh?

Bike cops had had been hovering all morning and as 10 am (our ETD) approached , the press was there in force as well.

Four TV cameras faced me as I mumbled a confusing rationale for our actions. How I hate it when one’s clearest thoughts and intentions turn to garble under the lens’ gaze.

I wasn’t helped by the hostility of the questions. “You must be very disappointed by the small turnout.”

Not at all! We had enough riders to empty the bike rack like it had never been emptied before. Here’s the Mixi rack as we rode off.

I’d staked out these same bikes for the two previous days and not seen one, a single one, borrowed.

We rode out through the University grounds, and as expected, the cops did nothing till we hit the streets of Carlton.

There, we were politely pulled over (the cops were always extremely courteous)

As our details were being taken, we thought we were being ticketed. Not so, apparently.

Should we push the bikes from this point, we wondered? That was an option. The press, craving pain, mocked us as we pondered what to do.

Escaping the fines, were we? Never!. We hopped back on the Mixis and 100 meters later some of us, the ring leaders. were ticketed for real. (Photo by Auckland cycle Chic)

From that point on, having paid our dues as it were, we did push the Mixis around the rest of our circuit , back to the Melbourne Univ. docking station.

I guess it all took a bit over half an hour which put most us outside the free first half hour the Mixis allow, and meant an extra $2 would be on our credit cards.

We felt very good about the whole thing, even when that evening, Ch. 9 TV made us into farcical figures and falsely reported we’d avoided tickets. The ABC, on the other had gave fair coverage.

I am sure we should wait for warmer weather, and if the usage figures have not improved, as we are pretty sure they wont, then we will do this helmet-less ride again, but on a larger scale.

We’ll pick up Mixis from all the approx. 40 docking stations around the CBD and ride them to some central rally point.

Let the press laugh again if they wish. We are making a valid point. Helmets are the catch 22 of bike share as I pointed out in Sept. last year in this movie

Does it matter if MBS fails? Indeed it does, and a great deal. These schemes are proving they dramatically boost urban cycling wherever they are installed

It will be a tragic loss, not only for Melbourne if MBS fails, but will impact the whole country, for, what other city will dare try bike share if Melbourne fails?

What too will a failure do for our international reputation as a country already struggling to be serious about utility cycling and our carbon emissions?

Hey Australia, couldn’t make Bike Share work when everyone else can? Not a good look.

To Minister Tim Pallas we’d say, please pause for some greater thought before dismissing our idea of an exemption for these bikes so brusquely, as you’ve just done.

Ask yourself, how it is that these schemes can run safely in 135 cities around the world, and with helmet choice?

You say safety must come first.

If there were unacceptable injuries in all these other places, helmets would surely be called for, and we’d hear about it, no?

It can’t be, surely that they care less about their citizens heads, can it?

It can’t be surely that their drivers are more careful of cyclists, not when you note that Rome and Paris both have such schemes, cities notorious for their traffic and their fast driving.

No, it must be that a new dynamic gets set up where, through a combination of factors,
A. the safer nature of these sit-up bikes,
B. traffic calming and even thinning out they induce,
C. the whole mix slows down.
Many things subtly change, meaning that greater safety is achieved.

Is that not ideal? Especially when you couple it with the huge tourist attraction these bikes, freed up, can be.

Is Melbourne not into tourism anymore?

As it is, I bring back stories of angry and frustrated tourists spotted near Federation Square.

Folks working in a mobile soup kiosk near the well stocked bike stand stand there, see tourists, having taken the Mixis, ticketed or warned, then pushing them dolefully back to docking stations

Melbourne is a city with flair, Minister. Flair leaves town when you try and run Mixis with compulsory helmets.

And when, you rightly point out that such a change would be hard to do, given that the first helmet-less accident would have the press up in arms and on you like a ton of bricks, ponder this.

The officials in cities which set up bike share, also run a risk. They are putting out hundreds of bikes as an inducement to people who’ve never ridden before, to plunge into city traffic. Could they too, not be held liable for creating risk?

Imagine, a young woman in London is knocked off a bike she’d never have ridden if it was not for the City of London dangling it in front of her nose, a station every 300 meters. Could not her parents go after Boris Jonbson, London’s Mayo, who’s bringing Barclay’s bikes to the streets?

Yet they go ahead, those politicians in London in Dublin, in Paris, in Montreal, in Barcelona, in Rome. in Denver , and now in Minneapolis and it works! . The benefits far outweigh the risks.

Here’s my friends Gen. and Henrik, ridding into the future.

And the bikes? Oh, they ride pretty well. Very solid and very smooth. Devinci, which builds them in rural Quebec, is doing a good job. And Michel Dallaire, the famous Montreal Designer, has created a winner with this bike, selling all over the world (photo. Living with Style)

I’d like the handle bars a bit higher. If you are going to be on a sit-up, it’s nice to be ramrod straight, with no strain on the back at all.

Secondly, a lock would be a good idea. What do you do if you want to stop at the shops during your rental?

Is that wire loop behind the seat meant to be used with the lock you carry with you, along with the helmet?

The basket could be bigger and more containing, as it is on many bike share bikes.

Lastly and most important, I regard a rear view mirror as essential safety equipment. These are especially important for casual first time riders who find it unbalancing to try and turn and look over their shoulder as they ride.

On my sit -up, I am constantly monitoring what’s coming up behind me via my mirror.

I realize that a normal mirror on these bikes would be prone to vandalism. But surely there is a way to make one of shiny metal, solidly encased, which would not allow passing hoons to twist it off?

Paul sent me this from the Age.

Mike Rubbo.

A late addition to this post. Here’s the Barclay bike in action with its father, mop haired Mayor Boris Johnson, defending the advertising splash it gives the bank. Ah, it seems the Reuters clip wont embed. maybe it will paste.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIUPTeusm1w

See press notes at the end of this post.

Plans for the ride are in place. Next Saturday a group of cyclists who feel passionately about Melbourne’s Bike Share scheme, will ride in support of a plan which we hope will help the scheme survive.

Our supportive ride will be held on Saturday, 24th July at 10 Am. The meeting place, the Bike Share docking station on Melbourne Univ. campus in Tin Alley. (detail of make on Site)

Some 24 bikes are usually docked there, plenty for our ride, we suspect. If not , there are other docking stations in the area. We learned how to use the system watching this.

Meanwhile, Denver’s scheme, the first biggie in the US, launched, April 2010, the first of many. Coming up like mushrooms, they are!

Dress will be political cycle chic, namely, looking good in our normal clothes minus Lycra, glo vests, and helmets, indeed anything which suggests cycling is dangerous.

(detail of Barcelona’s very chic bikes, Bicing, launched, May, 2007.

Bicing achieved 30,000 subscribers in it’s first 2 months; starting with 15 stations and 200 bicycles. Since then, it’s grown rapidly and now has 400 stations, 6,000 bikes znd 186,000 subscribers.)

We’ll risk fines as we ride around Carlton to show what Bike share could look like if not stifled by our compulsory helmet laws .

We ‘ll block no traffic, break no laws except the one which says adults here can’t be trusted to choose whether to wear head protection or not. The law which treats us like children.

We’ll ride to propose that there be a helmet exemption for this type of sit-up bike, so that if you ride such a bike, to wear a helmet is your choice, as it is all over Europe , Great Britain, Asia, and much of North America.

Coming into line with the rest of the world, our vital bike share scheme, which we’ve nicknamed Mixi, will have a good chance to survive.

Since so few Australians now ride sit-up bikes, few would be personally affected by our proposal.

It’s new riders who’ll get used to feeling safe and looking good without a helmet, as do most Europeans. (See Copenhagen Cycle Chic.)

(Photo from that blog, below. Copenhagen Cars enviously eye the future riding by. Yes, they know the writing’s on the road. )

Mikael Colville-Andersen, the renowned Danish cycling consultant and blogger, who’s in Melbourne to give a talk on the same Saturday, will cover our ride for his famous blog, Copenhagenize.com.

Mikael was one of the first to point out that Bike share and helmets don’t mix. We followed his lead with our own predictions and solution a year ago

He recently discovered that one city values its bike share so much, that they’ve repealed their helmet laws, just as we propose. Mexico city has done this, and Tel Aviv is planning to, Mikael reports.

Is what we suggest irresponsible? We think not. We note that there is no reported safety crisis anywhere where helmets are optional.

In Montreal, where helmet use is around 40%, the beloved Bixis, had a very safe first season. An astonishing 3.5 million of Kms were ridden in the city on Bixis, many kms. by new riders.

Yet this resulted in only 5 accidents involving the new bikes, none serious, according to the Bixi Press Officer. Is that not re assuring?

The protection helmets provide is vastly exaggerated by Australian authorities who, one suspects, like to avoid spending money on what really works as opposed to what is cheap and open to fear campaigns. True cycling safety is under the wheels, not on the head.

That means separated bike paths as one finds all over Europe. They cost a lot but such infrastructure repays the investment many times over, with cities freed of cars, with a slim and healthy citizenry, and lower carbon emissions. Indeed, many of the major problems of our time are cost effectively addressed by making bikes safer.

Bike share is the turbo charger of all that’s good about city cycling which is why it must be saved by radical measures. That’s is why we ride to draw attention to our daring solution, and to bring the contentious exemption we propose, into public debate.

After the ride and photo-shoot, we’ll dock our bikes and repair to Lygon street for coffee. Wish us luck.

Good luck to London too. Barklay’s bikes will launch July 30th.

Russell Meddin who writes the bike share blog sent me a Barclay’s bike fun pic, relevant to our headgear issue.
(Mr. K Ranger, advisor to City of London on Bike Share)

Russell urges patience and offers the old adage;“Sihk and you will find”

Press. Notes. Why this ride?
1. Bike share has proven itself able to rapidly promote utility cycling all over the world.
2. Bike Share has never worked and cannot work with compulsory helmets.
3. We propose that sit-up bikes (All Bike share bikes are sit-ups) be exempted from compulsory helmets.
4. This will strengthen the Melbourne scheme and increase the popularity of sit-up bikes which are always associated with high levels of utility bike use.
5. Overseas experience shows this will not result in more injuries to cyclists. Everyone adjusts. Cyclist ride more carefully and slowly , drivers are more aware of cyclists and also more careful. There’s proven safety in numbers.

Questions may be left here.

Mike Rubbo and Dr. Paul Martin

Around the world it’s been proven that these schemes have the power to turbo charge bike use in car clogged cities.

It’s obvious why. With easy to ride bikes scattered all over the streets, in Montreal the stations are every 300 meters, for example, its very tempting for people who’d normally never think of riding a bike as transport, to just have ago.

You don’t have to purchase the bike, worry about it being stolen, about the brakes and gears needing adjustment. It’s all done for you, and, as long as you ride is for half an hour or less, it’s free.

No wonder Bixis have helped transform Montreal into the 5th. city in the world for cycling, or that in the first two months of this, their second season, Bixi has already clocked up a million rentals.

Melbourne should be ideal of such a scheme. It’s not hilly in the CBD, and it already has a comparatively high level of bike use and bike consciousness.

Yarra City, close to the CBD, has the highest bike commuter use in Australia, over 10%. Amazing! (See; Councillor on a bike)

So it’ s depressing to read that in the first three weeks of the MBS, the bikes were rented only 700 times. That’s an average of 7 times per bike, one rental every couple of days.

Compare this with the overwhelming demand which met Barcelona’s Bicing schemewhen it was launched, 30,000 rentals in just over twice that time.

Of course it’s winter in Melb, and they are starting with one of the smallest number of starting bikes of any scheme, (100) These might be factors.

The name doesn’t help. Melbourne Bike Share sounds so institutional and so correctional. “Now, don’t forget to share your bike, children.”

It’s at variance with the fun and flair one usually associates with Melbourne.

Not to say that all the names of the various bike shares, which is spreading around the world with the speed of a music craze , are catchy. Montreal’s Bixi is a great name, arrived at through a popular competition. Paris’ Velib name is fine too.

Barcelona’s Bicing leaves you wondering how it’s pronounced. Bicincitta, the Italian scheme, sounds fun and feminine. The Milan version, BikeMi, sounds encouraging.

Here’s some BikeMi’s waiting for riders.

I like Ecobici, the Mexican city scheme name .

These Ecobicis look fun and don’t require helmets apparently.

and Nice Ride, Minneapolis is a name promising pleasure to come.

By the way, if you want to keep up with the latest on Bike share around the world, check out the bike sharing blog.

So whilst Melbourne might be stuck with its stuffy name as far as the bike logo is concerned, how about the nickname of Mixi?

It is appropriate because the bikes are the same bike as in Montreal, both made by a very clever Quebec company, Devinci, and so a variant on Bixi, suits.

Mixi it is?

That out of the way, the real problem is harder to solve, and that’s our stupid helmet law. I say, stupid advisedly, because this law not only may kill MBS, it has for years, stifled utility cycling in this country.

Our helmet law has acted as a selective herbicide , killing off casual utilitarian cycling and favoring, racing, mountain biking etc, all those more extreme forms of cycling which helmets naturally suit.

If you read MBS web page, you’ll find this as evidence of how important Bike share is around the world.

“As of Dec. 2009 there were over 90 (bike share) programs in approximately 136 cities.. with another 45 programs planned in 22 nations in 2009-2010 ”

What they neglect to mention is that in none of those other programs, most of which you can assume care just as much about the safety aspects of their program as do we, are adults forced to wear helmets. It’s always a choice.

Ponder that all of you with your stories of how your life was saved by your helmet, how do you explain this apparent safety everywhere but here?

How do you explain too, that for the 2009 season in Montreal when over a million Bixi Kms. were ridden, many by new riders and often without helmets, there were only 4-5 Bixi associated accidents, and none of them serious.

Should not all that extra riding by novices, have resulted in a nightmare of broken heads by your calculations?

Or is is that our drivers are worse and, as cyclists, we are much more careless? You tell me.

The safest place in the world for cycling is Holland where no one wears a helmet, not even kids.

Take a look at how relaxed and safe non helmet riding can look here in the Waltz of the Bikes

What you see here, in Amsterdam, is this not ideal? Is this not something we should be aiming for. Mixi can help us get there.

I am waiting for some stats to clinch my case, for the percentage of bike riders wearing helmet in Montreal, both for the general cycle population and for Bixi riders specifically.

Bixi itself will furnish some data and the rest I hope to get from Velo Quebec.

In any case, given that MBS Mixi could well be in danger of failing due to the helmet law, I feel quite responsible in recommending that the riders of these bikes, indeed the riders of all the slower sit-up style bike, be exempted from the compulsory helmets .

Wade Wallace of Cycle tips doesn’t understand the value of these schemes when he claims to be glad our helmet law will keep some people off Mixis.

Here’s Wade.

Wade says;

The helmet law will definitely be prohibitive in the uptake of the bike share program. Yesterday I wanted to try one of the bikes on an impulse however I didn’t have a helmet with me and wasn’t about to go and purchase another one.

If you don’t own a helmet, you probably don’t have the basic skills to ride in heavy traffic. Certainly not everyone who does own a helmet is qualified to ride in traffic, but it’s a massive first step in the right direction.

Wade, you are quite right as to why the bikes wont be used, that one cant take one on impulse, but then ponder those Montreal stats.

Ponder the huge success of Bixi in that city in your former homeland, and rethink this curse you’ve placed on Mixi with your outburst of Nanny state-ism.

I feel strongly enough about this to have done one thing and plan another. I’ve joined MBS for the year, even though I live 1000 kms from the nearest Mixi. It’s my way of being supportive.

Secondly, when I go to Melbourne very soon to hear the legendary Mikael Colville-Andersen speak, (He too is dead against compulsory helmets)

I, and at least one friend, are going to ride Mixis without a helmet and see what happens.

We’ll do so on Saturday morning, the 24th. July (Mikael speaks in the afternoon at the Design conference) most probably starting from the docking station in Carlton close to Lygon st.

Dr Paul Martin from Brisbane feels equally strongly that the helmet law is over control of our lives, and will ride with me. Sue Abbott is the one who got us going. It would be great if she turned up too.

We are ready to pay the fine of $154 to draw attention to what we feel is a very destructive law.

Indeed, we will argue, necessity, a well established civil defense. In this case, the necessity of challenging the helmet law in order to save MBS Mixi from possible failure.

If MBS Mixi fails, great damage will be done to utility cycling in Australia, since, as explained, the scheme are such a powerful energizer of that form of cycling.

Moreover, bike share is the fastest way to persuade a population, not only to ride bikes as transport, but to understand that the type of bike is important.

Go to any bike friendly city in Europe and note what they ride.

Whereas here, most riders are hunched over flat bars or drops, often in Lycra even when commuting, over there you’ll see that the way everyone rides, weekdays, is in their normal clothes, and sitting up very straight.

There, unlike here , bikes are equipped as true transport vehicles with bike racks or baskets, mudguards, lights and chain guards.

Does it matter, that the typical Aussie cyclist is hunched over on a bike with none of this gear, especially if the rider gets to work faster?

I think it does, because the head down way of riding which is fine for speed, looks aggressive and uncomfortable, discouraging others from the very idea of utility cycling. By transposing the racing mode to city streets, by combining training and commuting, other undesirable things tag along as well

With one’s shoes in the obligatory toes clips that go with these bikes, you are less apt to accept stop-and-go riding, more apt to run a red light to keep moving, or to veer onto a footpath to use a pedestrian cross-way, also to avoid stopping and un-clipping.

Seems to me that riding this way, head down, one also sees less well .

The hunched rider can’t look back over a shoulder without losing balance so one perfects a sort of under arm look which is not nearly as effective

Thus this rider is, I suggest, much more likely to have nasty surprises in traffic, compared with the slower sit-up rider.

More likely too, to get angry with motorists whose careless moves have not been predicted, such as opening the door of a parked car, such as cutting one off at a corner.

I realize this is contentious but think it’s true. When I ride upright, I see very well and am seen well in turn. I easily make eye contact with drivers when necessary, both to warn them I’m around and maybe flash a smile if they are courteous, which they often are. I also make my displeasure known, eye to eye, when they do stupid things.

With my rear vision mirror, I am constantly monitoring what’s coming up behind me and how they’re behaving.

I guard against my greatest fear, the driver who, not paying attention, cuts across me with a left turn. Indeed, I’m waiting for signs this might happen. If a passing car is about to turn left, I note the flicker, and I’m ready for evasive action.

Is it not also true that rider of a light weight bike is much more concerned than I am about his/her wheel going into a pothole than I am with my thick sturdy tires?

Is it not true that his/her attention is much more fixed on the fragile front wheel, than on the road as a whole? Does this not make for a less safe ride, especially at speed?

No bike shop in Australia will suggest that the sit-up bike is safer and more practical for commuting. No one asks if these are the reasons why most people such bikes in Europe during the week, keeping their lightweight bikes and Lycra for the weekends

We badly need to ride these MBS Mixis to find out for ourselves how much safer and more comfortable casual riding can feel when you sit up straight.

There are negatives. Having no rear vision mirror on these Bike share bikes is not good in my opinion. , And the three gears on a Mixi may not be enough for such heavy bikes. In Montreal, the Bixi has switched to 7 gears.

If you want to support our Mixi ride, please leave a message.

Mike Rubbo

Here’s Mikael with Janette Sadikh khan lifted from his famous blog Copenhagenize.com

I plan to travel down from Sydney to be there, coming on the overnight train with my bike. Internet friend, Dr. Paul Martin, plans to come from even further, from Brisbane.

But the real commitment is being made by Unity Finesmith of that great blog; Auckland Cycle Chic who’s coming all the way from NZ for the talk. I’ll be meeting Unity and Paul for the first time.

Here’s what the festival site says Mikael will talk about;

Four Goals for Promoting Urban Cycling with Mikael Colville-Andersen

Sponsored by Bicycle Victoria

I would strongly suggest you try and attend. Mikael not only knows more about utility cycling than probably anyone in the world, but he has been keeping a close eye on what’s happening here in Aust. in a most encouraging way.

He’s given great support to Sue Abbott, for example, in her fight against our compulsory helmet laws.

What am I hoping for personally? That he’ll lend his powerful voice to the argument that utility cycling is something very different from the current dominant cycle culture here, which is the Lycra-garbed sport and leisure mode.

People can do both, and whilst there’s nothing wrong per se with cross over, with folks riding to work on racing machines in their Lycra, we need to promote a another look, people in their own clothes, riding the sit-up bikes favored by most Danes and Dutch when they want to go A to B.

From the type of bike you ride and your garb, flows the mindset which drives you, I believe.

In lycra, you are not just riding more efficiently, though that may be true if you have distance and hills to contend with, you are probably also in training and are thinking speed and personal best.

Admirable though that may be, fit though though you surely are, it’s not utility cycling the way its understood in Europe, and since the Europeans are so far ahead of us in this essential mode, we have to ask, is there is causal relationship? Is the Lycra culture holding back utility cycling in some way?

As you can guess, I think it is. I predict that the day we see flocks of Aussie bikers looking like Stockholm or Amsterdam, that will be the day we really begin our cycling transport revolution.

I suspect Mikael agrees in some part, but does he feels it’s important in terms of driving useful change, this talk of bike types and clothing worn?

I’ll be asking him for sure. Asking if we should not declare a clear difference, two ways of cycling, each great but different.

On that Saturday Morning,(24th) Paul Martin and I are going to try the new Bixi bikes now strewn around Melbourne. We’ll ride them as they are ridden in their city of origin, Montreal, that is without helmets.

If we are ticketted it will cost us $154, a hefty sum but worth the sacrifice to make the point that that helmets are hobbling this great initiative, Bike share.

And if people in 60 cities around the world which now have bike share can be trusted to ride without helmets, we should enjoy the same trust.

If you feel like joining us, please do so. Leave a note here.

And for a taste, of Mikael’s style take a look at; The Guy From Cycle Chic.

Melbourne will have ten Bixi docking stations along the Swanson st. spine from Melbourne University to the Yarra river, all operating by Monday next, May 31st. Later , more to come.

Here’s the bike and the stand which holds it.

Francesca Crocetti reported in The Age, May 13th, that the pre opening trials had got off to a slow start “with only 20 riders hiring the communal bikes in the first week.”

And this was with helmets provided. This means that the real stumbling block has yet to be faced, namely that, come Monday morning, there will be no helmets with those spanking new Bixis, so tempting on the street.

You will have had to bring your own lid, or you’ll be invited to push the bike to some nearby location, presumably indicated on a handy map, where a cheap helmet may be purchased.

When this blog broke the story late last year, the spokeswoman I interviewed, estimated that the helmets at the nearby location could be as low as $15.

Cheap indeed by usual helmet prices, but still many times the cost of the ride, one presumes.

It may be a case of the helmet wagging with bike

This pushing to purchase idea seemed absurd to me then, and still does today. Really, who’s going to wheel a rental bike to some 7/11 to buy a cheap helmet which, presumably, you later throw away?

So expect either a fizzle in Melbourne or lots of drama as some riders defy our helmet law and head off on Bixis bare headed.

The drama potential will be enhanced by the fact most riders will probably be tourists, expecting the cops to go easy on them (see story of the Dutch couple below)

Why tourists? Well, It’s hard to see Bixis appealing be regular Melbournians with their own helmets, because there’ll be just too few bikes (100 in total) for a local to be able to count on them.

With just 100 bikes, how could you rely on finding a Bixi for a regular ride from Flinders st. Station to the Melb. Uni each day, for example?

To be part of the transport system, the bikes have to be ubiquitous. That’s what Montreal found as they built their fleet to 5000 for a city smaller than Melbourne. London is starting with 6000 Bixies.

By the way, I think they should call them Mixis.

That leaves tourists as the most likely riders of the few bikes, especially since many will know and love share bikes from Paris or Barcelona, or now, London.

Having safely ridden bare headed in such cities, some may be particularly stroppy when stopped here.

I can imagine all sorts of entertaining (for the passerby, but not the cops ) rants on how Australia is a nanny state. not trusting adults to think for themselves.

“Even Mexico has repealed it’s helmet law to get bike share, for Chrissake!” (It’s true)

Or maybe the less argumentative will just claim that they were riding to find a helmet, which sounds like a good excuse to me.

When reminded by a testy cop that they are supposed to push the bike to the said helmet outlet, they can sagely reply that, statistically, more pedestrians are killed each year than cyclists, and so they feel safer on the bike

Expect too, that some locals will plan to be caught, aiming to publicize the issue. They’ll have taken a leaf out of Sue Abbott’s book. Here’s one of my early persuavies

Such bush lawyers will be able to bamboozle frustrated officers with many sensible reasons as why they choose to ride bare headed.
They’ll have done their homework in order to have their day in court right there on the street.

They’ll know, for instance, that the safest cities in which to ride a bike are those with the least helmet usage, that true safety is under the wheels and not on the head.

On the other hand. The Montreal Bixi web site is urging Bixi riders to wear helmets, claiming they reduce head injuries by 68% to 88% .

They report that 4 cyclists were killed on Quebec roads last week end (mid may) It’s not specified as to whether they were Bixi riders. There is an urgent need for stats on Bixi’s safety record to date.

In sum, any cop here who wags the stern finger of safety, should be ready for arguments. Indisputably, almost no other country followed the Hawk Govt’s. foolish lead back in ‘91, except that is New Zealand

In Brisbane, Dr. Paul Martin, a frequent commenter on this blog blog, (He rides a stately E bike, a Gazelle.) was recently ticketed for riding without a helmet, and he too plans to fight his fine with the aim of drawing attention to the law. Here’s Paul, with his Gazelle.

Paul passed on a touching story which perfectly reveals the inanity of treating adults as children.

A Dutch couple, visitors, rented bikes in a Brisbane park. They refused the proffered helmets most probably because they didn’t use them at home.

A police car on the road outside, spotting the miscreants, raced into the park, sirens screaming, to ticket them. Whether the Dutch were stroppy with the cops, I don’t know.

I do know that the police let down their tires so that the “criminals” would have to push the bikes back to the rental kiosk. They were upset and gave up the idea of bike riding in Brisbane.

The Federal Govt. is currently spending $20 million dollars re-branding Australia as a top tourist destination. How about spending some of that money making sure that those who do come, don’t have such silly experiences?

Speaking of the New Zealand, up till now, I thought that no country with compulsory helmets had managed to set up a Bike share scheme.

So claims a very savvy guy in; Bike Share and Helmets Don’t Mix, and I believed him.

Well, I was wrong. Using a German system called Nextbike, Auckland has a bike share scheme of that name which has been going a couple of years now, and with helmets being compulsory .

How do they manage it? By have a much simpler set up, and being a bit more relaxed about the issue, it seems.

Note the little wire sticking out of the back of the rider’s helmet. That’s part of the story.

Note too, the bike’s not a step through, as most share bikes are. This Nextbike is designed to maximize advertising space, one suspects. It makes for a racy curve, doesn’t it?

In Australia, the law says that a rental helmet has to be inspected and sterilized after each use. Hence the impossibility of clipping one to those Melbourne bikes on the streets next week.

For more on the NZ story, and a great debate about how Nextbike is working, see Unity Finesmith’s great blog ,Auckland Cycle Chic The photos come that blog, by the way.

But here’s a taste of how it works. Firstly, Nextbike has no expensive docking stations.

As manager, Julian Hulls explained to me, that since they can’t access any of the big bucks usually behind such schemes, they can’t afford such docking stations even if they wanted them .

Melbourne is backed by the huge, RACV, for instance.

So, with no money for such infrastructure, Nextbike runs it differently. Each available bike, and I believe there about 170 currently, is locked by cable to a public bike rack or even a railing or post.

Whilst all the big schemes control bike movement through the renter keying in payment and personal info at the docking station, Nextbike invites you to phone in the ID number on the bike you want.

You are then, if a member, given the cable combination number which unlocks both the bike as well as the helmet looped to the lock.

This means that you don’t have to return the bike to an official docking station as you do in Montreal or Paris.

This is real advantages since with those schemes, you can find yourself riding to an appointment and there’s no docking station near your destination, or all of them are chockers with returned bikes.

No, you can leave your Nextbike pretty much where you like, within a wide area that is, as you phone in your finishing time and the location of the bike.

In what seems a big cost burden, Julian tells me that after each rental, the bike is retrieved, moved if necessary to a better spot, and it and the helmet are checked.

Thus, can they say they are renting inspected helmets. The combination , too is changed.

So, perhaps we have to put this scheme in a category all of it’s own. I need to find out more about how Nextbike functions in Germany, its home base.

It certainly seems like an excellent low cost way to start. But how could it possibly work financially if, like Montreal with its Bixi system, you have a million plus rentals over the season? That’s a hell of a lot of chasing around and helmet spraying to do.

I plan to go over to Auckland, early July, to investigate Nextbike more fully. I’m intrigued. It does seem to be the answer for small communities perhaps like Albury, Wagga, Gosford etc.

Considering the visibility Nextbikes have achieved and the good they must be doing in terms of reducing car use, it’s hard top believe that Auckland City Council not only won’t give them a subsidy, but it won’t even sprinkle bike racks around the city to help make Nextbike work better.

I hope that such Pollies, both here and in NZ, when they approach their graves, petrol being $8 a litre, the waves lapping that their respite door, have a Salieri moment, a flash of cleansing honesty as they quaver…..

“Yes, it’s true we didn’t take bikes seriously….. You are right, it was token what we did on my day. Why…..? I guess we didn’t understand.

Guim, as you know if you read the previous post, has just arrived in Australia, having ridden from Beijing on an E bike, a Wisper.

He’s heading for London which is about 80,000 kms away, he figures, having already done 10,000 in the last eleven months.

Thursday afternoon, he pulled up to my house on Hillside road, having called me from the bottom of the hill that he was almost here. I was hiding in the shrubbery, ready to catch his arrival on video.

But my mobile rang and I almost missed the moment, a historic one for me since I’ve been following Guim’s journey, and helping him to some extent since he left China. He almost went right on by.

He’s a wiry, fast talking, Spaniard with a lot of sun in his skin. He burns with passion for this “Awesome” way of traveling.

He proves too that E bikes are not just for short trips around the neighborhood as most of us imagine.

Guim gets 80 kms. out of one battery charge, and with two batteries, he can go on indefinitely. Almost perpetual motion

One day, on his way down to my house from Brisbane, he did 220 kms.

How does he do it? The trailer he pulls has a solar panel on top.

In the trailer, is his second battery, recharging as he rides. He finds it best to swap batteries over when they are half charged, after four hours of sun.

Well, Friday 23rd April, saw us resorting to what we call here a Ute, namely small open flatbed truck, to get our two E bikes down to Sydney for a 7 am appointment with a Lord.

Gium was mortified to be going into town by Ute and not by bike, but he’ll re-do the ride into Sydney next Tuesday.

There was no other way to make the morning meeting Lord Tony Berkeley who we’d been asked to take on a bike tour of Sydney.

Tony, as he insisted we call him, was in Australia for a rail freight conference. (He’s a world expert on rail)

But he’s also chair of of the All Parties Committee on Cycling in Great Britain, . He rides a bike to get around, and doesn’t own a car he told us

Anyway, we made the rendevous in time and, with bikes provided by Paul Van Bellen of Gazelle, we moved off.

But not before Guim had spoken about his ride from Beijing and his hope of catching up with Lord Berkeley in London, if he makes it that far.

Tony rode a step through Gazelle Innergy, his first time an E bike.

Our guide for the ride was Fiona Campbell, Transport planner, Cycling, with the city of Sydney and well placed to show Tony a glimpse what’s being done for the city in terms of new bike-ways.

Just a glimpse because we only had 90 mins. for the tour.

From Tony’s hotel, we went under the Harbour Bridge and around the docks to the Pyrmont bridge. Then on to a third bridge, the spectacular Anzac span.

Being just after 7 am, we were going against the morning traffic, including a lot of incoming cyclists, more than ever I’ve seen before.

That was good but it felt very crowded on some of the narrow shared pathways.

Secondly, it was astonishing to see how many people ride to work in Lycra, hunched over as if in a race or in training.

It may be practical but it’s not an appealing look compared to our party, almost the only ones sitting up straight….

… and dressed in normal clothes.

None of my business, you might say, how others ride. Cycling is a broad church.

Yes, but a church in which sit-up bikes like ours are often looked down upon, even though they are the transport bike of choice almost everywhere else.

Looking appealing on a bike does matter because it’s what makes others decide to get out of their cars and ride. Looking comfortable is equally important.

Australians all know from personal experience that the hunched over position is not comfortable. It puts pressure on very delicate parts of the anatomy, not to mention causing back and wrist pains.

Of course we are told that if you are properly measured and fitted for a bike, if everything is tweaked much of this pain can be avoided.

I find that strange. How come Bike Share Schemes around the world, which all use sit ups , all promise and deliver a comfortable ride?

No matter what your shape or size, the ride is comfortable, the only adjustment being seat height which you do yourself.

I suspect that for that average person, every time they see a racing bike and posture in places it does not have to be, it’s a reminder of why one does not ride a bike for transport.

If I’m wrong, do please tell me why.

The drama of the carport
We are told incessantly that more bikes are sold in Australia than cars.
That means almost every Australian, coming our of the house, faces an interesting moment of choice since in the carport or garage will be a car and a bike, or two or three.

Now, if a Danish or Dutch head sat on the departing shoulders, then the bike is what would leave the garage most often, irrespective of distance, weather, even terrain.

In Australia, all those thing can be favorable for a bike trip and yet still the car will be taken 99% of the time, even though it costs more, steals an exercise opportunity, and encases one in a cocoon of toxic leakages from benzine based plastics. In summer, baking under the sun, these are highly carcinogenic.

None the less, it somehow seems perfectly sensible to us to drag around a ton of metal and plastic each time we move this envelope of flesh and bone we call home. Why?

Could it be that the bikes, all those bikes outnumbering cars, are so uncomfortable, and so unsuited to carrying anything, that they are automatically ruled out?

So the said, sentient being, the average Aussie, drives the ton of metal to the gym to sit on a comfortable bike, a stationary sit-up, for an hour or so. Now is that crazy or what? If the gyms were hooked up the grid it might make a bit more sense.

Such thoughts wander through my brain as I weave through the Lycronistas, thrusting at me, shades drawn.

I’m not totally against these miracles of lightness and speed . Everything in it’s place. I am certainly for cross biking as I call it.

I mean, different bikes for different hikes as Gill Charlton so beautifully demonstrates in, Bike it or Not

So, here we were four us, all upright and stately, soaking up the morning sun, and what a morning!

Fiona gave us an interesting commentary. Tony later said he enjoyed the ride enormously and had some ideas about E bikes to take back to the UK where they are right now working out their policy on such bikes.

We got him back the hotel just in time, having to cut the tour a bit short. That was my fault, in part, as I was constantly asking the party to stop whilst I filmed them.

Anyway, after our ride against the Lycra tide, Guim and I dashed back to the Central Coast where Guim did interviews with our local TV station, NBN. The Daily Tele Newspaper, our local ABC station, and lastly the Express Advocate.

A few days later, a short piece in the Sydney Morning Herald is sparking some debate.

Also, Adam Spencer, who rides a bike to his job at the ABC, had me on air for a chat about the new E bike regulations which we hope are coming soon.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2010/04/27/2884006.htm?site=sydney

Thanks so much to Quentin Riley for the truck, and to Nicole Taylor for arranging much of the press coverage. Thanks too, to Fiona Campbell for planning the memorable ride. The photos on this post were mostly taken by Paul Van Bellen. Thanks, Paul and for supplying the two Gazelle bikes as well

Later next week, there will be movie material to see.
All the best, Mike