That’s what they call a bike in Darwin, a Pushie, way up at the Top End of Australia.

Most people go to Darwin as a jumping off place for Kakadu.

Me, I went to ride bikes.

I’d heard a very curious thing, that in the Northern Territory, you could ride a bike, under certain conditions, without a helmet.

Why get excited about that? My European and Asian readers will be thinking. “We do it all the time where WE live, and perfectly legally.”

Well, in this protective cocoon we Aussies call home, it’s against the law to be helmet-less, for our own good, of course.

The cops could be anywhere, waiting to nab you and slap on a $154 fine, and demerit points as well!

It’s been that way since the early nineties, since the Hawke Govt, in many ways so good, bullied the States into imposing this new restraint on cyclists.

I wonder what Bob Hawke thinks about his law today?

Now, we are so conditioned to think that a helmet is part and parcel of safe cycling, that many people regard it as virtual suicide to ride anywhere without one, even on a protected cycleway.

Believe it or not, this photo of a woman on a Darwin Cycle path, will upset many Australians so much that they can become very angry at the absurd risk this woman is running.

My Darwin visit made it to the local paper, The NT News, recently voted the best paper in the whole region.

Here’s some reactions, comments, left on the online article re my proposal that perhaps the rest of the country had something to learn from Darwin, bikewise.

You’d think they’d be pleased. Not at all!

“Helmets are also needed on the cycle paths! …….
seeing him ( a rider on a cycle path who’d collided with a walker) frothing at the mouth and bleeding all over the path, is something that will stay with me forever, and I will ALWAYS wear a helmet when riding my bike.”

…. should be forced to visit any hospital where there will always be kids and adults who have suffered horrendous brain injury from being clobbered by a hard surface.

Given this intense feeling, it comes as a great surprise to find that it’s actually legal to ride without a stack hat here, as long as you stick to the great cycleways they’ve built….. (70 Kms. of them so far!)

…….and, this is the strange part, to the footpaths.

Yes, you are allowed to ride on the footpaths, sharing right of way with pedestrians. How’s that possible I wondered? You just work it out.

It’s a recipe for bloodshed, you’d think and yet, ( and Harold Scrooby will disagree) it seems to work surprisingly well.

True, the footpaths are not that crowded. Darwin is like a country town in some ways.

These two old friends meet every morning for their walk. I swung round them carefully.

Here’s me on a footpath , downtown Darwin

Of course I was bound to like it, wasn’t I? But I did interview pedestrians, usually just after a bike had swooshed past, and found that few were upset.

One woman, she was a obviously a motorist, said. “Better they be on the footpath than on the roads where we have to dodge around them and worry about hitting them.”

This fellow from Melbourne was surprised that it was not a problem

Most walkers agreed that cyclists did ring their bells and usually rode slowly. My borrowed bike, had no bell but squeaky brakes did the job.

So, how come there’s this bit of freedom at the Top End when the rest of us have to wear our lids, like it or not?

I heard various explanations. One bike shop owner claimed that a woman in Alice Springs, also in the NT, had gone to court to win the right of riding without a helmet because of the heat.

She’d won the case and that had set the precedent.

Whilst no one would confirm this story, when I asked bare headed cyclists why they preferred to ride that way, many said, yes, it was partly because of the heat. So, an exemption stemming from that, makes sense

But, having got used to it, many said they loved the freedom of the wind in their hair, of all their senses being more open to the elements.

Some folks urged me to come back and ride in the rainy season. They claimed there’s nothing like riding bare headed in tropic rain.

My next question to Darwin pushie riders had to be this….

“Since helmets are sold to the rest of the country on the basis of danger, the fear of brain injury, “Arn’t you afraid?”

No one I spoke to was particularly afraid. Not on the cycle paths and footpaths, that is. But many said they wouldn’t ride on the roads, helmeted or not.

Indeed, I saw riders coming to a road to cross, and then pushing their bike across the intersection to the next footpath.

Darwin riders have got used to their freedom , though some were a bit hazy as to exactly what the law was.

I was able to explain that, legally, You can only ride, helmet free, on the cycle paths and the footpaths.

On the roads, you must wear a helmet, though the consensus is that the cops have better things to do than hassle bare headed cyclists.

I did see some riders who seemed to be in the wrong place legally, or were about to be.

But my impression is that most people obeyed the law.

The upshot, I discovered is that there are two distinct bike cultures in Darwin. No, not law breakers and law abiders, but…….

(1) road cyclists and (2) footpath cyclists.

The road cyclists look very much like they do all over the country, hunched over their drops and, not only helmeted, but often in Lycra.

They’ll tell you the helmet is a safety issue for them. But some will also admit that without a helmet, they feel undressed.

The helmet is part of the look. It’s about performance too, about the air flowing smooth over your skull at speed. These riders, like sports cyclists everywhere else, want to go fast.

The other tribe, the bare headed ones, are always in their regular clothes, no Lycra for them, usually with a back pack.

They’re away from traffic, and are riding, most of the time I observed, much slower.

Some foot-path riders do wear helmets but they still belong to the second tribe in speed and general demeanor

True, the two groups are neither equal nor pure. There are many more helmet wearers than bare heads, about 70-30 I’d say, and there were lots of helmet wearers on the cycle paths, more than I expected.

Surprisingly, I did not see a single rider with a helmet dangling from the handle bars. Surprising, since you’d think that riding bare headed on the path, you might need one when you switched to the road.

I concluded that most bare headers are determined to make their whole journey that way, which is possible given the cycleway/footpath combination.

Darwinians are lucky in that their cycle paths, whilst often in a beautiful location, along the water for example, also go somewhere useful. They head in and out of town. David Hembrow would find this makes sense.

Southern cycle paths are often just leisure circuits, which is a huge planning mistake

So, I’m on Darwin’s streets and cycle paths for four days, Thursday to Sunday. I begin to see patterns.

Far more women are riding here than in my home state, NSW. This fits with the removal of fear idea, since women always cite fear as a major reason not to ride a bike.

I note, that many of these women are Asian, a group I’ve never noticed on bikes down South.

When I ask the locals, they explain that many of the Asian women who work in food service jobs and hotels round town, ride bikes to work.

I speak to several and find it’s true.

This may an important upside of the helmet exemption, enticing groups onto bikes who normally don’t ride.

We do know that when compulsory helmets came in, in the early nineties, they cut cycling by between 3o- 40%, so the reverse can be true.

But what about the down side? If the helmet advocates are right, there should be a higher head injury rate here, especially amongst the second group.

It turns out that the opposite is true. The accident rate for cyclists in the NT, accidents which would put you in hospital, is 23 per 100,000 population, exactly the national average. (2006-7 figures)

But when you also discover that NT roads are much more dangerous for vehicles generally, and that’s a statistical fact, bikes turn out to be safer to ride in Darwin than elsewhere.

They are also more frequently used to get to work. The bike commuting rate at 4.2%, in Darwin, is four times the national average. (Thanks to Chris Gilham for supplying these stats.)

Apropos of accidents, I spoke to Darren at Scooter World a place which rents mountain bikes to tourists. These are some of his rental bikes out front.

(I tell him that I wish he’d offer some sit-up bikes, a style on which everyone is comfortable.

Perhaps a new film, Eat Pray Love, featuring Julia Roberts on this stately bike, will open our eyes to what we are missing, bikewise )

But I digress. Darren tells me that in his nine years of rentals, he’s never had a customer with head injuries. Plenty of falls, scrapes, etc. but no head injuries. Seems like those most likely to be hurt are road using helmet wearers.

I followed this up at another bike shop downtown, The cycle Zone With some prompting, a guy working there recalled the last really nasty accident.

About a year ago, he told me, a rider was knocked off his bike by a car. Yes, he was a road rider and he was wearing a helmet.

In any case, you are safer on a bike than almost any other getting around activity, safer or as safe as being a pedestrian, for example.

In Holland, where the cycling conditions have been made close to ideal, your chances of a serious head/brain injury on a bike are once every 90 lifetimes.

And this is calculated on the average Dutch citizen exposing him/herself to this risk by cycling the impressive distance of 72,000 kms. in a lifetime. Ah, we must try harder!

I got this from David Hembrow’s very useful blog, A view from the Cycle Path

I said I found two bike cultures in Darwin. But wait, there is a third group which is very powerful in the debate, who are passionately pro helmet, and yet don’t ride fast.

Their support for helmets is very emotive and difficult to argue against. This photo should give you a clue as to who they are.

Yes, it’s the cycling parents of small children, determined to set a good example, determined their kids will grow up regarding helmets as essential as breathing.

They are amongst the law’s most fervent defenders.

I met a Doctor, Paul…. with a young family of three. He owns probably the only cargo bike in Darwin, a marvelous Dutch Gazelle Cubby.

When Paul’s family sets off for the market, littlest in the Cubby, they’ll be protected to the max.

Not only that, but it’s footpaths all the way.

I don’t know if it’s my persuasive powers, or just the powerful logic of helmet choice, but in the time we are together, Paul, the rusted on helmet guy that he is, comes around…. slightly

He’s always been vehemently opposed, he told me, to any relaxation of the helmet laws, but now he’s saying, having heard me out, that he could support certain exemptions, like Melbourne, and the one here.

I’d explained that I’d come to Darwin to get ammunition for another much needed helmet exemption.

The Melbourne Bike share scheme, 500 bikes for easy rental on the streets of that city, is in danger of failing because of our rigid helmet law. Why that is, is explained in previous posts.

We have been arguing on this blog that the riders of these inherently slower and safer bikes, both in Melbourne and soon in Brisbane, where Dr. Paul Martin is pushing the idea, should be able to choose.

They should be able to use one of the share bikes without a helmet as they can all over Europe, and as Paul Martin and his wife, Veronica, are doing here. Right, Paul?

But our attempts to promote this with a peaceful demo, got us stopped by the Melbourne police, ticketed, or so we thought.

Worse, our suggestion is mocked as both irresponsible and politically undo-able.

So, I’ve come to Darwin for proof that this is not true.

In a way, Paul is my most important encounter here. That this intelligent cyclist and helmet advocate, can come to see that our suggestion makes sense, is a gift.

But Paul remains adamant that those, like himself, who like to go fast (not on the Cubby but on his expensive Titanium bike) should not have a choice.

And for him, personally, there’ll never be choice.

As they wave me off, Paul, Megan the kids, I remember his smile as he said.

” Mike, even in Amsterdam I’d wear my helmet. And if I’m the only one, that’s fine. ”

Wife Megan agrees.

I’ll be going home in good shape for Melbourne, I feel, and with some startling news for the rest of the country.

My conclusion; It’s strongly indicated, Bicycle Victoria and Bicycle NSW please take note, that the Northern Territory pays no health penalty for allowing a degree of helmet freedom.

What do you say to that, you cycling bodies?

Here’s the NT’s superb Parliament building. What’s come up in the Parliament on pushies, I wonder?

I tried very hard to get a word from the Darwin police. Many phone calls to their media guy in the end. led to nothing. They’ve had their hands full with the Annual Arts Festival. I’m sure.

I had one question, a sort of two parter, for the police PR man.

” The word I get from most cyclists is that you turn a blind eye to riders without helmets.

One can understand that you have your hands full with the very high car and motorcycle accident rate here, often fueled by alcohol.
Is it fair to say that, comparatively, pushbikes don’t present a problem?

Is it also correct to say that, when serious accidents do happen to bike riders, they tend to involve road riders wearing helmets, and so, cracking down on bare headed riders on footpaths, would not be productive?”

I never got to ask my leading question.

After, many kms. on my borrowed bike, loaded with movie equipment as well as my still camera, I’m ready for food and relaxation.

On the warf, in sight of our naval guardians….

…..I ate crumbed Barra, washed down with a drop of chilled Semillon. Delicious! and only 13 bucks for the fish

Then off, still on the bike of course, to the famous Mindil Beach Sunset Market

I meet the colorful, Swaggie Campbell. I take his address, Care of Wintermoon, Cameron’s Pocket, to send him the photo.

Campbells’s a bush poet who’s kind enough to recite Mulga Bill’s Bicycle ride for me. When the movie of my trip is done, you’ll see Campbell’s performance

Mindil beach, washed by the setting sun, is just over a low dune. An evening ritual has the locals watching the sun go down into the sea.

The temp’s gone down too, but it’s still very hot for me. Hmm, These fruit salads …..

…. at the stall of a girl who could perhaps be one of the cyclists I saw today, look very tempting .

I raised the idea with the Scooter Shop that Darwin should be promoting itself as a cycle tourism destination . “Is it being done?” I ask “No, manager said, but it’s a really good Idea.”

Even better, I found a third bike shop called, Deadly Treadlies, which plans to rent retro bikes soon, stately sit-ups. Now that’s the go!

I’ll be back to ride in the wet season, I vowed, to take a stately cycle for a sloshy spin. “Get in touch with your inner wet, and on wheels,” sounds like a slogan to intrigue.

You’d think, I’d be exhausted, and I am, but Darwin’s got me slightly intoxicated, the air, the smells, the people.

I can’t resist trying one last curiosity, The Deckchair Cinema, though I fall asleep in the movie.

Findings.
1. Enlightened helmet laws.
2. Impressive cycle path system.
3. No health penalty for helmet exemption.
4. Bike commuting rate, 3-4 times Nat. average. Due to exemption?
5. Leisure bike usage 1.7 times Nat. average

Mike Rubbo. Sept. 4th 2010

Firstly, for an indication of the interest, The London share bikes are generating, check our this forum under the name of Boris Bikes

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,

Glad to hear from you and I should be able to help you with some answers to your questions.

I have to say I was rather shocked to hear of the low uptake of the Melbourne bikes. I can’t believe that there are less than 70 trips per day.

At the moment in Dublin we are getting daily trips of close to 5,000 from our 450 bikes. This makes us one of the most successful schemes in Europe.

Our expectation was to sign up 2,000 members in our first year. In our first 11 months we have signed up 37,000 members (about 25,000 annual subscriptions and 12,000 three-day memberships.)

The gardai (police) have confirmed that there have been no serious accidents with the bikes and there has been remarkably little vandalism. Two bikes were stolen up to now, but we recovered both bikes.

Research has shown that over 40% of users of the scheme have never or rarely cycled in the city centre before the bike scheme was launched. 60% use the bikes in conjunction with public transport.

Why have we been so successful? There is no research published that can give us exact answers but there are a number of factors that I would point to.

I think our pricing structure has been a major success. We charge €10 for an annual membership card. This is such good value for money, that people are prepared to give it a go. A three-day membership is only €2. Members can travel for 30 minutes for free. After that fees kick in.

Dublin has become a safer place to cycle in over the last 10 years. In 2007 we banned large trucks from the city centre. Any vehicle with 5 axles or more has to go around the city on a motorway between 7am and 7pm.

We reduced the speed limit in the city centre to 30kph in February 2010. This has been very controversial but it gave a boost of confidence to cyclists.

While accident levels have decreased by up to 70% in the last 10 years, the numbers cycling started to rise about 5 years ago. The numbers cycling have gone up every year since 2004 and now there are 60% more cycling than there was five years ago.

There is NO mandatory helmet law. We learned that lesson from Australia. After the introduction of Dublin Bikes, there was some pressure to bring in compulsory helmets, but thankfully common sense prevailed.

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.

The ‘Australian Effect’ is now established internationally as something which urban planners avoid at all costs, a counter-productive own-goal

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.

As many of you know, we have an election happening here, and as the days count down, its’ getting interesting.

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

Yes, I know, my film on Melbourne Bike Share, has a gloomy tone to it. Most of my persuavies try for a light tone, but this time, the constant rain, the lonely bikes, it all got to me.

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

Saturday, 24th July about 20 people turned up to ride Melbourne’s new Bike share scheme which we’ve dubbed, the Mixi, without helmets.

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

You know, it’s very important that Melbourne’s bike share scheme is a success.

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.

The times I’ll get the most benefit out of using these bikes is exactly that – on impulse. I imagine many other people will be the same. Tourists will likely be one of the biggest users of the bikes and the helmet requirement could be the simple decision maker on whether or not to bother.

I think the helmet law is a good thing however. Very few people who don’t own a bike will be magically converted into a cyclist because of the appearance of the bike share program anyway.

The helmet law acts as a filter to sway non-cyclists away from using this program, which would be much safer for everybody. It’s dangerous riding amongst pedestrians, trams, vehicles, etc. if you don’t know what to watch out for.

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

Great news! Mikael Colville-Andersen, the famous bike thinker and blogger is coming to Melbourne to the State of Design Conference to give a Saturday afternoon talk. The date is is July 24th.

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

Mikael Colville-Andersen is a filmmaker, photographer and urban mobility expert who is also known as Denmark’s Bicycle Ambassador. He lectures around the world on how cities can and should re-establish the bicycle as a respected and accepted transport form.

In his presentation ‘Four Goals for Promoting Urban Cycling’, Colville-Andersen explains Copenhagen’s journey – then, now and into the future – towards establishing the bicycle as a feasible, acceptable form of transport. Colville-Andersen shows how other cities can be inspired by the Copenhagen experience.

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.

Well, its happening!

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.

It’s easy for you young ones now to see how wrong we were, but then the car, the private car, remember those… no, of course you wouldn’t…. well, they were king. They trumped everything”

Mike Rubbo

Denver Colorado, just a few days ago, became the first US city to have a city wide bike share scheme up and running.

Here’s the roll out for their B Bikes on a rainy Denver day. They’ve beaten Minneapolis, by the Way which looked to be the first in the US , it’s Nice Ride scheme, now slated for June.

Bike share is revolutionary because it turbo charges bike usage wherever it lands, and that in turn calms traffic, cleans the air, and makes for a friendlier city life.

It does something else equally important. It shifts the bike culture balance towards the sit-up bike, the comfortable friendly way to ride, and away from the bent over Lycra look, still so prevalent here.

These sturdy sit-up bikes have some novel features.
Firstly, the eye is drawn to the super-sized basket, proclaiming loud and clear that this type of cycling is about practical transport, and has nothing to do with sports cycling.

Note too, that this capacious carrier has something quite novel inside, and it’s not a helmet.

That black coil is a cable lock, linked to the bike. This is a good idea because one of the great inconveniences of other share bike systems, is that the only way to lock the bike if you need to shop for example, is to find a docking station, unless carry a lock with you. I guess.

Here’s a short film showing the super comfortable B Bikes in action.

I note that all the riders are wearing helmets. They must have bought them with them because there’s no evidence of a helmet coming with the bike. Are helmets optional in Denver, anyone know?

According to the film, there’ll be 500 B bikes dispensed from 50 docking stations, making the scheme medium small.

Geek on a bike supplies some further interesting info. The bikes are made by Trek, a mainstream bike manufacturer which may have noticed how Montreal’s Bixis are on-selling briskly to cities around the world.

“Each bike is equipped with a GPS transponder(reports Geek) which talks back to the B-cycle base. While it doesn’t provide navigation during use – there’s no display on the bike itself – it does talk back to B-cycle’s servers, and allows the company to track exactly where its bikes have gone – hopefully preventing theft and ensuring that an adequate supply of bikes is kept ready at each B-station.

The GPS also uploads your journey to your member page – tracked via the unique identifier on your B-card – where you can view you travels overlaid on a map.

This information is also used to track things like personal fitness levels, average speed, calories burned, and the contribution you have made to reducing the city’s carbon footprint by ditching four wheels in favor of two.

The company’s president Bob Burns explained that the B-cycle scheme “was created for the commuter whose transit stop is two miles from the office, the urbanite running errands, and the tourist out sightseeing” rather than those planning on traveling long distances.

He describes the specialized Trek-designed cycle as “a cruiser-style bike that is comfortable for people of all sizes and biking abilities.”

Mayor of Denver John Hickenlooper said of the project that “Denver can set an example for the whole country and show that bike-sharing is a viable transportation option to help improve the overall health of Americans and reduce our carbon footprint.“

In May 2008, the Age reported that Brisbane looked set to be the fist Australian city with bike share. The city govt was promising 2000 bikes dispensed from 150 stations. So far two years later, not a bike to be seen, stymied by the helmet law, is the suspicion. (see his comment)

My friend Dr Paul Martin, Brisbane sit-up bike commuter and deep digger on this question, has been able to get nothing much out of the authorities one way or another

Meanwhile Melbourne will be first in Australia for sure. The city is set to have a much more modest bike share scheme, 100 Bixis, on it’s streets, come May 31st this year.

Can it work from a size POV? Those who run who run Velbis in Paris say that there is a critical mass below which such a scheme can’t work.

They remain a toy, a curiosity unless the stations are everywhere and the bikes as plentiful as fallen leaves in Autumn.

Melbourne is not deterred. The RACV, the massive motorist club behind this bike share scheme, is not throwing its money away one presumes

Here’s a movie of what they’ll look like, our Melb. Bixis, and how they’ll ride.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT4yV2glmuQ

Rumors have it that Bixis also have tracking devices built in, at least in the Quebec model. So, if you’re cheating on someone don’t do it on a Bixi. Your privacy is not assured!

Then, there’s the other catch 22, Our helmet law.

It’s going to be so interesting to see what happens when folks ride those Bixis without helmets, as they surely will, protesting to the cops who stop them…..

“If this bike share scheme offers me a bike without a helmet, that’s how I’ll ride it. If I picked up a rental car, I wouldn’t have to supply my on seat belt, would I?”

For some BG on this, see Bike Share and helmets don’t Mix?

Apropos of that, my last bit of revolutionary news is from Mexico City where they now have ecocbicis in that vaste city

The share bike’s name comes from the city which inspired them, Barcelona and its Bicis, share bikes, which have transformed that city too.

Violeta Brana-Lafourcade, who filmed so well for me in Denmark and Holland, (the Waltz Of The Bikes) will be be reporting on the Bicis revolution for this blog from Barcelona very soon.

Here are the Ecobicis in action in Mexico City

Note that very few Mexican bike share riders are wearing helmets.

According to Mikael Colville-Andersen, author of the very accurate blog, Copenhagenize.com. Mexico city has rescinded it’s helmet law.

Was it because bike share was deemed more valuable than the doubtful benefits of compulsory helmets, which, to be fair, people did not wear anyway?

Tel Aviv, Mikael reminds us, is flirting with the same horrible revisionistic possibility.

Mikael’s parting advice; “Got a helmet law? Don’t bother with bike share programs until you repeal it.”

OH, gloom, Australia, we may be on the slippery slope of the de-nannyization of cycling, turning back the clock to the terrible 80′s when cycling was strangely safe even without lids, when adults had choice. Horrors! Stay tuned!

And practice sitting up straight when your ride. It’s the new black.

Newsfash! Bixi, the famous Montreal share bike, has just released some interesting figures. The company, which makes and runs them, part of Montreal’s parking system, sold 9000 bikes overseas this last year, 6500 of them to London. They project a profit!

And here are local use stats. for 5000 Bixis in Montreal itself last summer.

BIXI IN NUMBERS

1.14 million: rides taken in 2009.

32,098: Bixis taken or returned at the busiest station (at Mont Royal

métro station).

10,775: People who bought subscriptions in 2009.

179,683: Average number of Bixi rides taken on Fridays, the system’s busiest day.

5 to 6 p.m.: most popular time to ride a Bixi.

48: percentage of users taking Bixis to reach work or school.

59: percentage of Bixi subscribers who also own their own bike.

25 to 44: the age range of most Bixi subscribers.

85: Percentage of subscribers with university degrees.

34: Percentage of subscribers who live in Plateau Mont Royal, the biggest source of Bixi users.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Bixi+projects+profit+even+with+contract/2996635/story.html#ixzz0nToR7api

Mike Rubbo

Last Friday was, as Guim Valls Teruel, likes to say, “Awesome”

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

This coming week will be an exciting one in my bike world.
Guim valls Teruel, the Spaniard who is riding around the world on his E bike will arrive in Sydney, he promises, towing his trailer with it’s solar panel.

I have my doubts Guim make it in time. He told me by mobile that today, Sunday 18th, he was lingering way too far north , one would think, doing the Nimbin markets.

He’s found that the best places in Australia to promote his E bike as the perfect Eco vehicle, (since arriving from NZ a month ago) are local produce markets.

Anyway, Guim assures me he can, if pushed, do 200 kms. a day. I guess he’ knows what he’s doing, having ridden 10,000 kms. already from Beijing.

I’m hoping he makes it in time for Friday, for a possible meeting with Lord Tony Berkeley, who I’ve been asked to show around Sydney on a bike. Lord Berkeley is a keen utility cyclist in Britain

Since, I don’t know the new bike plans for Sydney very well, I’ve asked City of Sydney’s Fiona Campbell to host the ride as I’ll make the movie.

Lord Berkeley a Labor Peer, and British rail expert, is in Australia to discuss rail freight, I believe. He is also a spokesman in the British Parliament on bike policy.

I have some wider hopes for his visit. CTC, the venerable British bike organization which contacted me, is doing much to promote cycling politically in the UK.

Going to their site, I find the CTC is making bikes an election issue in Britain with their Vote Bike campaign.

How one wishes some Pollie was putting questions in our parliament and, Oh, for bikes to be an election issue here as well.

So, this contact,and the future networking which I hope comes of it, may help us raise the political status of utility cycling here through some sort of cross pollination .

Right now, neither party at the Federal level. seems much interested in Cycling as transport.

Here is a film the CTC posted about visiting Cambridge, one of the most Bike conscious cities on Britain. Thanks to Carlton Reid for the film

The narration makes a telling point. In that town, planning automatically brings in bikes because they are so well embedded in the public consciousness. We need to get to that state and stage.

Anyway, what will be, will be in terms of who arrives. and who’s held up this coming week.

There’s plenty else that’s exciting coing up.

Maurice Wells who runs what we think it Sydney’s first bike shop, a store front in Marrickville, Glow Worm Bicycles, is making plans to host Guim. Sydney cyclists will have a change to meet him and see his solar system at the shop.

Here is Maurice in red, at the launch of his shop.

And here’s a great mural Maurice had on the shop wall

But the really big news is this. For years, the RTA, our State road body, has been working on changes in the rules for E bikes to bring us into line with Europe.

Somehow the RTA, a NSW org. seem to be in charge of coordinating the changes nationally

Friday the 16th, selected people in the bike world got an Email from Gabriel Denoury, the RTA guy who’s been working on the new policy I was not one of them, but it was soon leaked to me.

My nose is slightly out of joint in that I’d made numerous suggestions to Mr. Denoury 9 months ago when the policy was open for comment, and thought he’d promised to let me know, as a stakeholder, when the changes came through

Never mind. The important thing is that the changes are mostly very good,

In big picture terms, it will mean that the E bike will come out of the shadows here and present itself, I’m quite sure, as a very appealing alternative to the car for shortish trips

Better yet, if the 250 watt motors we will soon be allowed to use are partnered with the classic sit-up configuration, then we really have a knockout winner in terms of comfort, safety and carrying capacity for urban getting around

You may laugh, but my prediction is that 5 years from now, this will be the bike combo of choice for anyone serious about a bike as urban transport .

The very young and fit may turn up their noses at such assistance, but when they get round of carrying a kid, large shopping loads, even moving house by bike, as folks love to do in Portland, Oregon, then the E bike is going to look very good.

It will also be a bike you can be proud to be seen, I feel.

I mean how about this, superb gazelle Innegy, the Rolls Royce of E bikes? Can’t you see your self on that?

And if you want something more BMW-Like, how about this Giant Freedom Twist?

I ride a Giant Suede with a motor I added on, a kit, and the cheaper way to go.

Mine is to a somewhat grubbier Giant, but I love it just the same. (time to say again I have no financial interest in E bikes, rather something far more deadly. a philosophical interest.

Guim will spoil my party somewhat because his Wisper, a great E bike, is not a sit up. I can forgive him that, given the long distances he rides. I guess he’s not going to switch his handlebars for my photo op.

The changes, (thanks, Gabriel and the team) mean that we can now import these great bikes from Europe and the US, they being 250 Watts.

My friend, Dr Paul Martin in Brisbane has jumped that gun and is already on a Gazelle, tuned down to 200 watts, I assume.

Why do I think E bikes are the future of urban transport the real alternative to the car? because of the look I imagine my little Diahatsu Sirion gives me every time I leave on the bike and leave it behind

As I come out of our car port, too stuffed with junk to hold an actual car, I see my bike and my car side by side. Which will i choose for the journey ahead?

Why do I choose the bike most of the time?

Because, even though my the car is as economical as they get and quite fun to drive, the bike will feel better.

More importantly, I know there is no hill ahead which will give me pain. amd wish I was in the Sirion. I’ll work hard on a couple of rises, but no get-off-and-push, pain.

With the E bike, I control the ride, not the terrain.

I think that’s a key recurring moment in one’s transport life. If that moment and my choice, could be multiplied into millionsof people coming out, looking at their transport options and choosing the bike most of the time, that would be the changing of Australia.

And way for the better. We know our car addiction is killing us.

Now, I’m not saying the E bike is transport methadone, though my friend David Hembow in Holland might like that analogy. I’m saying its a bit intermediate and something the public, the bike hostile public, can get their heads around .

Hostile in the sense as bikes as transport. Everyone likes the ides of biking around our pretty waterways, but doesn’t count

The E bike gives that dream a chance. The regular push bike does not, not for most people who are now not riding, and not thinking of riding.

I know you don’t believe me. That’s OK, you haven’t tried one of these E bikes. When you have, you’ll believe too.

It promises to be an interesting week.

I do have a quibble with the RTA regulations, now awaiting Federal approval (Go on, Minister Garrett, give it a shove, will ya?) and that is their plan to do away with the throttle which I think is silly and an overdone copying of Europe .

You can sample a discussion the throttle on Sydney cyclist. here

As I said in a letter to Gabriel Denoury, if we are going to copy Europe so slavishly, let’s put our gas prices up to the same level as theirs. i.e double, and then spend the extra money on bike-ways, like they do over there.

How about that. eh?

1. Collaborating with James Schwartz .
2. Growing a second bike culture.
3. Electric bike predictions. A big future for them.
4. Round the World E bike Rider,Guim Valls Teruel, is almost here
5. Sydney’s first all E bike shop is open and will host Guim
6. Bicycle NSW to host Guim also
6. The visit of Lord Tony Berkeley from GB..

I’ve made blog friends with James Schwartz who write a blog called The urban Country in Toronto.

We agreed to explore together the idea of people riding different bikes in different situations.

His movie, Bike it my Way, is responding to this one of mine, Bike it or Not, about Gill Charlton which you’ve probably already seen.

It’s great fun, collaborating like this! Anyone else want to try?

Here’s how James describes our, across-the-world movie making.

Mike Rubbo asked me if I would like to engage in international collaboration on two videos that highlight women cyclists who – in Mike’s words – choose different bikes for different hikes.

So, I set out to find a woman who would fit the profile – somebody who wears the lycra racing gear (and a helmet) on weekends, but rides a stylish sit-up bicycle during the week (sans helmet). Yvonne Bambrick – the Executive Director for the Toronto Cyclists Union – put me in touch with the passionate Toronto cyclist, Briana Illingworth.

Briana is a fascinating person and was a perfect match because her love for cycling extends not only on her commute to work – but in her job itself.

Briana is a Transportation Policy and Planning Advisor for Metrolinx – the provincial organization setup to “champion, develop and implement an integrated transportation system [in the Greater Toronto area] that enhances prosperity, sustainability and quality of life”.

Briana’s focus is on Active Transportation and her vision is a community where people have the option to get around on bicycles without any special clothing or equipment. I took footage of Briana on a weekend in her racing gear and on a weekday in her regular clothes without a helmet.

Me again. I feel that celebrating cross over riding is really important. Especially in Australia where the sports/leisure cycling culture is so dominant, so smothering, one could say.

How about, Cross biking? That’s when you use, different bikes for different hikes.

2. We need to grow up an alternative, namely utility cycling. And it’s best that this is happening, not in opposition, but in partnership with people like Gill and Briana showing that you can enjoy both .

Jim Forbes sent me this great photo from Queensland. What does it tell me? That in simpler times, 1939 in Bundaberg, Queensland, your bike was two things.

These blokes have clearly turned their handlebars up as they ride to work, if that’s where they’re going .

(Thanks to the State Library of Queensland)

Weekends, one imagines they turned them down and went faster.

3. I predict two things are going to happen as we grow utility cycling here.

A. Most of us will be sitting up straight as these blokes are doing. Probably not by turning up drops (Is that still possible?) but by riding proper made-to-order sit ups.

B, Now, this might surprise you, I predict that most bikes for getting around 5 years from now, will have an electrical assist, a small motor for a boost.

I think will happen because sitting up straight with a small helpful motor, you end up with the perfect utility bike. It will either be charge at home by solar or even as you ride.

Another reason this makes sense is the very same reason that some people now disparage sit-ups, namely lower performance.

The motor lifts performance so that as you sit-up right on an E bike like the fabulous gazelle which won bike of the year against all tyes no face no impediments

The motor helps with the greater wind resistance sitting up straight provokes, The motor helps with carrying loads, which you’ll want to do a lot if you bike is your main vehicle, as it will one day be.

More and more small deliveries will be made by E bike, not only of you, your kids, your dog, you shopping, but business deliveries

Maybe this happen more in high bike resistance countries like Australia and NZ, where even getting people to “think Bike” is very hard.

Now, in Bruges, Belgium where I took this delightful photo (a favourite ) a motor may never be necessary, the terrain being so flat and sheltered, and the people so bike-habituated

But here, where everything’s hard, both psychologically and physically, that extra oomph, and it’s a very small oomph, will allow you to control the trip in a way which makes all the difference. .

With that boost, you create the bike experience you want to have, not the terrain dictating your ride. Flat and windless, your motor’s off. Hilly and feeling a bit puffed, motor’s on.

They’ll also start breaking records when folks discover that E bikes are so much fun

That’s why I see an E bike future here, that is when you are biking about, not working out.

This is a great article by Vincent , which sums up the E bike situation globally right now, plus the arguments against such bikes.

Did you know there are now 120 million E bikes in China, up by 20 million since last year, that they are the fastest growing marker sngment in Europe, euro-wise?

I love author Vincent’s remark about E bikes and exercise. They do give plenty of exercise but not a work out, unless you switch the motor off.

He points out that If you are seriously working out on a bike, (and most Aust. cyclists are doing just that most of the time) having a motor makes about as much sense as electro-boosting all that shiny equipment at Fitness First, or the gym of your choice.

Here’s a movie I don’t think I’ve posted before which proves, inadvertently, that the the electro boosted sit-up bike performs superbly against flat bars, and on hilly terrain.

I say, “inadvertently” because the intention was to prove something else when I got roped in as a guinea pig.

All of this is very relevant as Guim Valls Teruel, the cheery Spaniard, on his electric Wisper, bears down on us.

4. Guim is on his way from Brisbane to Sydney as I write, and will stay with Katya and I, some night next week, before riding on to Sydney, perhaps with me beside him.

5. Now, it so happens that Sydney now has it’s first all electric bike shop

Glowworm Bicycles in Marrickville Maurice Wells, who’s started it, came to a talk I gave, and we’ve become friends.

I suggested to Maurice that it would make sense to host Guim’s visit, stage a get together at the new shop, and it seems that’s now on.

It looks possible that Bicycle NSW will also host a visit by Guim to their offices. That’d be great as well.

So, as you see, so much is happening here.

6. And if that was not enough, a Labor peer, the bloke who asks questions in the British Parliament for the CTC, the venerable British biking organization, Lord Tony Berkeley is coming to Sydney next week.

CTC has asked me to host him on a bike ride around town.

Flattered though I am, I’m not the right person and so I’ve brought in Fiona Campbell Transport Officer, Cycling, for the city of Sydney.

Fiona knows much more about the 70 kms. of new bike-ways they are building in Sydney, and thus is better placed to play host to the labor Peer. I’ll just do the filming.

I suspect that CTC’s interest in me doing a film about the visit is tied in with the British Elections. CTC has a Vote Bike campaign in full swing.

Oh, how we dream of having utility cycling become a Federal issue here, with questions in Parliament, indignant voices demanding answers as to why we lag so far behind.

Will it ever happen? How ironic it is that our leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott has been in the saddle for week in an impressive charity ride from Melb. to Sydne.

Yet it seems never to have occurred to him that his great ride was the perfect platform from which to announce a bold new policy for the Coalition, surely a huge vote winner.

Cheers, Mike

Both Mickael Colville-Andersen and David Hembrow are great guys. Both are doing so much to promote utility cycling.

David takes the trouble to give me frequent good advice, especially about infrastructure which for him, is key. Safety is under the wheels, certainly not on the head as they wish us to believe here.

Mikael has run some of my bike movies on his blog, Copenhagenize.com. which has much increased their reach and impact.

He’s also supported our campaign to promote sit-up bikes in Australia (see March 18th on his bog)

But when it come to Electric bikes, sadly, we part company, they and I. Mikael regards them as lazy bikes, and David insists they are strictly for the old and/or infirm

I think that’s not true and that both go against their own thinking when they say so.

Mikael is both funny and apt when he compares a bike to a vacuum cleaner. His points is that we should not over romanticize or fetish-ize the bike.

It’s just a tool like a vacuum cleaner, and about equally sexy most of the time .

By that argument if the E bike is useful, then it’s an extension of the tool that’ll be right for some circumstances, and we shouldn’t get too worked up about it and call it names like, lazy bike

Just like some vacuums cleaners roll along, beating the hell out of carpet, and others merely suck, bikes work differently too.

David points out that people ride, and will ride more, when it’s fun, that being safe is a big part of the fun, and that being safe is in turn, a matter of separated bike paths. All perfectly sensible.

Now, if I say that steep hills and carrying loads on a bike, are not necessarily fun, depending on your fitness level, the heat of day, etc. and that I need help, I shouldn’t be made to feel like a wuss.

Hills and loads do come into the fun equation hard and fast! .

Every one of our of journeys involves quite complex option and enjoyment assessment, especially in countries where to use a bike is exceptional, and bike-ways a sparse or non existent.

Now, unless one does a Rip Van Winkle, going to sleep with the alarm clock set to wake you in 30 years time when the bike ways have all been built, unless that, you have to make do with what you’ve got, all the while kicking and screaming for separated paths.

For example, take my trip to the shops this morning , I’m just back. I’ts 11.5 kms. round trip. I went on the bike, my saddle bags ready play their role. No bike ways at all.

Here’s my bulging saddle bags on the moment of arriving back.

Here’s what they contained, arranged as nicely as I can. The weight of my load, 25 kilos.

Here too is the log slow incline on Hillside road up to the house. This, I just climbed on the last leg of the homeward journey. It goes up for 1.6 kms. The gradient is not so steep, but many people on bikes do walk up it, lazy sods.

I think you wouldn’t be at all surprised, given that hill, the overall distance and expected load , when i say that I wouldn’t have dreamt of going by bike if I didn’t have my small electrical assist, my tiny 200 watt motor.

it would not have been the slightest bit fun. Yet, with that small amount of help, it was indeed fun.

So that is why, anticipating that fun, especially the marvelous free wheeling down that same hill, the wind in my hair, on the outward journey, that I took my E bike and not the car, sitting night next to it on the drive.

I saw only one other bike during the 45 min. trip there and back, and yet I bet every driver I passed has a bike tucked away in the garage. We do buy more cars than bikes, you know. (but the wrong sort)

Yet it occurred to none of those drivers, on their various journeys, to think the bike might be practical and fun.

Now that could be, not only because they are indeed car addicted, car coddled in terms of gas prices, taxes, etc. but because the hills around here make utility cycling no fun

So, I would like David to see that the TOBs, (my short hand for trips on bikes) would/could go way up if there was not this constant preaching against the E bike as the lazy bike, the illegitimate bike, the cheating bike.,

As David love to pint out, people don’t ride bike in Holland for hair shirt reasons, the are not pedal power missionaries. They are just getting around in the most practical and pleasant way possible.

Well what if, in a much more vast range of circumstances than my colleagues will admit, the E bike is practical and pleasant? What then?

Would you rather have people in cars, for that’s where they are, on or such bikes?

I forgot to mention, that the E bike in Australia is mired in a regulative mess. For years now, state bodies like the RTA in NSW have been trying raise the legal motor size to 250 watts which would bring us in line with Europe and Japan

This would mean that we could could import great bikes like the Gazelle Innergy from Holland, presently illegal with its 250 watt motor.

That’s good. One just wishes the Fed Govt would show some leadership and hurry this along. It’s they now who are the stumbling block.

But wise as this change is, it is quite foolish to align our E bikes with the European rule that all E bikes have to be Pedelcs. This means that the motor will only come on when you pedal.

You have the choice of no motor at all, or varying degrees of automatic assistance, depending on the sophistication and price of the bike

Why is Pedelec a problem when its clearly designed to stop people treating the E bike as a low powered motor bike, i.e. one on which you can just sit and twist, not pedal at all.

Surely that’s good? you say. Well no, it’s not at all . Firstly the problem is a furphy. Even at 250 watts, the power is so low that anyone who wants to hoon around, will go for something more powerful, a motor scooter or motorbike.

Secondly, the motors all cut out at around 25 kph, way slower than you can do on an ordinary bike, and so there is no chance of a throttle turning these bikes into speed machines.

My bike has both Pedelec and a throttle which is ideal

There is some sort of moralizing behind this move. It’s like you had a limiter on your car, dictating on how you drove it for safety or ecological reasons. Which motorists would accept that their car dd not perform freely, that they were not making all decisions?

Why does it matter? With the throttle, you can use as little power as you like, use the battery as sparingly as you like, without th machine deciding for you .

For example in a head wind, I use my throttle to deliver just a touch of power, and thus conserve my battery charge.

Srcondly, at traffic lights, it so convenient to have power to get away fast and not be in the way of cars starting up behind you.

This, you can do with the throttle of course, but not with the pwdelec because you have to be in motion, pedaling, for it to kick in on most models.

Some bikes will have some sort of quick start override. But why all the complication, having more things to break down, when the solution it so simple and time tested?

Australia should have the guts to break ranks with Europe on this.

if they don’t, and Pedelec becomes the rule, people will find ways to modify their bikes to the throttle option, so infuriated will they be with Pedelec alone.

E bikes are going to be very big. Let’s get it right this time since we’ve waited so long for change anyway !

My bike blog has to give way this week to another urgent matter, the plans to sink a navy ship as a reef just off our beach. That’s Avoca Beach.

We were not consulted. We are horrified and we are fighting back. The sinking is just days away, March 27th. Yet still we think we can stop it, even though there are signs all over the Central Coast, announcing the “great day” and explaining which roads will be closed.

They expect 30,000 people to view the ship go down from the beaches and cliffs. How disappointed some will be!

Visit the web site for more info. http://noship.com.au/

I’ve made several films about why we are opposed. Now, having been handed the most wonderful protest song by local folk singers, Nick and Liesl, I’ve made this music video, The Sinking of the Adelaide.

I’m putting the lyrics here because we hope that other singers will want to sing it, especially overseas.

Why? Well, if word gets to our embassies that this song telling how we are with this action, undermining all our environmental principles, then perhaps those in the far flung embassies who care about our foreign image, will send word back to Canberra, that this is not a good idea

The lyrics for The sinking of the Adelaide by Nick and Liesl.

Standing at Avoca,
Oh, what a beautiful place
The land has been scarred before
but the oceans remain unpaved.

Standing on the beach
watching the waves roll in
Will it ever be the same?
after the sinking of the Adelaide

Chorus.
Adelaide, in her ocean grave,
a shipwreck without a storm.
A sunken ship wont help us pay for,
the oceans we cant restore.

It’s just a drop in the ocean,
but a drop I don’t want to taste.
At what point do we ask ourselves,
should we treat our oceans this way?

It’s out of sight and out of mind,
‘cept for the divers and the fish they’ll find.
I guess the Government’s made up it’s mind,
but without choices we have no rights.

Chorus.

Is it worth the risk is it worth the fight.
(Liesl repeats) Is it with the risk, is it worth the fight?

I’m just not sure this is right.
(Liesl) I’m just not sure this is right.
You and me and mother nature’s plight.

There are questions unanswered,
and there are risks we can’t deny.

We can sit on the fence
with holes in our fancy pants
But this aint no summer romance,
there will be no second chance.

Chorus twice.

Hi Folks, it’s been a long time since the last post. I’ve been totally consumed by helping to fight against the scuttling of the HMAS Adelaide off our lovely Avoca beach.

If that interests, you have a look at; The Graveyard of the Adelaide, on youtube and the two films which follow.

But now, I’ve found a moment to make the film I’ve had in head for so long, a film about a cyclist who crosses over, why rides different bikes for different hikes

Meet Jill Charlton and enjoy her company.

Jill is part of the revolution we need to have in Australia, to widen our cycling culture from the the present Sport/leisure one, to include serious utility cycling.

That means embracing the machines, the sit-up Amsterdam type bikes made for the job.

All the excuses as to why these marvelous machines are hardly seen here, are furphies. The European who ride these bikes so pervasively have hills in some parts, have daunting distances, and they have headwinds.

Nothing turns them off the best bike for the job of going A to B, the bike they’ve been riding for more than 60 years, unbroken, the sit-up.

Why the subtle exclusion of these bikes here, the put downs in bike shops? I’d hate to think it, but could it be economic?

As David Hembrow explained in Talking to David Hembrow, such bikes need little maintenance, last for 20 years and never go out of fashion.

They do have lots of accessories but these generally come with the bike in Europe, the lights, the rack, the chain guard, etc.

What the sit-ups don’t don’t need is special clothes. There is no need to Gear up Girl l with one of these.

In the film, Jill points to her padding, comfort built into her Lycra shorts. Well, why not have a comfy seat to begin with? Is that such a revolutionary idea?

As we readily admit in Bike it or Not, these bikes are slower. But is that a bad thing? Is it really good to rush around as if you were a car?

What about those slow moments all around the world, starting with leisurely meals in the Italian style?

There is a slow bike movement too, and it needs consideration here as we spin ourselves into early stress based graves.

By the way, thanks to Peninsula Pedallers for proposing that mine are the best bike advocacy films in Australia.

That’s encouraging, folks

EBWT in TV3 NZ (interview) from Electric Bicycle World Tour on Vimeo.

Guim will be looking for press coverage both in Brisbane, and as he rides down our coast towards Sydney.

In Brissie, I’ve put him in touch with another doctor friend who rides an E bike, Paul Martin, in the hopes he’ll be able to help Guim.

As he gets down our way, I hope to be able to ride with Guim for a bit and do that filming.

Meanwhile, some other exciting things have been happening. I’ve been very pleased with the response to the film I made about Melbourne councillor, Jackie Fristacky.

Using that as a calling card, I have been approaching councils in the Sydney area, hoping to find one which would be a good film subject.

It seems like I may have found one that will be more than just a movie topic.

I don’t want to say which council it is just yet, but I’ve pitched to the Deputy Mayor of this particular council the idea of a new sort of campaign for utility cycling in his area.

I put it this way. The normal planning emphasis these days is on infrastructure, building more bike ways of various sorts , plus bike parking etc. All well and good.

But really, all of this has little point unless people do fervently want to ride bikes as transport.

If few do, it’s like you are building a sporting venue for a game few want to actually play.

So, at the same time as you plan those bike-ways, let’s create an image of utility cycling which is really friendly, inviting and fashionable,

FIF for short.

That we do by running a campaign for a different way to ride , dramatically different to the speeding cyclist in Lycra on his carbon fibre machine, which is such a common sight on two wheels these days.

The Tony Abbott look you could call it.

Let’s mount a campaign for the sit-up bike, the Amsterdam style bike, knowing that it’s a posture which is far more comfortable, and which flies a flag for a new way ride.

It’s an image which says, forget the speed, the special gear, you don’t need them. Just hop on a bike like this and go, go to the shops to work to visit someone, whatever!

Each such rider we get going, will attract others. So, our slogan will be, Come ride with me

I loved this clever promotion the Hungarians have done for such cycling.

It’s clever though the hero bike (that a movie term of the key prop) is not a sit up. As with so much that’s great, I found this on Copenhagenize.com.

Why do I like this ckip winning people to cycling is very much about status, cycling seeming cool.

At the moment sports cycling is super cool for a certain group whilst leaving most of us, cold

Now, I know that’s not fair which is why I need to hurry up and cut the material I’ve shot with Gill Charlton. She proves it’s not, either-or.

In the weekends, Gill dons her Lycra and gets on her carbon fibre bike, loving the speed.

Weekdays, she’s on a sit up bike and to see her riding by, you’d never know it was the same person.

Here’s Gill at speed

and with her weekday bike behind her.

To see her on the latter, you’ll have to wait for the movie, Gill changes Stripes . I’ll call it.

So to finish up, not only am I suggesting to this council a campaign based on a type of bike, but also that the emphasis be put, not so much on commuting, but on neighborhood riding.

The area I’m looking at is quite flat, and has many small shopping centres, both of which make perfect for local bike use.

If we can boost the idea of getting around locally on one of these comfy bikes, it might be a bit of a breakthrough.

This is friend Bruce Moir, seen here with me on a recent ride around Sydney.

Bruce drives a new VW , a very sophisticated little car which tells him the amount of diesel he’s using at any given moment.

Knowing the great mileage the car gets on trips, Bruce was horrified to find that on local drives to the shops, this fuel economy was cut by half.

It’s the stop and go driving on short trips, which is the worst for both consumption and green house gas emissions

So, if we can get people using bikes for short local trips, we do a great thing both for our wallets and the environment.

That’s the campaign I hope to part of as an ideas man and diarist with a camera.

In the meantime, I eagerly wait the arrival of of Guim

And if you have any interest in what I’ve been doing for Avoca Village, film-wise, here are the recent efforts. Firstly, The Graveyard of the Adelaide,

And then, The Lizard Diaries

I could not resist opening up this post to communicate the excitement which is being felt in Montreal these days. Here’s an extract from the Montreal paper, The Gazette.

If only we could read this story about Sydney, eh?

By MIchelle Lalonde, The Gazette

If you are a Montrealer who cares about the environment, you should have been dancing in the streets last week. The Agence métropolitaine du transport finally released the results of its latest Origin- Destination survey, and the news was very good, indeed.

The survey, done every five years by the transit authority, gives a snapshot (taken in 2008 this time) of how people in the greater Montreal region get from place to place. For those of us concerned about climate change, air quality, public health and the livability of this city, the news was fantastic.

For the first time in 40 years, car use was actually down! While the population of the metropolis grew by five per cent between 2003 and 2008, car use dropped by one per cent across the region, which includes Laval and the South Shore. On the island of Montreal itself, car trips were down six per cent. This may not sound like a huge drop, but it is hugely significant. It shows there is hope for this city to buck the North American trend of relentless, ever-increasing car and truck traffic.

Second, public transit use jumped an impressive 15 per cent during that five-year period. And with new transit projects on the horizon, like the east-end commuter train just approved by Quebec’s Environment Department, we can expect more people to trade that stressful morning traffic jam for a window seat and a good newspaper on the train.

But here’s the stat that really gets my heart pounding: a whopping 11-per-cent increase in the number of Montrealers commuting by bicycle or on foot.

I suspect the opening of the de Maisonneuve Blvd. bike path in the fall of 2007 had a lot to do with the cycling increase. Painted bike lanes throughout the central boroughs has also made cycling safer and more inviting, since most car drivers do respect these lanes. The impact of Bixi, the city’s short-term bike-rental service, launched in the spring of 2009, has not even been tallied yet, but it’s clear Bixi is getting more Montrealers out of their cars.

Montreal has reduced speed limits on city streets, widened some sidewalks and reduced the width of certain intersections, all of which help make the city safer for pedestrians.

These are the kinds of progressive changes Montreal needs to keep the trend moving in the right direction. But instead of resting on our laurels, now is the time for Montrealers to push harder than ever for changes that make it safe and convenient for residents to walk, cycle or take public transit.