Cycling in Melbourne Australia
Melbourne Bike Share scheme
Has anyone used one of the blue bikes yet? Or does anyone plan to do so?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Peter Robinson on -
Alan, I found a few sites that show what moment to moment uptake there is but have not traced my steps in finding them yet. Here is one from the london scheme.
http://oobrien.com/vis/bikes/
The one I showed you doesnt seem to be coming up at all just now.
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Permalink Reply by Peter Robinson on
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There is a commentary from Mickael Colville-Anderson here also on the different rates of take-up.
http://www.copenhagenize.com/
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Permalink Reply by Steve Jay on -
at 11:29 today Melbourne - 3.6% beautiful, sunny day, too.
and 2:29 in Milan (same time) - nearly 10% in the god-awful hours of the morning, heading for winter.
Melbourne, we have a problem ;-)
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Permalink Reply by irideredthebike on -
I have noticed a few tourists* walking around with the $5 helmets. Maybe that is helping.
* My assumption.
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Permalink Reply by Zed on
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Great day for a ride on Sunday. Spotted a guy riding a bikeshare bike at the Walmer St footbridge on the Yarra Trail - complete with an unmentionable on his head. He looked like a tourist and given his distance from the CBD I figured his bike ride was going to cost him. Yes he said he was tourist and had somehow figured the bike was free.
He had already been riding for four hours when I saw him and it would probably take him an hour to get back to a bikeshare docking station at the rate he was going. According to the bikeshare pricing this trip was going to cost $79.50 - could probably buy a bike for that. I mentioned his trip was going to be a tad expensive but fortunately he was absolutely loving his ride and had a big smile on his face - nice to see.
A few problems with the bikeshare site. The pricing information is a graphic and hard to read in both IE and FireFox - see image below. It talks about a "one-time payment per period per bike" - what does that mean? Does that mean each time I pick up a bike I get charged $2.50 for the first 29 minutes? We are also presented with an "equation" to calculate costs. My maths is not too bad but how about a simple table instead? Further still how about placing the pricing information on the bike itself, so you can keep an eye on what you are up for?
I understand the bikes are meant for just around town for short hire periods. However, I don't believe in ripping off tourists or putting existing bike hire businesses out of business either. Is the pricing fair? Is the pricing adequately explained. Are the alternatives for long term hire explained on the web bikeshare website or links provided to other rental groups. I don't think so on all accounts.
I would also like to see the station map, show the status of the docking stations, as is done here
A quick side note - the guy was about to continue upstream on the west side (a dead end) rather than going up and over the Walmer St bridge. Can someone at Yarra Council please put up a sign up here - newbies always get lost here.
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Permalink Reply by Cory on -
"Does that mean each time I pick up a bike I get charged $2.50 for the first 29 minutes? "
Think of the figures on the left as a 'membership' fee. So, you can become a member for a day, week or year. Once your membership has been paid, then you have the charges on the right. So, if you have a membership (for day/week/year) any rides under 30 mins are free. If the dock is full, you can get a 15 min (? from memory) extension. If you exceed 30 mins (and don't get an extension from a full dock - hint, hint) then it's $2, and so on. So you don't want to take them for extended rides (as much as I'd love to do the Melburn-Roobaix on one).
But yeah... hardly easy to follow.
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Melbourne Roobaix - that would be interesting - lash out the dollars and do it anyway - it would be good promotion. I would really like to see this bikeshare to succeed.
"one-time payment per period per bike" given the subscriber/membership analogy, then this should read "one-time payment per period per person" - cause you can use any number of bikes in the period. Also their statement in the FAQs "The first 30 minutes of every trip are free." is incorrect. Should read "The first 30 minutes of every trip are free, once having paid the subscription fee whether that be a daily (or is daily meant to mean any 24 hr period), weekly or yearly subscription" .... and the pricing graphic comes out better sized on this site than on the bike share site - you can hardly read it on theirs - sorry for being a such a pedant but I'm working on the details of getting better.
What about bill shock? You could end up with a bill way over a hundred dollars without trying too hard. Tourists are highly likely to use them but they are the most vulnerable to this. Imagine trying to figure out this pricing structure in some Asian language if your only language was English. The rental fee should have a ceiling of say $80 per 24 hr period. And why isn't it part of myki - maybe we shouldn't contemplate that one - might quadruple the cost?
Mmmm - need to be riding from full dock to full dock! Just out of interest how you do notify the full station that you tried to dock? Do you just whack your PIN in and it gives you some sort of acknowledgement?
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Permalink Reply by Cory on
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Melbourne Roobaix - that would be interesting - lash out the dollars and do it anyway - it would be good promotion. I would really like to see this bikeshare to succeed.
Well, THEY can pay for that one, and I'd be happy to ride it ;)
Just out of interest how you do notify the full station that you tried to dock? Do you just whack your PIN in and it gives you some sort of acknowledgement?
It's one of the options on the screen. Swipe your card again (your Credit Card is always your ID of who you are, unless oyu have a yearly membership. The PIN is single-use only. To get a bike later, you swipe your card and get a new pin, don't try to use the old PIN twice - I think everyone falls for that one the first time). Then press the no docks free (or whatever it is) button. Done it quite a few times. Again, it should be easier to find, on the menu.
And yeah, I agree it'd be great if you could use a Myki on it. Because they just bought the system in total from Canada, pretty-much the only thing they changed was the bike colour. So... retrofitting myki onto it was probably in the too-hard basket.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Jay on
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Had reason to make my first attempt to use one of these yesterday. Rode the train in because I've got a week on the arvo shift for a change, but because it was a nice day, got off at Richmond to walk. Got to Rod Laver and figured, as I might be about 5 minutes late, I might try a Bikeshare, no helmet, but it was a quick hop over to the VCA rack, worth the risk. (Of a fine, not a crash, a crash is HIGHLY unlikely for experienced cyclists.)
Swiped my card, select a daily, card rejected. Now, I know there was enough money in the account (I bought a train ticket on it today BTW brought my own bike, too), so I tried again. Card rejected. Now likely to be 7 minutes late, I gave up and walked quickly. Too nice-a-day to argue with a vending machine.
Looking on their website this morning, I suspect the problem was the $300 security bond for daily and weekly subscription. Who has $300 spare 3 days before pay day?! I run a debit card and I never have much in my transaction account for security reasons.
Like I say, on lazy days I'll be taking my own bike on the train and, and just as I don't tie up a grand or so in an annual train ticket, I can't see the value in tying up $50 in a Bikeshare subscription that I might use as a curio rather than for any practical reason. As a result, I won't be making sure I have $300 for the security bond in my account, on the offie I want a bike in an emergency.
I'd love to see it succeed, but I seriously doubt it will ever take off here like it has in Europe. Sad really.
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Permalink Reply by David_G on -
I think once people get used to them, they will be prepared to carry their own helmet or buy one of the new cheapo disposable ones. As for the security deposit, I would just put it on my credit card, then get it reversed before the bill comes due. No interest charged. I never pay interest, but use my credit for everything I can. I've been to Paris and there you don't go 5 minutes without seeing someone go past on a renter. Melbourne people will get over the helmet resistance in time, I just hope they don't close the scheme down in the meantime. It might require a little more planning than an impulse to rent one, but once you're in the groove it will be fine.
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Permalink Reply by Nick Orloff on -
There's a rack directly out the front of my building, so I bought a spare helmet at Big W to keep in the office for the days like today where I haven't ridden in to work but feel like getting somewhere at lunchtime.
They're not quick, but they're not supposed to be. Easy geometry, and not difficult to ride.
Today will be my 3rd or 4th use in maybe 6 or so weeks since the rack went in, but I don't think I'm going to purchase a yearly key .... perhaps if I worked in the CBD, but being on St Kilda Rd my lunchtime excursions tend to be towards areas that don't have docks, like Prahran & St Kilda.
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