Cycling in Melbourne Australia

The New bike share contract

As I'm sure you know, RACV-ALTA has just signed a contract to bring Bixi-style street rental bikes to Melbourne.

Bixis come from Montreal (The word is a combination of bike and taxi) where 5000 of the bikes have just finished a very successful summer, with millions of rides taken. These sturdy bikes are now spreading around the world. There will soon be Bixis in Boston, 6000 Bixis in London and, yes, 600 in Melbourne, well, maybe.

I found out there's a stumbling block. At the Melbourne Bike Futures Conference, where ALTA made a presentation, it was revealed that Bike Share has never been set up successfully in a city with compulsory helmets.

Why is that? The near impossibility of automatically dispensing a legal, sterilized, helmet on the street along with the bike.

In the movie I've made at the conference, viewable on my blog, And So To Bike, Http://datillo.wordpress.com/ Alison Cohen, presnting for ALTA, candidly admits the difficulties they face because of helmets .

There is no doubt for me that Bike Share would be a huge plus for any city, and it's no surprise that its speading around the world like a bushfire, despite the much publicised vandalism problems of the 30,000 Velibs in Paris.

. Bike share decongests cities, bike share brings in a whole new class of riders, people who've never thought of using a bike for transport before, now try doing so for free, and love it. (The first half hour is usually free)

Most importantly, bike share is making cycling safer, both by upping the number of bikes on the roads, and by bringing in the sit-up-and -beg style of bike (All bike share schemes use this type of bike)

Whilst they are solid, slow, and heavy, Bixis are safer because you see better, and are seen better. This is, after all, the way 89% of Eurpeans who are using bikes as transport, ride. And they, even without helmets, since it's always a choice in Europe, have less serious accidents than we do.

How ironic it would be if the only thing our Federal Govenrment has ever done for bike safety, namely bring in the compulsory helmet law, proves to be the one thing which prevents this far greater, in my opinion, contribution to safety, from hitting our roads.

In any case, true safety under the wheels, not on the head as they Dutch with their 29,000 kms, of bike ways and tiny accident rate, prove

Anyway, this is a drama which is just beginning ,and one we'll all be watching with great interest, I'm sure. Mike Rubbo

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by SlowCoach on December 2, 2009 at 10:16pm: Thanks for that document. Looks interesting

Like many other bicycle safety reports, it refers to the "safety in numbers" factor, which basically says, the more cyclists on the road, the safer cycling becomes.

This where the irony of our helmet laws comes in. By discouraging cycling, we may well have made cycling more dangerous, despite the helmets.

Counterproductive as Neil said below.

When will the govt admit it & repeal the law then? Is it too much to ask to assess objectively the effectiveness of the MHL? Works for the car lobby, except that it pushed more people into cars, creating more traffic jams. Where is the winner here?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Neil on November 29, 2009 at 6:58pm: So in fact, Steve, wearing a helmet encourages you to take greater risks, thereby increasing the danger of you actually having a crash which would necessitate the protection of a helmet, though in reality you would probably just break other bones instead.

Which suggests that compulsory helmet laws raise the cyclist injury rate rather than lower it a scenario which was observed after MHL came in. Despite fewer cyclists on the roads, the injury rate was higher per capita.

Counterproductive law in so many ways.

Educate people to use helmets but don't deter bicycle use by mandating them.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Steve Jay on November 30, 2009 at 5:18pm: Actually, I'm quite risk averse. I like to challenge my boundaries, but one at a time in controlled conditions. I may ride fast when helmeted, but never beyond the conditions. ;-)

As for the efficacy of MHL, that depends on your perspective. For the car lobby, the law is very effective, it blames the victim (taking the heat off the cause) and discourages riding.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Mike rubbo on November 30, 2009 at 5:35pm: Steve, I'll be soon posting a fascinating interview with Mikael of the famous blog, addressing exactly what you are talking about. I've changed the name of my blog to situp-cycle.com to make is more searchable , by the way Cheers, Mike; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Mike rubbo on December 4, 2009 at 8:02am: Hi Steve, t6here is a new film I've made which will add to the debate. it's about Mikael of the famous blog, Copenhagenize.com Just go to my blog http://situp-cycle.com. Cheers, Mike Rubbo; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Julian Wearne on July 26, 2010 at 5:29pm: A good analysis of the situation in Melbourne.

I've written up my own views on my blog. The helmets are definitely a major hurdle but certainly not the only one.

http://www.ikaink.net/blog/?p=696; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Will Satur on July 26, 2010 at 7:22pm: This is probably going to sound like the stupidest idea, but in America they have promotional inflatable helmets. They can be used once, easily disspensible and can have the logo of Melbourne on them so can be kept as a keep sake of their journey. They wouldn't cost much and I am sure the companies who make them for American Football might be able to adapt them for bike riding.
Only an idea.
PS I'll keep wearing my helmet, it has saved my noodle more than once.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Adrian Tritschler on July 27, 2010 at 4:18pm: Hundreds of people a yeah suffer severe head injuries in motor vehicles in Australia, the probability of collision and subsequent head injury is low and approximately equal for cycling, walking and travelling in a car.

I'm presuming you wear a helmet every time you get in a car or bus as well.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Julian Wearne on July 27, 2010 at 8:45pm: There are lots of designs for various portable helmets, fold up, etc that might make it plausible for helmets to be convenient enough to make the Melbourne Bike Share program work however unfortunately I don't believe a single one meets Australian Safety Standards which are very strict.

I'm not suggesting anyone stop wearing helmets where possible. However the total health/environmental/cost/congestion/etc/etc benefits from having more people riding, especially considering bike share programs in other cities have seen cycling rates increase by numbers around 500% would do far more good for society than laws that may reduce the number of brain injuries on our roads / bike paths / etc.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alan Tonkin on July 27, 2010 at 10:40am: G'day folks
I once heard that UK research indicated that enforcing helmet use would reduce cycling and the resultant reductions in the populations health would be more costly than picking up the pieces for the those injured by not wearing a helmet. I was trying to find this research and happened upon this page full of research articles on helmets http://www.cyclecraft.co.uk/digest/helmet_research.html. Just thought others might be interested.

Personally, I grew up in the UK and never rode with a helmet but wearing one in Oz cos I had to saved my life so I would never dream of riding without one. Maybe helmet wearing should be compulsory up to an age say where you can vote/work fulltime/drive a car/die for your country/ and the like and after that folk should be treated as adults and be allowed to make their own decisions.

C'ya
Alan; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Julian Wearne on July 27, 2010 at 8:56pm: There are numerous studies that indicate similar results around the world.

Here's a professor from Sydney that has researched the affect in Australia.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1368064

I could point to another 20, but you can google it just as easily!; ▶ Reply to This