Melbourne Bike Share Worked for Me
July 25, 2010
After missing my flight and having to get up at 0400 the next morning not a lot seemed to be going right. But Qantas delivered me to Melbourne where I caught the sky bus into Southern Cross Station (No need for a timetable as the bus leaves every 10 minutes). Soon enough however my day got a whole lot better as I met HTH Melbourne Correspondent Katie and she walked me to the closest station of the Melbourne Bike Share Program. We had a bit of trouble deciphering what we were meant to do but after a few fruitless questions to local shops I took the plunge and swiped the credit card after working out that is would cost me $2.50 for a days worth of short trips. For $50 however you get a years worth of free trips less than half an hour around the city.For some background info check out these links:
http://www.melbournebikeshare.com.au/
http://www.theage.com.au/national/melbourne-bike-share-trial-off-to-a-slow-start-20090513-b2q3.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/01/2914648.htm
I’d been prepared and brought my helmet and so with a satisfying click I unlocked my first ride and checked it out. Three cruisy speeds so you cant quite work up a sweat but can get up to 25km an hour pretty easily, a sweet o front rack to put my bag, a stand, lights that come on whenever the bike is moving, a chain guard so my pants didn’t get greased, an adjustable seat and a very upright position so you sit up straight and appreciate the surroundings. The only thing missing was a little screen with a clock counting down the time remaining till the free trip was up.
Our destination was Fitzroy so we pedalled up to a station on the cnr of Brunswick and Victoria Parade and locked the bike up. I was lucky as Katie had access to a spare bike for me but used the share bikes to get to the skybus on the morning of my departure. We also had a fellow bicycle user join us and he got by using only the share bikes without a hitch. What a relief it was not having to learn how to use public transport for such a short trip to the big city. What a great scheme.
And check out this music vid from the montreal bike share program. yeowww
Posted for the love of share bike schemes by Liam.C
looks fantastic – i can’t wait to try it out
only problem is the BYO compulsory helmet issue, rendering many potential riders not wanting to take part.
check out the age newspaper editorial (26/7) – many of the letters are related to the new scheme, and the age online poll said yesterday that 71% of the 13,000+ people who voted thought they should make the melbourne cbd a ‘recommended but voluntary bike helmet wearing’ area.
“I’d been prepared and brought my helmet”.
And this is precisely why the system will unless big changes are made. Unless people are planning on using the system and remember to bring a helmet along then they will not use it. Hardly helps for making spontaneous trips, and hardly useful if a helmet will be a burden for the rest of your day.
I’ve done a bit of analysis of the situation that can be read on my blog:
Melbourne Bike Share *facepalm*.
Oops type up the top there! “precisely why the system will fail unless big changes are made”.
thanks julian for your insight and the blog analysis. I do however find it hard to believe some of your claims without verification. I’ll wait to see what the 6 month stats show before I make up my mind. I cant imagine a multi million dollar system wouldnt have had some decent justification for certain elements of it. we found it great for short trips between some of the stations. There was a lot of interest from people when we were picking up and docking bikes as well. A relaxation of the helmet laws in the cbd seems to be the best possible short term solution. get the research, lobby the right people and get an exemption from the legislation eh! Get on board mate and help change it I say. Thats the style we’ve been adopting down here in hobart and things are now happening nicely re bike infrastructure. its easy to comment from the sidelines but we’ve found staying positive and constructive works best with this stuff. good luck with your course. Liam
Hi Liam
Thanks for the response, taken on board for the justification of claims. I’ll provide some sources.
I whole heartedly agree that lobbying is important and I do so on a range of issues very frequently. I’ve written about 30 letters to various MPs this year, I’m a member of GetUp, etc, etc.
However I also believe that Governments and sponsors of programs like this can be very inefficient and often seem to opt for easy solutions rather than real ones. $5,500,000 is very little for a program of this sort.
Anyway I’ll have another read through my post and add some source information.
Regards,
Julian
[...] from the Healthy Transport Hobard blog has responded in turn to my reply on his blog postMelbourne Bike Share Worked for Me where I directed him to this [...]
Nice pictures. I bought an annual subscription and have used the bikes a handful of times and have found them easy to ride, clean and they feel safe and sturdy. The need to pre-plan and bring a helmet is definitely a problem and prevents spontaneous biking. Notwithstanding I saw some tourists riding without helmets on Monday evening. Tonight I knew I was going out in Carlton so brought a helmet so I could ride home afterwards. Grabbing a bike to ride to the Brunswick Street bike station was very quick and convenient, however it would have been even more convenient if there were bike stations further east. I still had to walk 15 minutes to get home. Despite the walk, using the Bike Share was quicker than walking to Swanston street, waiting for a tram and then changing trams again at collins street to get home. I think the Bike Share program would get a lot more use if there were stations located in the suburbs that surround the CBD, i.e. Fitzroy, Collingwood, North Melbourne, East Melbourne and Richmond. Inner city residents (including me) would be more inclined to use the bikes to commute to and from work.
Whole heartedly agree. Without catering for the inner city they’re missing on a large but still dense enough market.