It seems that those pesky mandatory helmet laws in Oz are one again sinking a perfectly good bike share scheme …
Latest figures released by the council show people made an average of 416 trips a day on the CityCycle scheme last week, despite more than 1000 bikes being available for their use.
There are some promising signs – 2900 trips were made last week, and the number of people taking out one-day subscriptions shot up after the council cut the casual fee from $11 to $2 a day mid-way through August.
The council’s figures show the number of people taking out a one-day pass rose from 200 in July to 332 in August before shooting up to at least 1064 in September.
But only 69 people have snapped up the new $11 one-week subscription option, which was unveiled as part of the fee shake-up on August 12.
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Earlier this year, JCDecaux Australia chief executive Steve O’Connor, whose advertising company runs the CityCycle scheme, said there was “no doubt” the mandatory use of helmets constrained the use of the scheme
Melbourne also has a bike share of course – another sad and faint reflection of the hugely popular bike share schemes all over the world. It would be great to get a full bike share scheme like these in Auckland city to make us truly ‘livable’ and ‘international’, but alas, without an exemption for the helmet, I fear the same fate would await us.
And a less serious look at the issue of safety on bicycles
