Bikes as Public Transport
I wanted to respond to this great Tedx Talk. The gist of his message is that forcing - or even encouraging people to wear bike helmets is wrong. It places a burden on the cyclist - and decreases the utility of the bicyle - because you always have to have a helmet with you.
Much of the response to the video has been along the lines of "why would you not wear a helmet? - why volunteer to have your brains splattered?" I'd like to posit that the people with this point of view live in areas where cars are zooming down wide busy streets en masse and at speeds that can do serious damage.
It's not like that everywhere. When I lived in Japan, cars were subservient to bikes. Streets were narrow and slow, slow, slow. Everyone hopped on bikes to get to the train station, the supermarket, school. Almost no helmets to speak of - and accidents were of the scraped knee kind.
In many countries, riding a bike is like "walking plus". It's an extension for your legs that lets you go faster and carry more stuff.
Where I live, here in Brisbane, Australia - getting to work is starting to be a problem. They keep building and widening more roads - but more and more traffic is getting stuffed onto those roads. The city has taken a progressive step in starting a citywide bicycle rental program called CityCycle. Little stations for the bikes are situated at various points in the city and you can pick-up and drop off at any of them that you like.
The city has spent millions on this project. So far it's a flop. There may be many reasons for this. Brisbane is semi-tropical so it gets pretty hot for biking in the summer - the pricing structure is weird and unsuited to casual usage. But the biggest reason they're a flop in my opinion is because it's ilegal to ride withou a helmet. If you leave the house for a stroll and decide you'd like hop on a bike, you're out of luck unless you always keep your helmet in your bag - and who does that?
I hope more people abandon their cars for bikes - but it's not going to happen unless we make them extensions of our legs. Sometimes we just want to pick up some groceries - not pretend that we're in the Tour de France.
Much of the response to the video has been along the lines of "why would you not wear a helmet? - why volunteer to have your brains splattered?" I'd like to posit that the people with this point of view live in areas where cars are zooming down wide busy streets en masse and at speeds that can do serious damage.
It's not like that everywhere. When I lived in Japan, cars were subservient to bikes. Streets were narrow and slow, slow, slow. Everyone hopped on bikes to get to the train station, the supermarket, school. Almost no helmets to speak of - and accidents were of the scraped knee kind.
In many countries, riding a bike is like "walking plus". It's an extension for your legs that lets you go faster and carry more stuff.
Where I live, here in Brisbane, Australia - getting to work is starting to be a problem. They keep building and widening more roads - but more and more traffic is getting stuffed onto those roads. The city has taken a progressive step in starting a citywide bicycle rental program called CityCycle. Little stations for the bikes are situated at various points in the city and you can pick-up and drop off at any of them that you like.
The city has spent millions on this project. So far it's a flop. There may be many reasons for this. Brisbane is semi-tropical so it gets pretty hot for biking in the summer - the pricing structure is weird and unsuited to casual usage. But the biggest reason they're a flop in my opinion is because it's ilegal to ride withou a helmet. If you leave the house for a stroll and decide you'd like hop on a bike, you're out of luck unless you always keep your helmet in your bag - and who does that?
I hope more people abandon their cars for bikes - but it's not going to happen unless we make them extensions of our legs. Sometimes we just want to pick up some groceries - not pretend that we're in the Tour de France.
17 Comments
MarineGunrockI love it. To make it truly versatile, they should have at minimum a rack or basket, if not a couple of saddlebags.
MarineGunrockAlso, they should be at least a three speed, if not many more.
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
Yeah more baskets and saddle bags would be good - and optional kid seats too. >> ^MarineGunrock:
I love it. To make it truly versatile, they should have at minimum a rack or basket, if not a couple of saddlebags.
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
This article confirms the helmet problem.
kymbosI think they've abandoned the helmet requirement for those bikes here in Melbourne. I still can't believe you prefer to ride without one, though.
campionidelmondoI don't wear a helmet, but I have to admit that I come close to getting hit by a car at least once a week. Mostly due to idiot drivers who shouldn't be on the road in the first place. Just the other day someone parked their car right across the bike bath, because I guess it was more convenient than the parking spot another 20 meters away. When I rode around that car the driver decides to open the car door right in front of me. Barely managed to avoid that car door. I still don't bother with a helmet, few people do around here.
Btw. there's a similar bike rental program here. It's supposed to be pretty successful with 75k registered users and each of the 1000 bikes gets rented about 3 times a day (thanks wikipedia).
rottenseedSan Diego has a helmet law too, but in Pacific Beach it seems to be really really lax. Watching and reading this blog really got me thinking of when the last time I saw somebody wearing a helmet, and It has been a while. The other day, I saw a girl almost get hit 3 times by different cars in 1 city block. It was all her fault. She shouldn't have been riding a bike. Unfortunately there's no way to weed those people out (other than natural selection).
rottenseedI just checked the law here. Apparently it's 18 years old and under, you need to wear a helmet...that's really surprising considering the way the world has been going.
youdiejoeWhere is the like button?!
peggedbeaTexas is so huge and spread out most places are not at all conducive to pedestrian traffic. there are towns literally built around the interstate.
I think Austin has a good bit of foot/bike traffic, but it's a really young progressive town. There are areas of Fort Worth that are totally bike/walk-able. And critical mass is a pretty big thing for the hip kids who live in the more urban/less suburban areas. The hipper parts of Fort Worth are even starting to get bike lanes.
I live in a small town that is now a full blown suburb of Fort Worth. The new parts of this expanding town are totally built around the interstate/shopping malls.....Fortunately, I live and (now) work in the 150 year old part of town. Everything I need is in safe biking distance. Starting June 6th I will be able to bike my kids to daycare, then bike to work and the grocery store. And plan to do it everyday that it is not raining. I'm completely excited. A friend that lives with us right now also works in the old part of town and he bikes to work everyday as well.
Supposedly the town is planning on dealing with its booming population by eventually making all the different neighborhoods connect with bike and walking trails. They are also building a park n ride/train station to connect this town to popular spots in Fort Worth, it will also go straight to the intermodal transit station in downtown fort worth and connect to both airports, downtown dallas, dallas shopping/club districts, the major medical district, museums, fair grounds,the sports arenas and even the corporate/suburban areas in North Dallas. I'm soooo excited about this!! In a few years I will feasibly be able to ride my bike to the train station and catch a train all the way to Plano (about 1hr 20 minutes north east) to visit my sister for the weekend. Excellent.
kymbosIncidentally, if anyone has stats comparing the risk of injury or death from riding a bike with that of driving a car, I would love to see it. I'm trying to prevent my wife from buying me a yellow vest...
peggedbeaI have 4 friends who have died from bicycle (car hits bike) accidents in the last 5 years. I have 0 friends who have died in motor vehicle accidents in the last 5 years. >> ^kymbos:
Incidentally, if anyone has stats comparing the risk of injury or death from riding a bike with that of driving a car, I would love to see it. I'm trying to prevent my wife from buying me a yellow vest...
peggedbeaIf you ride in a densely populated, urban area I would implore you to wear the vest and a helmet.
>> ^peggedbea:
I have 4 friends who have died from bicycle (car hits bike) accidents in the last 5 years. I have 0 friends who have died in motor vehicle accidents in the last 5 years.
>> ^kymbos:
Incidentally, if anyone has stats comparing the risk of injury or death from riding a bike with that of driving a car, I would love to see it. I'm trying to prevent my wife from buying me a yellow vest...
i obviously hit the wrong button when trying to edit my previous post.
campionidelmondo>> ^kymbos:
Incidentally, if anyone has stats comparing the risk of injury or death from riding a bike with that of driving a car, I would love to see it. I'm trying to prevent my wife from buying me a yellow vest...
Highly depends on where you live. I've looked up the stats for my city and according to them you're slightly more likely to die in a car than on a bicycle. You're about 2 to 3 times more likely to die as a pedestrian here, so I guess since I'm not wearing any protective gear when walking there's little reason to do it on my bike.
kymbosLink please, campiondelmondo.
I need an evidence base...
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
The stats are probably misleading unless they are adjusted for per capita usage of cars compared to bikes.>> ^campionidelmondo:
>> ^kymbos:
Incidentally, if anyone has stats comparing the risk of injury or death from riding a bike with that of driving a car, I would love to see it. I'm trying to prevent my wife from buying me a yellow vest...
Highly depends on where you live. I've looked up the stats for my city and according to them you're slightly more likely to die in a car than on a bicycle. You're about 2 to 3 times more likely to die as a pedestrian here, so I guess since I'm not wearing any protective gear when walking there's little reason to do it on my bike.
kymbosYeah, to establish risk profiles for bikes v cars you'll need a pretty sophisticated data set and the modellers to match. That's why I wanted to see the data.
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