Melbourne - Day two

On day two the plan was to join in with some civil disobedience, some good old fashioned law breaking ... it just had to be done.

Melbourne has these beautiful pristine rows of bike share bikes ...

Beautifully branded and an eye catching statement for all to see ...

High tech machinery is clear and elegantly simple

Everything has been thought out in detail (of course it has as, this system is highly successful and well used in many other countries) ... but Melbourne has something these other countries don't have ...

These stickers, and all that they stand for ...

While I was photographing these facilities a couple of tourists came over with the obvious intention of taking some bikes out ... they read the instructions and then one of them said "oh, you need a helmet". The other one said "oh well, never mind, we'll get the tram" and they walked away. It's logical really - it doesn't take much to put something in the 'too hard' basket.

We were not the only people to realise how farcical this situation is ...

The Age newspaper ran an online poll:

Should public-bike scheme users be excused from wearing helmets? There were a staggering 13,885 votes leading to the following results:

71% Yes, public-bike scheme users should be excused from wearing helmets
29% No

So, we turned up at the appointed time and place to meet the other reprobates ...

Mikael and Felix were already there kicking the proverbial bike share tyres

And not long after the press turned up in droves ... this is Mike Dubbo being interviewed. The young camera man in the foreground obviously takes after his dad!

Here is Paul Martin ('the doctor' from Brisbane) with his own entourage of paparazzi

And a bit of a 'pose' with the bikes

So why were we here ...

because the bike share looks like this ...

... not like this. You see nobody is using it ... people peer and prod, read the blurb and then walk away.

There should be dapper gents such as these checking out the city life and getting from A to B in style

Ladies should be hopping on these bikes in their stylish street wear to be 'seen' around town. Ladies such as Saskia from Cycle Chic Sundays in Sydney, and her friend, who were raring to go on these fabulous blue bikes!

The exact same bikes in London are simply flying off the stands and Londoners are lovin' it.

When I gave it further thought, I realised that actually we really have to thank Melbourne bike share for being so noble! It occurred to me that for valid robust scientific research you need a control group against which the true success of the other bike share systems can be measured, and Melbourne has set itself up as the perfect control group. As far as I can see there are no other barriers to the bike share being successful except the helmet law - the weather and terrain are both highly conducive to cycling and the traffic is no worse than in Paris or London. Australasia is already held up as an example of what not to do if you want to reap the societal benefits of getting more people on bicycles, so this latest pantomime should pretty much clinch the deal and provide a robust case study ... the 'F' grade for promoting bicycle use.

Anyway soon after, the police arrived ... watch this space for the next thrilling instalment ...