I have put off this post for some time as I was not sure how to approach it, but here goes ...
In Auckland we have two phenomena that appear to be
mutually exclusive - those of a
compulsory helmet law and a bike-share system. The difficulties of implementing a bike-share system with a compulsory helmet law have caused much discussion in countries thus blighted. In Australia it looks as if people wishing to rent a bicycle will need to
buy a helmet first and presumably then carry it around with them; in Tel Aviv, in Israel, there are moves to
repeal their new helmet law, for city cycling, to enable the bike-share system to go ahead.
Originally, I was going to say that Auckland has 'successfully' combined a bike share system with a compulsory helmet law .... but I don't believe that this statement is accurate.
Here are the bike-share bicycles that we have. They are supplied by
Nextbike and require membership to the programme in a similar manner to other
bike-share systems. However, you are required to set this up on the internet ahead of time, which precludes spontaneity.
The positives: they are sit-up-&-beg style bikes, they have internal gears, mudguards, a partial chain guard and a basket - all good!
The negatives: they have a high cross bar so are difficult to mount and wearing a skirt is tricky, they are less than stylish and a bit dorky, they only have 3 gears (5+ is more suited to Auckland's terrain) and, from personal experience, are very difficult to rent (I tried several times before I was successful)
They are everywhere in the city so are readily available, apparently meeting a key criteria for a successful system. But this is also a real pain in the rear end for those of us that have our own bicycles and wish to park .... all bicycle racks are occupied with the bike-share bicycles! Luckily, as Auckland is very car-centric, there is usually some form of road sign post available instead.
And so on to the helmet issue ...
In NZ the helmets are simply locked to the bikes and left on the street.
In Australia, many of the problems are around how helmets can be distributed and sterilised between use. Apparently, in NZ we don't care if we give our tourists
head lice or other fairly nasty skin diseases, similarly, we evidently are not too bothered whether the helmets fit correctly or are damaged by vandals or from simply being out on the streets in all weather. I'm not quite sure why this is - we have very active health & safety police, like any other 'modern' country. But apparently, they are fine with this!
Here is one of the bikes and helmets in use - notice how there is a daft looking piece of wire hanging out of the back of the helmet.
Aucklanders have not really got on board with the concept of bike-share. Those of us that do cycle possess our own bicycles and the rest stay firmly in their cars. The system is not very user friendly, it does not function symbiotically with our (embryonic) public transport system and I certainly can't see a local business person hopping on one of these to go between meetings, as is the norm in other cities.
Up until a week or two ago, I had only seen three people actually using the bicycles. However, when native Aucklanders left the city for their summer holidays, I noticed quite a few tourists out and about on these bikes.
And of course many of them simply don't wear the helmets. In fact I have seen a great number of people cycling without their helmets this summer and there is not a policeman in site. So for tourists, the system may be a success.
As MK Sheli Yehimovich from Tel Aviv states, "the law is unenforceable". In Tel Aviv the police have said they do not plan to even attempt to enforce it. In Auckland, I have passed two police cars (policemen never get out of their cars in Auckland) whilst helmet-free this summer - they looked straight at me, no response!
On the plus side, I think that having lots of bikes on the streets does get a subliminal bicycle message out to Aucklanders. But as I said at the beginning of this post, because I am still not quite sure what the goal is here, I cannot say whether it is a success (are they just advertising boards? does it matter if they move or not? Is the subliminal message the important point?). Presumably there is a bottom line somewhere and if the bottom line relies on people actually riding the bikes ... then I must assume that it is not going so well!
The helmets appear to be ignored by many who rent the bikes, and for some reason we not care about helmet sharing the way many other countries do ... so it cannot be said that the helmet law and the bike-share system have been resolved.
