An occasional update on items from the Velo-city.
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TAKING A FALL
How I’d like to be able to fall like this guy:
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Because, unfortunately, we have the same issue here:
Ken Ohrn reports that this vehicle was in the Hornby bike lane from 12:30 pm to at least 5 pm on Saturday June 11 – which he duly reported.
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BIKESHARING FOR VANCOUVER
It’s about time. There have been 146 new public bike-sharing (PBS) systems established between 2008 and 2010 -a new one every five days. And it looks like we may not be too far from having one ourselves – perhaps a few months before the VeloCity 2012 conference arrives, and the world’s cycling community arrives to check us out.
What’s a PBS?
A modern PBS is an automated, integrated system that provides bicycles for short-term use for a fee. The bicycles are parked at convenient, secure, user-friendly self-service automated stations and users may check out bicycles at one station and return them to any other station. …
To see one of the world’s earliest systems – Paris’s Velib – check out this issue of Price Tags. Lots of pics. 
They’re not cheap. One study estimated that for 1,500 bikes, the capital costs would be just under $10 million, with an operating budget of $3-4 million.
The rest of the region – particularly Richmond and UBC – are waiting for Vancouver to take the lead, but the idea eventually would be to have a seamless system, integrated with TransLink, for most of Metro.
The City is holding some upcoming open houses for information and feedback:
Wednesday, June 29, 7 AM to 2 PM
Vancouver Downtown Library
Thursday, June 30, 11 AM to 8 PM
HSBC Vancouver Gallery
City staff will be available at both of these sessions to answer questions.
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THE LIVE BLOGGER
Gladys We – a frequent contributor to Price Tags – is volunteering as crew and liveblogger for the Ride2Survive this Saturday. One hundred percent of the money raised goes to cancer research — all the costs are paid by the riders and there’s nothing going to marketing or administration.
Their blog is here and she’ll be liveblogging from Friday night’s dinner through the ride from Kelowna to North Delta. Departs Kelowna at 2:30 am, arrives in Surrey around 10 pm.
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I’m looking forward to seeing how the bike sharing program will be planned and implemented. There are some barriers, such as the helmet law, that will take quite a bit of creativity and innovation to overcome. Should be fun!
I’m glad someone took a photo of that Genie lift on the Hornby bike lane. I passed by it twice on Sat (had to veer into the sidewalk as it had fully occupied the lane), and both times no one was using it.
After Toronto-BIXI’s initial success, I outlined two scenarios for Vancouver PBS here http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=221045921257206 My fingers are crossed for the hopeful version.
We were discussing at our VACC Surrey meeting obstructions in the bike lanes such as construction signs that remain for long periods of times. We were wondering if there are any bylaws about that in Surrey or elsewhere that construction signs can be placed where they do not interfere with bike lanes and sidewalks unless absolutely necessary.
You can also post your pictures of people parked illegally in bike lanes here:
http://vancouver.mybikelane.com/
Over-empowered cyclists.
http://www.dump.com/2011/06/09/3-way-street-nyc-bike-lane-expansion-exposes-traffic-issues-video/