For those wondering whether Vancouver will ever get bike-sharing, two items of interest:
In Toronto, new financial stability.
Toronto bike-share service gets new lease on life from TD Bank
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Toronto’s troubled bike-share service has a new main sponsor, with TD Bank offering upward of $1.3-million over two years to cover operating costs. …
The sponsorship … will “ensure continued success of Toronto Bike Share,” according to TPA president Lorne Persiko, who said the deal had been in the works for months.
“That’s good that this is on stable ground,” said Jared Kolb, executive director of Cycle Toronto. “With that said, you know, Montreal’s got over 400 stations, New York’s got over 300 stations … we have a long way to go before we’re going be a world-class bike share system.”
And in Vancouver? We’re working on it.
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For those who want to get their teeth into the technology, economics and implications of bike-sharing, a thesis by Darren Proulx, in three parts:
Someone’s got to say it, so I will. The only cities in the world where bike-shares have totally flopped have been those with helmet laws. Two places (Israel and somewhere else I forget) reversed their helmet laws to make bike-shares viable. Helmets save lives. Bikes save more lives. Done.
In a similar vein, I like to point out that the big problem with people riding bikes without helmets is that it has only about 98% of the health benefits of helmeted cycling.
So why would we want a public bike share, if it leads to more people cycling without helmets?
Mandatory helmet laws reduce the number of people who ride bikes, and deprives them of the large, immediate and personal health benefits of riding a bike. Getting non-riders to ride improves their health, and that is a good thing.
(This was sarcastic, BTW. The 98% figure means that the absence of a helmet really makes no difference to the average health effects of cycling.)
I thought it might be, but it’s hard to tell since sarcasm doesn’t work very well in print.
“only 98%”
You’re probably thinking of Dallas, which recently reversed their helmet law.
Yes, Dallas is more progressive than Vancouver.
A common sense suggestion indeed.
The other city was Melbourne, I believe.
Yet: common sense is not so common.
Melbourne still has helmet law. Mexico city did repeal their helmet law.
Christy Clark will be asked about the helmet law in the 2017 election and demand a province wide referendum before making the change to the law.
It will be a plebiscite not a referendum 🙂 and maybe it will only apply to those riding over the Massey Bridge.
Mexico City is another city that repealed its helmet law before introducing bike share. Maybe a good thing that Vancouver has delayed the bike share system.
Instead of spending so much effort and money on a bike share ‘helmet solution’ they should provide more bikes and stations.