I’m in two minds about about public bicycle hire. On one hand there’s no doubt that the easy access offered will increase overall cycling rates and is generally better for leveraging better infrastructure, but on the other there’s the less idealistic underbelly of society.

Today the RACV officially announced that Melbourne will be getting a “European-style bike hire system”. However if Europe is anything to go by, there’s a very good chance this system might be dead in the water before its even begun.

Back in July 2007, the French started up Vélib, a public bicycle hire program. The bikes cost US$3,500 each and are quite sturdily build weighing in at 22.5kg. They are wonderfully equipped for city riding though featuring a 3 speed hub, front hub dynamo hooked up to a LED lighting system, chain guard, front basket and full wheel mudguards.

The problem France has had in running the Velib program hasn’t been with the bikes themselves but rather with rampant vandalism and theft.

Despite daily trip averages of between 50,000 to 150,000, 80% of the initial 20,600 bicycles have been stolen or damaged. Vandalism appears to be a huge problem plaguing the effectiveness of the service.

At least 8,000 bikes have been stolen and 8,000 damaged so badly that they had to be replaced — nearly 80 percent of the initial stock, Mr. Asséraf said.

JCDecaux must repair some 1,500 bicycles a day. The company maintains 10 repair shops and a workshop on a boat that moves up and down the Seine


Repairing 1,500 bicycles a day is quite an astonishing figure. Considering the bikes are paid for out of taxpayer money and are public property one can only assume they are seen as easy targets to vandalise.

One thing I don’t understand however is that the Velib system can only be accessed by a credit card, so therefore technically shouldn’t it be able to track who has damaged what bikes? I guess the rider could claim the damage occurred after they had returned the bicycle to a pay station but surely some CCTV footage would clear this up?

I figure if bicycle friendly Europe is struggling in offering a public bicycle hire program, setting up one in an Australian city is going to be quite the challenge. I can only imagine all it will take is the slightest bicycle rage in the media before we start seeing pitchfork wielding mobs roaming Melbourne CBD streets destroying any public bicycle stations they come across.

To be honest I doubt we’re going to get the well built bicycles the French get to ride around on either. More likely RACV will just get Huffy’s or some other such crap and then wonder why they fall apart after a week’s use.

Part of me wants to believe the RACV will do it properly but then you only need to look at the disastrous and massively delayed 1.35 billion dollar Myki to see just how behind Australia is in electronic ticketing.

Then there’s the issue of helmets, if I’m not on the Long Haul Trucker I don’t carry around a bicycle helmet with me and I imagine neither do the general public. Most European countries don’t have helmet laws but we do so the RACV are going to have to find a way around this.

Personally I don’t even like using public hand rails on escalators or stairs let alone putting my head into a publicly shared bicycle helmet. Even with a hair net the thought still sends a shudder down my spine.

Helmets along with potential vandalism will be the two biggest challenges facing the RACV and will be critical in the success or failure of the project and I do hope they work them out.

As a cyclist I applaud the initiative and wish the RACV well. At the end of the day if it is a success and it gets more people on bikes then that’s all that really matters.

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