The Common Bike - Part 1

Reports this week over at The Age say Melbourne is trialing a public Bike Hire scheme based on a few already set-up in Europe. Both articles raise very valid points about the positive and negative sides of public bicycle hire schemes but in the end I think it's a winner. It will be interesteing to see what the State Government comes up with in its budget announcement later in the week (The Common Bike isn't part of the governments scheme as yet) and if they include a hire scheme similar to Paris'.
However, Australia will have a hassle with helmet laws in that we have compulsory helmet laws in the first place. Our cycling brothers and sisters over in Europe enjoy being able to cycle without a daggy helmet and Copenhagen in particular enjoys the title of safest cycling city in the world without a compulsory helmet law. Actually the more I think about it the more I want to research helmets. I know they can save you from severe head injuries but how safe are they?
Anyway, the public bike hire argument hinges on whether or not people use the bikes (or steal/vandalise them) and how often. If you're discouraged from hiring a bike because you don't want to carry a helmet around (or wear a hired helemt) then it will fall over in Melbourne. I would like to see more people cycling more often but I think there are better ways to encourage the people that already cycle along with getting new people involved. Bike Boy is certainly down with the Italian governments plan.