An unintended consequence of the Velib scheme in Paris (which allows people to pick up one of 16000 bikes placed around the city and rise it for a nominal charge) has been a big hike in road accidents, see here.
Police are blaming it partly on the fact that the Velib riders are less likely to be wearing helmets and hi-vis vests, since it's often a spur-of-the-moment decision.
Presumably, many of them are also less likely to be regular cyclists (or they would have their own bikes) and negotiating Paris traffic is definitely an acquired art.
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2 comments:
This is not at all an accurate report on the situation that prevails here with the Velib. Please take the time to do more careful research if you are going to make public statements on what is after all not a trivial project with consiserable health and safety impacts. If you turn to the Forum of http://www.citybike.newmobility.org you will have a chance to view a quite good discussion of these issues from a nubmer of different points of view (including the famed Chicken Little hypothosis.)
The original idea sounds very innovative to me. I am not sure what the actual position is regarding the no. of accidents, but it makes sense that non-regular cyclists are prone to mistakes on the road.
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