> a) Mandatory bike helmets mean you can't run a bike-share scheme because who wants to wear a much-used sweaty helmet? How can the people running the scheme sanitise them?
The idea being tossed around in Vancouver is to have a helmet rental station integrated with the bike station that will steam-sanitize the helmets. The bike share implementation date has already slipped a year from original plan of spring of 2012, so it'll be a couple more months until we can tell how well it'll work. What that'll do for cost of the program is also a question...
I'd heard about Vancouver. It seems like a kludgy solution when (for example) the "Boris Bike" hire scheme in London (UK) has 15M journeys with no fatalities or serious injuries. So you could just not have helmets for bike-hire riders and do away with a lot of expense. I suspect the politicians are not fully aware of the arguments one way or the other, and just assume that more safety gear must make you more safe.
The idea being tossed around in Vancouver is to have a helmet rental station integrated with the bike station that will steam-sanitize the helmets. The bike share implementation date has already slipped a year from original plan of spring of 2012, so it'll be a couple more months until we can tell how well it'll work. What that'll do for cost of the program is also a question...