Sharing News

The Brumby Government has finally committed to Melbourne's first bicycle sharing program in its CBD (The Sunday Age). OK, this usually means he will do nothing and pretend that he never said such thing if asked in the future as to why he didn't do anything about it. What fascinates me was the fact that Brisbane will beat Melbourne to the first program in Australia. It signed a contract with JCDecaux with 2,000 bikes and 150 stations by March 2010. Now, compare this with Melbourne's counterpart: 6,00 bikes. That said a lot about the Brumby Government commitment to alternative transportation. So, what is so interesting?

SKM (the company that rejected my application - and my friend's - in 2008) recommended that the speed limit in CBD should be 30km/h. Now if the government eventually gets off its arse, and follows that recommendation, then that would be the real good news. The day might finally come when overtaking cyclists using car in CBD are rare occasions.

On the final note, RMIT industrial design students (shame on you, Melbourne University) decided to take initiative and set up a pilot program called CommonBike. The program will be a bicycle sharing program. The aim is to inform the general public about future bicycle-sharing program, with a side benefit being data collection. Several hubs will be set up around CBD, northern and northeastern inner suburbs. Hopefully, this program will be successful.