[sustran] Re: sustran-discuss V1 #200; Free/Community Bikes in New Zealand

[richard w. lee]

I teach transportation planning at Massey University in New Zealand and am
currently doing the same at UCLA as a visiting faculty member.  I also serve
as chair of the Green Bike Trust, a charitiable organisation that has made
free bikes available in Palmerston North, New Zealand, a University city of
75,000, since February of this year.  I have been at UCLA since shortly
after the launch, but I am getting occasional updates. Formal evaluation of
the scheme is underway, but incomplete at this time. 

Basically the Green Bike plan has proven successful at recycling old bikes,
and, even more imporartantly, as an employment training programme for the
community's long term unemployed.  Since the launch, they're have been some
thefts/vandalisations of bikes, but the favourable publicity from the launch
has resulted in increased donations of old bikes, many times the number
needed to replace those stolen or destroyed.  A bigger problem has been
compliance with New Zealand's manadatory helmet law;  it's harder to keep
the helmets with the bike,  A distinctive colour-scheme on the helmet has
made theft and recovery easier.  In the end, user's of the bike are
responsible for wearing a helmet.

I did a pre-launch paper for the first annual New Zealand Urban Cycling
Symposium in October, 1997.  This short paper analyzed what I could find on
community bike schemes throughout the world up to that point.  I also did a
very brief post-launch analysis for *Community Manawatu*, a New Zealand
monthly newsmagazine that covers community welfare initiatives.  

To summarise very briefly:  Community ownership (which includes sponsorship
from both local busninesses and local government and Ongoing maintenance and
replacement of bikes appear critical tot he success of such programs.  If
successful, they can have many benefits, non-transport-related as well as
transport-related.

I can send both papers as Word 6.0 attachments to anyone interested.  My
Massey University e-mail address reaches me here at UCLA.

I look forward to further disccusions on this topic.

Dr. Richard W. Lee


>Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 07:24:07 -0700
>From: Todd Litman <litman at IslandNet.com>
>Subject: Re: [sustran] city bikes/free bikes
>
>At 12:34 PM 4/20/98 -0700, Heath Maddox wrote:
>>
>>I am a cyclist and grad student in transportation planning at UC Berkeley.
>>I  am currently researching community "free" bicycle programs.   Most
>>information I have  come across has been anecdotal and not very in-depth  I
>>have been in contact with a few individual sustrans people on this topic,
>>but since it came up in general discussion anyway, I thought I'd put out a
>>wider call  for help..  Is there any hard data or analysis of such programs
>>out there anywhere?  If not, more anecdotal information, contact info. or
>>internet links would also be helpful. Thank you very much,
>

Dr. Richard Lee, Visiting Faculty
Department of Urban Planning
School of Public Policy and Social Research
3250 Public Policy Building
Box 951656
Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1656
PHONE: 310.825.1446 (home: 310.208.4523)
FAX: 310.206.5566
E-mail:R.W.Lee at massey.ac.nz