Bicycle Network: Bikes 'n' Bits

Melbourne public bike share scheme

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Melbourne is home to Australia's first large-scale public bikes hire scheme. Simon Vincett takes an exclusive look at what it may mean for you.

How will it work?

The 50 Melbourne Bike Share stations will be about 500 metres apart and spread across central Melbourne, from the Alfred Hospital in the south to the University of Melbourne in the north (a 6km ride),and from Docklands in the west to the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the east (a 5km ride). There are also options to use 11 alternative locations, such as the Melbourne Zoo.

Melbourne Bike Share is funded by the State Government's $38b State Transport Plan. It is designed to integrate with the existing public transport system. There will be stations at Flinders Street, Southern Cross, Melbourne Central, Flagstaff, Parliament and Jolimont train stations and tram stop hubs as well, such as the St Kilda Road and Domain Road interchange. Fees are designed to be lower than public transport ticket prices, and structured to encourage short trips (less than half an hour).

The operators say it should take no more than two minutes to buy your daily or weekly subscription at a bike station and hire your bike: you swipe your credit card, which pays for your subscription and records your details for security, and receive a printout of a code to enter in the keypad of the dock of the bike you want to hire. For subsequent hires within the day or week, you swipe your credit card,your active subscription is confirmed and you receive another code to use for another bike.

You cannot pay by cash or a debit card and there is a maximum of two bikes that can be hired from any one credit card in a 24-hour period.

Annual subscribers register online and are given a key which unlocks a bike directly from any dock and records the hire.

Ride On magazine featured a story on the hire scheme in the April-May 2010 edition. Bicycle Network Victoria members can read the full article.

More information on public bike hire schemes.

What it will cost

* Annual subscription – $50
* Weekly ticket – $8
* Daily ticket – $2.50
* The first 30 minutes of every hire is free for ticket holders. Then:
* 31–60 mins – $2
* 61–90 mins – $5
* For every additional 30 minutes after 90 minutes the charge is $10

There will also be a Corporate membership option for $200, giving an annual subscription with a transferable key that can be used by the organisation’s employees.

First ten locations

The first 100 bikes have been deployed in Melbourne at 10 stations; by 30 June the full complement of 600 bikes will be available at 50 stations. The first ten stations are located along the Swanston Street-St Kilda Road corridor at: Melbourne Arts Centre Precinct, Hamer Hall, Southgate; Federation Square; corner Flinders Street and Swanston Street; City Square, Swanston Street; Bourke Street Mall, 205 Bourke Street; Bourke Street Mall – GPO, Elizabeth Street; The State Library of Victoria; RMIT University, Franklin Street; Melbourne University, Swanston Street; and Melbourne University, Tin Alley.