Velib like bicycle rental kiosks are being constructed in Dublin

Ekaterina wrote: »

And how high/low do all the above fees can be to not put people off using the service (those people who hypotetically see rental helmets as a good idea and believe that they could protect them in a fall and even in a collision maybe - it does not really matter if helmets really can or cannot protect, it matters if there are people who believe that they can - and our survey shows that just under 85% believe that helmets enhance their protection in a collision, against 8% of those who believe helmets cannot provide any protection in a collision & 8% that are in between).
It is all out of business point of view. Not out of safety enhancement or cycling promoting point of view. You all know how business actually works - business abuses peoples ability to believe what they are told in the advertising (where we are told stuff that is only partly true or even just about not exactly a lie).... I am very sorry to be in a Business Studies at DCU, but cannot change it really - it is my final year...

Well given your above comments, I seriously hope you never really try and go through with this idea, because if you do and some one sues you, the above comments would pretty much hang you in court.

And yes comments here on boards can and offer do end up being included in court cases.

BTW properly fitting a helmet can actually be quiet tricky, usually it involves placing different sized velcro attached pads in different locations on the helmet. I don't see how you could do this in an unsupervised manner, surely many of the velcro pads would end up going missing.

Stark wrote: »

Cycling in Dublin is not the same thing as being in a war with people firing bullets at you.



One of the reasons why helmets aren't compulsory.

blorg wrote: »

It is common enough to be able to rent a helmet when renting a bike on holiday or whatever, I think naysayers could get over the whole "it could be damaged" thing. Ekaterina asked that we put aside this and consider it from a business point of view.

I just don't think you could cover the costs and infrastructure required while still having a reasonable rental fee.

@Ekaterina- have you thought of how you would operate the helmet rentals? How would the helmets be secured and dispensed, etc. How would payment be taken?

We assumed that we would be able to negotiate with DCC the co-usage of their terminals for payment to minimise the initial infrastructure cost. We planned to dispose the helmets similarly to the bikes using magnetic systems & basic rain protection (kind of a roof above it). I mean there was a post here about the bike-share scheme in New Zealand that offers helmets as they are mandatory there http://aucklandcyclechic.blogspot.com/2010/01/auckland-bike-share.html (again, for those who did not read it in posts before: here not talking about making helmets mandatory at all!) - thus, technically it should be solvable.

The question is what do db users consider to be "a reasonable rental fee".

In legal questions, I will email a friend of mine who is a lawyer at an international insurance company - if there would be a possibility to protect the business against the potential court cases up front.

Lumen wrote: »

Ekaterina,

If I can be bothered, I will be actively campaigning with DCC to have your proposal blocked.

I do not want to see the DB scheme compromised and complicated by this totally unnecessary development.

Cycling is not dangerous.

I agree, I agree. It is all a very theoretical college project that I need to go through. I do not want to implement any helmets anywhere, even though would not bother protesting either if they were implemented (as long as not mandatory). Because as long as I feel that cycling is not dangerous, I just would have ignored the helmets (as I do in real life now). But would leave the chance others to decide according to their own safety perception.

PS: I was not ironical in my thankful post above.

I can't see anyone bothering with it. It would slow you down getting and returning the helmet. Most people won't be bothered for a short trip. The only place it would work would be to tourist renting bikes in the phoenix park. I think they provide helmets anyway. Though in the park you probably don't need them. Even as a theoretical project, I think any stats will undermine the whole idea. Mind you, you can make stats say anything.

tomasrojo wrote: »

Ekaterina, can you write up this proposal and conclude that it is not viable? That is: is your brief to come up with a financially viable project, or to come up with a project and then show your ability to judge its viability?

You have enough material in this thread now for the second option. I don't think you can realistically present your proposal as viable if option 1 is the case. As I said, there is no jurisdiction with a popular bike-share scheme that also has an accompanying helmet-share scheme. The one in New Zealand really is just a helmet u-locked to the shared bike. I wouldn't even dignify with the name of a scheme or system.

I will talk to the professor anyway as per what option she wants really. the thing is to give what she wants. however, I was really surprised to see such 100% negative reaction towards the idea here as on the db stations around 40% of the surveyed people said they would use the helmets & even pay 50c for that (which surprised me really) - the willingness correlated with cycling time of more than 10-15mins. Plus, the subscription fee. Plus, advertising thing. I mean, I have stats from the survey to present the idea as more or less viable. And as not-viable as well, if I want to, or better if professor wants me to. And even if we as business students are asked to protect unviable ideas it enhances our skills as well as we surely understand all the barriers to our idea, but go for the next challenge to still be able to "sell" it to potential investors. Thus I disagree with bkbk on the other thread that the professor does not teach us any good:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=64813869&posted=1#post64813869

tomasrojo wrote: »

Best of luck with the write-up. Don't be dismayed by the animosity: helmets are a touchy subject on cycling forums.

Thanks, I got to understand how touchy it is the hard way.

Safe cycling to everyone, with or/and without helmets!