Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson wants the city to have a public bike system, even if the provincial law requiring cyclists to wear helmets remains.
The current legislation would require that Vancouver have a duty of care to ensure that a person renting a bicycle from a public kiosk wears a helmet. Since the city would not be able to make certain that renters have helmets, it could be held liable if a cyclist rents a bike from an automated kiosk, doesn’t wear a helmet and has a serious accident.
Coun. Geoff Meggs had previously told Business in Vancouver that the province’s law requiring cyclists to wear helmets is the main obstacle in launching a program in Vancouver similar to those in Montreal, Paris and London – cities that have no law requiring that cyclists wear helmets.
Cyclists in those cities can pay a monthly or annual fee and then simply swipe their credit cards in readers connected to locked bike racks to pay a one-time fee each time they want to use a bike. They then ride around the city and return the bike to a kiosk close to their destination.
Steve Martin, B.C.’s superintendent of motor vehicles, told BIV that B.C. will not eliminate its law requiring cyclists to wear a helmet.
“Helmets are a proven safety measure. The data demonstrates that they save lives and reduce head injuries,” he said.
Robertson, who supports B.C.’s helmet law, thinks a bike-sharing program can work regardless.
“I want the business case to be solid. It has nothing to do with legal [obstacles.]” Robertson said. “I would love to see the city have a public bike system.”
Part of the business case for such a program would be to line up corporate sponsors. That has been what makes the system viable in cities such as Montreal, Boston, Washington and other cities in which Montreal-based Bixi operates.
Bixi is a non-profit association that assists cities develop bike-sharing programs.
Meggs believes that B.C.’s helmet law might scare away some corporate sponsors because those sponsors could have a higher liability risk in a jurisdiction that has a helmet law than in one that does not.
Melbourne, Australia, is likely the only city that has both a bike-helmet law and a bike-sharing program. That program has so far been viewed as a failure.
Melbourne launched its bike-sharing program a few months ago in what was winter down under – a decision that many critics consider bone-headed.
Two months after Melbourne’s civic government parked 600 bikes in 50 docking stations in the city, it had only sold an average of 70 rides a day, according to Australia’s Herald Sun newspaper.
That contrasts with Montreal’s program, which logged a million rides in its first five months.
Melbourne does not rent helmets when it rents bikes. It does, however, post signs noting that there is a helmet law and that the fine for not wearing a helmet is $146.
“Posting a sign [in Vancouver] that says that there is a helmet law would be a mitigating factor against liability,” said Pierce Law Group lawyer Andrew Oh, who specializes in personal injury cases. “Whether it would discharge [the city or sponsors’] legal burden would be a matter for the courts.”
Oh said that the city of Vancouver and other sponsors of any future bike-sharing program here would undoubtedly owe a duty of care to cyclists who rent bicycles.
Bicycle shop owners also have a duty of care, he said.
They satisfy that duty of care by ensuring that their bikes are maintained and safe to ride as well as by giving each customer a helmet that fits their head shape.
“The duty of care that the bicycle store owes the renting cyclist would not extend to them ensuring that the person wears the helmet as soon as they leave the bicycle store,” Oh said.
“It’s like when you rent a car and the person takes the car and speeds down the highway and causes an accident. The rental company does not owe them a duty of care to ensure that they operate the vehicle lawfully.”