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Abstract
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Look around any major U.S. city these days and you are likely to see bicycle rental stations, where an individual can rent a bicycle for a fee that is tied to distance and time. This is a wonderful way to get around congested urban areas, and these bike-sharing services provide an inviting recreational activity option for tourists and city dwellers alike.
The world’s first bicycle-sharing program hit the streets of Amsterdam in 1965, but the concept was slow to spread elsewhere until the 1990s. Growth has primarily occurred in Europe over the last two decades, but the U.S. is quickly catching up. At present, bicycle-sharing services offer more than 500,000 bicycles in more than 500 cities spread across 49 countries.
Bring your own
Credit card readers are installed at rental station kiosks, which simplifies the process of renting a bicycle. Visitors to a city who are unfamiliar with its layout, local traffic patterns, or available bicycle paths can walk up to one of these stations, swipe a credit card, and start riding. When renting one of these bicycles in most U.S. cities, though, a bicycle helmet is conspicuously absent from the picture....
Helmets are not the only products that improve bicycle safety. Cyclists are encouraged to wear fluorescent clothing to increase visibility during daytime hours and retro-reflective clothing to make the rider more visible at night. Bikes should also be equipped with active lighting, including front white lights and rear red lights, to make the bicycle more visible at night or on overcast days.
Cities can contribute to bicyclist safety by implementing roadway engineering measures that go beyond simply painting a white line on a street next to a string of parked cars with an image of a bicycle. Several cities have sophisticated bicycle lanes with dividers and their own traffic lights.
While all of these safety precautions are important, at the head of the list is a properly fitted bicycle helmet. So, the next time you are looking to share a bicycle, make sure you BYOB (bring your own bike) helmet.
Language: en |