On ya bike!

Bicycle sharing has been embraced in Brisbane and Melbourne, but difficulties in implementing the schemes in each city could provide an opening for an ingenious start-up.

Earlier this year, Melbourne City Council introduced bicycle sharing, which resulted in hundreds of hire bikes placed near visitor attractions. Brisbane is set to follow suit shortly.

However, the Melbourne scheme has endured a stuttering start due to Victorian state laws that require every cyclist to wear a helmet. The situation is the same in Queensland. Neither scheme provides helmets to riders, leaving tourists a little underwhelmed by the prospect of buying one during a short stay.

The most obvious solution to this is to drop the requirement to wear helmet, as cities around the world with similar bike share initiatives have done.

But a start-up could take matters into its own hands by launching its own bicycle hire scheme. There are innovations on the market that can be introduced, such as temporary helmets and a mobile app, currently used in the US, which allows riders to locate and unlock bikes without the need for expensive pre-built docking stations.