Going bonzo for Onzo, sharing a new future

You would think that with not one but three bikes in my backyard I didn’t really need to go out looking for new cycling options. But when I saw our mayor was warmly welcoming the innovative Onzo hire bikes to town, I had to have a go. My wife worried I would break the small-framed, small-wheeled bikes but they proved sturdy enough even for me.

Downloading Onzo was simple. I found myself in Kilbirnie in a strong northerly and thought I might take an Onzo for a spin. I looked on the app map and sure enough there was one close by. I found it and a quick scan of the bike with my phone opened the lock and the helmet, and I was off.

The helmet was too small, and the bike only had a single gear. But who cares, the ride was fun. I zoomed off to Lyall Bay and found it all rather comfortable, in a 1980s BMX sort of way. After blatting around for a while, I returned to Kilbirnie. Even on the flat it was tough work battling the northerly headwind and I certainly had a good workout.

I’d happily use these bikes on the flat but would think twice about going up a steep hill. But that says more about me than the bikes. I locked the bike and helmet where I found it and – ding – was informed of the financial damage of 50 cents for half an hour. I wondered how on earth these bikehire companies make a profit.

Onzo makes driving or even public transport seem expensive. And if you consider the cost of buying and maintaining a bike, then Onzo is a fantastic deal. In the days that we had a functioning bus system I used to sometimes park on the edge of the city and do my various tasks in town. If I needed to hop across the CBD I just grabbed a frequent bus. That’s not so simple now, so Onzo presents a convenient and green alternative.

However, helmets present a problem. You’re meant to lock them to the bike when you finish but I’ve noticed some users just leave them on the carrier. I’m assuming if helmets get pilfered then Onzo must replace them. It does make me wonder if our helmet law is a little outdated.

I suspect making helmets optional would mean most cyclists would wear them if they were on a road with heavy, fast-moving traffic but not on safe routes such as the waterfront. Overseas evidence overwhelmingly shows that you are way safer on a carless road or separated bike lane without a helmet than on a road with fast-moving car traffic wearing a helmet.

The local cycling fraternity have embraced Onzo and are planning an unofficial ride up Mt Victoria on the single-gear bikes. Good luck guys.

I really hope Wellingtonians get behind this convenient and environmentally friendly scheme. It was sad to see an Onzo bike vandalised only days after the trial scheme started, but hopefully that’s an isolated incident and a few idiots won’t jeopardise a cycle-sharing scheme that works successfully in cities around the world.

However, bike-sharing schemes can have their problems. In China, a country where, in 1980, 60 per cent of the population used the bike as their main mode of transport, bike sharing has become enormously popular in recent years. And like the trial scheme in Wellington, it had strong support from local and central government.

Jeremy, a young professional from Beijing, often uses a share bike to get to work. It’s convenient and very cheap (about NZ 10 cents an hour) and a great transport choice in a city where a new bike can be expensive, difficult to park and easily stolen.

When the share bike craze hit China – techsavvy Chillennials are happy to download an app to hire an umbrella or pay for groceries from a store with their phone – money from investors poured in and major cities were flooded with bikes.

The oversupply saw residents of big cities complaining about unused bikes cluttering up the footpaths. The intense competition caused some bike share companies to go bust. It seemed that companies could easily put bikes on the street but maintaining and keeping track of them was another matter, with many abandoned, vandalised or converted to private use by riders breaking the locks. Vast graveyards of abandoned bikes have appeared around China with parts being repurposed into things like playground equipment.

I don’t think we will have such problems in little old Wellington, but it always pays to learn from the experiences of others. I wish Onzo all the best with their trial and hope that our local bodies and business organisations, who are meant to be interested in such things, will advocate for the introduction of app-based electric bike shares and car shares in the future.

I’d happily use these bikes on the flat but would think twice about going up a steep hill.