Transcript of video:
Hi, this is Jason Epstein and I’m here to talk today about the bicycle sharing system that is coming to Seattle. I was recently in Washington D.C. and saw one of these work. Basically there are kiosks throughout the city that have multiple bicycles. You go up to the kiosk, put in your credit card, rent the bicycle, and you simply return it to another kiosk and you’re charged for the amount of time you use the bicycle. This is a great idea for getting around in urban places like Seattle.
However there’s a big drawback as I see it for safety. The drawback is, it’s going to put a large amount of new cyclists on the road, around cars, that aren’t used to riding around cars. It’s also going to increase the volume of cyclists on streets. I see this as a big potential danger for the cyclist. Now as an avid cyclist myself, I can tell you there are different rules you have to apply when you’re on a bike and you know that cars are less likely to see you. These may not be formal rules, but they’re rules that you learn over spending hours and hours of time on a bicycle.
My concern is that riders who aren’t used to spending that much time on a bicycle are now going to be in close proximity to a lot of cars, and this may result in a lot of auto accidents with cars. Another downside is that typically when a bicyclist is involved in an accident with a car, usually the cyclist gets the worst of it, and winds up with substantial or significant injuries.
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