RMIT University Share Bike Design studio

Can a public collection of bicycles be a form of public transport? The Victorian Government has recently announced it will spend 5 million dollars on implementing a public bicycle system in Melbourne. And it is not alone. Public share bicycle systems are beginning to boom in cities in Europe and North America in the efforts to shift toward more sustainable, healthy transport options that make cities better to live in. This Studio will develop two approaches to a public share bicycle system for Melbourne. We will look to the year 2020 and develop a scenario for what a fantastic share bike system would be like in Melbourne. Secondly, we will design and organise a system that is so simple and low in infrastructure that it could be implemented during the studio.

Share Bike studio will appeal to students interested in exploring the rising field of product-service-system. The studio is led by Ronald Haverman who led the conception and implementation of a share bike system now operating in the Netherlands, now researching and developing the fourth generation of share bike systems influenced by open-source principles. The course will involve some activities outside the standard weekly time.


INDUSTRIAL DESIGN UPPER POOL DESIGN STUDIO
Semester 1, 2009; Tuesdays 9.00am – 1.00pm building 87, level 5, room 04
Design Studio 4 grap 1034; Design Studio 5 grap 1035; Design Studio 6 grap 2221; 24 credit point
Tutor: Ronald Haverman + Ben Landau+ a team of peddlers


In this Studio students designed a promising future and ran a pilot demonstrating a community based bike sharing venture with grassroots technology which is both low maintenance and highly scalable.