Screenshot via Luke Bennie
oBikes look messy but at least they come with helmets. And riders now might want to wear those helmets whether or not they’re riding, after a hectic brawl on a Melbourne train started with an argument over an oBike.A witness named Luke Bennie filmed the fight, which is believed to have broken out at Melbourne Central about 6 PM Saturday on a train heading to Hurstbridge. Here's that footage:
The footage shows the fight starting with a gentlemen, who we’ll call “dude in green shirt,” expressing his safety concerns to a group of people travelling with oBikes. "What happens when the train hits the brakes real quick and that bike goes flying?" says green shirt."It's not against the law to have bikes on the train," one of the group replies. Green shirt takes umbrage at this and demands that the group exit the carriage. Someone offscreen mutters the now classic phrase “Sit down,” which seems to prefix any video of public transport violence, and then fists start flying.My favourite line from the video is when, after giving two swift uppercuts to someone’s head green shirt says, "Disrespectful fucking people.”oBikes, the bicycle-sharing service that is hoped to encourage more people to choose riding over driving, has been mired in controversies since launching in Melbourne earlier this year. People have taken to social media to slam the bikes for creating “visual pollution” on the streets and post images of bikes that have been thrown in rivers and up trees.And on one final note, it's legal to travel with bikes on trains.