CityCycle bikes sitting idle but council plans more stations

[Ross]

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/quee ... 6012270739

ALMOST three-quarters of the bicycles available for hire in Brisbane are sitting idle every day, yet the council is pushing ahead with plans to roll out 73 more bike stations.

Figures provided to The Courier-Mail showed only 175 of the 700 bicycles available for hire were being used each day, on average, since the CityCycle scheme began in October 2010.

Despite the cool response to the scheme, BCC Public and Active Transport chair Margaret de Wit said there was "a quiet revolution occurring".

"More and more people are taking it up every day," Cr de Wit said.

"Every commuter who uses a bike instead of a car means one less vehicle on our congested road network."

Under the scheme, users are required to take out a subscription at a cost of $60.50 a year, $27.50 for three months or $11 a day and must provide their own helmets. Using bikes for less than 30 minutes is free.

So far, 3855 people have subscribed.

Since the scheme began, five bikes have been stolen or destroyed including four run over by a truck.

Cr de Wit said 77 bike stations were now operating and another 73 would be in place by the end of the year.

Council opposition leader Shayne Sutton said it was madness to spend more money on a project that was clearly not working.

"At a time when Campbell Newman is cutting community grants and services all through the city (to fund the flood recovery), this shows he has the wrong priorities," Cr Sutton said.

[The Womble]

Agreed. Give it another year and see if itll take off first Im not holding my breath atm. It seems to be flopping in a major way unfortunately

[marinmomma]

"Every commuter who uses a bike instead of a car means one less vehicle on our congested road network."

The scheme makes no difference to the congested roads a bit further out from the CBD....

[Mulger bill]

Sounds like it's going the same way as Melbournes, shame.

[notwal]

Now if they had a tax on cars in the city ...

[Comedian]

Knock me over with a feather I walked past a rack of them last week and all bar one still had the moulding marks on the tyres. Granted they are tough schwalbes but it probably means they are less than 500k.

Also, as we all know until the MHL's are repealed it's not going to change. Oh well.

[nayfen]

It would be good if there was a way to access the bikes without having register on computer first. The couple of times I thought one of the bikes would be handy I remember I haven't pre registered, probably the same for a lot of out a towners and infrequents. Not sure about MHL's the bikes probably appeal to a high proportion of vulnerable users. The type of riders that require a helmet even when they are not on a bike.

[lethoso]

The scheme makes no difference to the congested roads a bit further out from the CBD....

Not much to do about that though until the city stops sprawling.

Knock me over with a feather I walked past a rack of them last week and all bar one still had the moulding marks on the tyres. Granted they are tough schwalbes but it probably means they are less than 500k.

Also, as we all know until the MHL's are repealed it's not going to change. Oh well.

yeah, they'd be convenient for spur of the moment transport... except for the helmet laws. I might take a subscription out and just ride them anyway though.

[The Womble]

Meanwhile those that ride on the city's existing bike paths would love to see that money spent on their maintainence. Oh wait a tic, thats a state goverment problem. No buck passing here

[Undertow]

ALMOST three-quarters of the bicycles available for hire in Brisbane are sitting idle every day, yet the council is pushing ahead with plans to roll out 73 more bike stations.

I don't see how building more stations is a bad thing, i'm a subscriber and I use it on occasion. But the main reason I don't use it more often is the lack of stations at places where I want to go.

If i'm leaving work (near central station) by the time i've gotten to a citycycle station i'm usually at least half way to where I want to go, so I just walk the whole way. They need more stations to make it more viable.

(also the helmet laws don't help when I forget to leave a helmet at work).