Council accused of waste over city cycle scheme
The Brisbane City Council is facing criticism over the CityCycle Scheme, an initiative that encourages people to hire bikes to help with city congestion, environment and personal health.
More than 1000 bicycles have been placed all around the city of Brisbane since the scheme’s launch nearly eight months ago and about 180 are hired out each day.
The Council’s Opposition has called the cycle roll-out “another failure from the LNP”, but Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has defended the scheme.
A young woman in the Botanic Gardens told Newsbytes there weren’t enough people using the bicycles:
“I think the CityCycle scheme is a bit of a waste of money, they just seem to be sitting there, no one seems to be riding them and I don’t think I’ve seen one person on a bike,” she said.
Anyone over the age of 17 can subscribe online for either an annual membership for $60.50, 3-month membership for $27.50 or daily usage for $11 during operating hours.
Failure to comply with the terms and conditions of bicycle hire or not returning the bicycle within 24 hours can result in a $330 fine.
By law everyone must wear a helmet when riding; however, helmets are not included in the subscription for bike hire which has deterred more people from subscribing.
“I would use the bikes if it was cheaper,” said one Brisbane man.
Cynical ploy to fill the streets with advertising billboards, no decent self respecting cyclist would use such cumbersome laborious leg burning bikes!
Has anyone involved in deciding to introduce this scheme ever ridden a bike regularly? They cant have or they would never have selected the bikes.
Do they know Brisbane is hilly as, and needs safer roads for cyclists? Free helmets does nothing. Electric billboards everywhere, wasting electricity, offsetting the energy saved by the 180 people hiring the 1000 bikes available every day. And they are ugly! Ugly billboards, ugly bikes- though I love the little lemons on them, nice touch.
Meanwhile nothing is done to iron out all the cycling black spots, but hey, doesn’t the BCC look like they care about alternative transport.
Nice website by the way!