NEWS
Wet weather has made it difficult to gauge the early success of Brisbane’s new CityCycle bike hire scheme but it has not prevented both sides of City Hall from continuing their snipping over the multi-million dollar project.
Lord Mayor Campbell Newman’s administration declared itself “reasonably pleased” with the early support despite the weather, while Opposition Leader Shane Sutton blamed the scheme’s early teething problems on the Lord Mayor’s “failure to implement it properly”.
Launched last Friday week amid much fanfare, the scheme struck some teething problems other than the inclement weather, with reports of some users mistakingly returning their bikes to stations not yet commissioned, some other docking problems and some malfunctioning of the scheme’s subscriber card system.
But Lord Mayor Campbell Newman’s administration said it was happy that more than 1000 subscribers – the bulk taking year-long commitments – had joined the scheme by the end of the first week. City Council is hoping for 12,000 devotees within 12 months.
The CityCycle scheme started with 500 bikes in some 50 stations throughout the CBD, Fortitude Valley, New Farm and West End, and operator JC Decaux is expected to have bikes at 78 stations by Christmas and 2000 bikes at 150 stations once the scheme is in full swing.
“This scheme was always going to have teething problems because Campbell Newman failed to implement it properly,” Labor leader Shayne Sutton said.
“We know people have had trouble unlocking and re-locking bikes from the CityCycle stations. We’ve also heard many people have been frustrated to find that some CityCycle stations aren’t up and running – even though council is promoting them.
“This scheme has been plagued by safety concerns, community opposition, budget blowouts, delays in delivery and a shoddy implementation, and many of these concerns still remain. “Campbell Newman has set the bar for success so low that if anyone actually used these bikes they could ride straight over it.
“Campbell Newman has a lot more work to do if this scheme is going to be safe and successful.” Cr Sutton said.
Above: This bike station besie the Fortitude Valley Post Office is one of a number of Stage One CityCycle spots that are yet to come on line.
