Cycle scheme takes a bath

OUR SAY

First it was wet weather through much of the scheme’s early weeks following its launch at the start of last October. Now the January floods have dealt Lord Mayor Campbell Newman’s pet project CityCycle a further blow, with a number of cycle stations knocked out of action in low-lying areas of New Farm, Newstead, Kangaroo Point, Teneriffe, West End and the CBD.

And while council is working hard to get those stations back into service, some people in our community who harboured doubts about the scheme now believe it may not succeed. One of the arguments is that although City Council always stressed that the scheme was primarily for short trips by inner-city business people, a fair component of its patronage must surely have been in the leisure field, and the loss of the floating walkway in front of New Farm will curtail that usage.
We at the Indie have always believed in the concept of CityCycle, while questioning the size of the rollout. That in itself is not necessary a bad thing, and people will applaud politicians who have a “big picture” approach and tackle such visions with gusto. Our Lord Mayor has certainly done that. But it has to work. Bouquets, of course, can soon turn to brickbats if grand plans fail for whatever reason – and a political price must be paid if a very large amount of ratepayers’ money ends up down the drain.
For an administration whose PR department has a penchant for pumping out good news, the lack of figures on the scheme’s take-up rate is a worrying sign. Council can come up with all sorts of excuses for low patronage figures of late, and they are probably legitimate.
But the floods have receded, life goes on and sooner than later, this scheme will be judged by ratepayers. Let’s hope that recent events have not doomed this project. The Indie hopes the patronage figures down the track endorse Campbell Newman’s bold and aggressive rollout of CityCycle. Its aims remain laudable.