CityCycle articles discussion

[verbatim9]

It's good that they are moving ahead with e-bikes as well. That will also lift patronage/trips.

[nathandavid88]

The CityCycle scheme has been scrapped! Council will go to tender separately for a new, 2000 strong e-bike scheme, but the CityCycles and docking stations as we know them will be removed from February.

Brisbanetimes --> Brisbane to scrap CityCycle scheme as rider numbers collapse

Brisbane City Council will axe its declining CityCycle shared bicycle scheme next year, replacing it with 2000 electric bikes distributed across the inner ring of suburbs and CBD.

CityCycle was established in 2010 under a 20-year operating contract with advertising company JCDecaux, but after 10 years racked up only 4 million trips, according to council data. ...

[verbatim9]

Sounds like a good move. Hopefully the E bikes will be robust as well as the plan?

[AnonymouslyBad]

It's not really a good move.

Firstly Brisbane CBD is full of billboards which, instead of giving their ad revenue to council, send it straight to JCDecaux (a French multinational) to partially fund CityCycle. Council has decided that JCDecaux should continue to get paid. For the next 10 years. For a service that does not exist.
Privatise the profits, socialise the losses, eh?

Secondly, dockless bikes are an absolute scourge for so many reasons. Brisbane streets are relatively narrow. There either won't be designated parking spaces, or not enough to be effective, because it costs money to put those in. Bikes are also going to be unlawfully parked daily (or hourly), which ratepayers will foot the bill for one way or another: most likely a "renegotiation" that's heavily in the operator's favour six months into the contract. e-bikes are a huge plus, if you count paying $3 for 30 minutes of use as a plus.

The e-bikes will do great for a year or two regardless, especially in Brisbane summers!

But I suspect in a couple of years time, when the novelty's worn off, the greenwashing e-bike operators will decide it's not a "viable market". They'll leave the city without a trace, incinerate all their batteries in a fire, and no more bike share.

They might even make sure they've stitched up a revenue deal on billboards first.

[James]

Hopefully all the CityCycle docking areas are reused as preferred e-bike and e-scooter parking space instead of just being churned back into asphalt or becoming awkward pieces of widened footpath.

I agree with a lot of the comments in the Brisbane Times article. I have only used CityCycle a few times, all of which have been when public transport hasn't been a viable option. The $2 24-hour pass process is clunky and requires entering your card details on to your mobile (instead of using a registered go card), the sign-up process is not intuitive, and once you're finally riding the bikes are heavy and all the bike bays seem to be right along high-frequency bus routes anyway.

I like Lime, but riding a scooter on footpaths is not fun. At least the e-bikes can go on roads.

PS I think they have missed a trick by not having go card integration with the bikes. But hey, it's BCC, they're not really on speaking terms with the state government...

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> E-bike scheme peddled to Brisbane council 'would have cost a bomb'

A proposal from French advertising company JCDecaux to replace Brisbane's failed shared cycling scheme CityCycle with e-bikes would have cost ratepayers "millions and millions".

Instead, Brisbane City Council decided to accept the company's proposal to scrap the CityCycle scheme it operated, extend two advertising contracts on street furniture and buses until 2031, and free JCDecaux from responsibility for replacing CityCycle with motorised bikes. ...

... More than 1150 council buses will be wrapped in advertisements under the agreement.
After multiple complaints the new wraps will be lighter, enabling passengers to see outside.

Opposition leader Jared Cassidy said the council's arrangements with JCDecaux were "probably the worst deal I have ever seen this council make", and that CityCycle had cost ratepayers an average of $4520 a day since its launch.

"Instead of forcing JCDecaux to make CityCycles more user-friendly and accessible, they are simply giving up," Cr Cassidy said. ...

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Why e-bikes can succeed where earlier bike-share schemes failed