Article: Brisbane may be saddled with bike hire disaster

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Brisbane may be saddled with bike hire disaster

Brisbane may be saddled with bike hire disaster
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Alex Dickinson of mX

February 11, 2009 02:30pm

THE bicycle hire scheme upon which the Brisbane City Council's project is based is on the brink of collapse because of thieves and vandals.
Operator JCDecaux says it can no longer run its Paris network as thousands of the specially made bikes are missing.

It said almost all of the original 15,000 have been replaced because of vandalism since the scheme launched 18 months ago.

JCDecaux won the tender for the Brisbane scheme in a much-hyped launch in January - but last night its head office in France said it could no longer afford to operate the Paris network.

More than 7500 of its bikes have vanished from the French capital with others hung from lamp posts, dumped in the River Seine, torched or smashed to pieces.

Others have turned up in eastern Europe and Africa.

Almost 1500 bikes a day have to be repaired. Almost 12,000 have been vandalised, and council officers have to rescue 20 abandoned bikes daily.

A spokesman for JCDecaux Australia said the company was not aware of problems in Paris.

Despite earlier saying the Brisbane scheme was based on Paris, the city council's public and active transport chair Jane Prentice insists the two cities should not be compared.

"Every city is different and the financial set-up for bike-hire schemes in every city is different," Prentice said.

"While Paris is struggling, there are successful bike-hire schemes in Barcelona, Lyon, Brussels and Seville."

Under the contract between JCDecaux and BCC, there is a sting in the tail for ratepayers who will foot an additional fee to JCDecaux for the vandalism and theft of 200 bikes a year. The scheme totals 2000 bikes.

Ratepayers will also fund 50 per cent of vandalism costs if the rate of vandalism rises above 6 per cent of bikes a year.

City Hall came under fire when the scheme's pricing was revealed last month.

Yearly subscriptions would cost $60.50, plus a $150 deposit. Hiring a bike for less than 30 minutes would be free, then $2.20 for the next half hour.

Two hours would cost $11, and after that the price would rise to $77 for between five and 10 hours and $275 if bikes are hired for more than a day.

See what some of the Paris bikes are being used for at www.myspace.com/mxbrisbane

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