Citycycle - Getting the MOST out of it (making long trips)

It is coming up to two years since Citycycle was introduced into Brisbane and it has been a rough time. First off there was a concerted effort by the council opposition to put down the scheme at every chance they got. Some stations were installed the wrong way round then some residents complained it would devalue there heritage home but having a current model car in front of there property didn't affect it.

That all said the main target has been the cost. This has been mostly around misinformation and how things are defined. The main attack is that to use a bike for a continuous 10hours it will cost you $165. Now this is technically true but the key word he is continuous as one can use the same bike for over ten hours at no cost (on top of subscription) as long as one docks the bike every 29 minutes! Now lets take an example.

University of Queensland to New Farm is about as far as one can ride using Citycycle from one station point to another. The trip distance is a little over 13km from start to finish and travel time when riding between these two points is over 30minutes. On first appearance it would make you seam that if using citycycle you will in cure a fee. While this would be true if your trip is continuous but using citycycle intelligently you can make it for free. You do this by breaking it up. I personally would ride New Farm to QUT Gardens Point (the 5km mark) dock, then ride QUT Gardens Point to Toowong (the 10km Mark) dock and then the remainder into University of Queensland. Doing it this way means I can get to the entire distance with no usage fees as the trip is not continuous.

You see each time you dock your bike at a station it resets the clock on the hire meaning you leave next time with zero on the clock. There is also no need to change your bike either as it only takes around 1 minute for the system to reset. In most cases I leave my stuff in the basket and sit back for the minute as the thing is reset. It is that simple! Naturally the system will not allow you to rehire a bike while it resets but once it is done you are off again. Unfortunately this fact is little know and little reported and has resulted in many people complaining about usage fees which are easy to get around. On explaining this to people most are pleasantly surprised and ask why this has not been better explained. The fact is Council and the operator have not hidden this fact is just seams that the media has chosen not to report on it. That said docking ones bike to reset the clock is catching on. Quite recently I arrived at QUT Gardens Point to dock and reset as my total riding time was going to be over 30minues. Upon arriving there was already another bloke there waiting for his bike to reset as well, so i does seam that it is catching on. There also seams to be less anger in the reporting of CityCycle now as seen in the below Youtube. Mind you I doubt Citycycle will be charging this bloke as it is great advertising for the bikes, mind you they are right these bikes are really designed for the flat.