Citycycle - Courier Mail Opinion piece



Image sourced from www.couriermail.com.au

Today the Courier (trash) Mail ran this unusually level headed opinion piece about Citycycle. It was a shock for me but then again is what written by a "PhD candidate at the Centre for Urban & Regional Studies School of Environmental & Life Sciences, University of Newcastle". Ah now it makes sense. The article points to four key restrictions in the Citycycle system.

1. Helmets
2. Sign Up system
3. Restricted Operating Hours
4. Infrastructure

Helmets. It is a no brainier to understand that mandatory helmets laws are holding usage back. While having the laws repelled would help it is not going to happen unless some government believed it was a key election issue. Citycycle have done there best with providing free shared helmets and that has helped but as I pointed out in a previous post there sharing has been in question. There is also the fact that not everyone is willing to place on there head a helmet that has been used by another stranger.

Sign Up System. The piece claims the sign up system is lengthy, to this I disagree but in an age where everything is NOW NOW NOW I do understand it could be holding the system back. A way that this could at lease be partly fixed is by allowing registered "Go Card" users to access Citycycle. While not a complete fix it would allow tens of thousands (potentially 100 000s) of residents instant access without even having to think about it. Not having to think about it ahead of time is the key to these systems working.

Restricted Operating Hours. Now I have to fully agree with this one & it defies logic for me. Currently you are only able to take a bike out of a station between the hours of 5am to 10pm. Now to it is my understanding this was to prevent "Anti-social" behaviour with the bikes however how much of likely hood was this really when everyone has to be registered? If the system allowed anyone to access it, these restricted hours would make sense but it doesn't. The fact is Velib the system that we copied does not have restricted hours of use, it is 24hour 7 day a week system, and so should Citycycle. I personally have almost been caught out with the closing down time and at the time all I could think at the time was the BUZ services run until 11pm why is citycycle shutting down at 10pm! Citycycle should be 24-7!

Infrastructure. This is a complete no brainier. When New Farm lost it's Floating walkway (the main cycle link) during the Floods of 2011 Citycycle usage to and from New Farm literally fell of the Howard Smith Wharf cliffs. To get people to ride they need to feel safe & comfortable and that is why there needs to be bicycle infrastructure. Riding a bike and being overtaken by a car/bus/truck is not comfortable it is even more unnerving when you are on a bike that is flat out at 25kmph. There needs to be more infrastructure and especially in the CBD with a East - West spine & a North - South Spine.

There is no doubt the system is being held back, and it was good that for once there was a level headed piece published. Things need to be done and fast to make the system work better. Currently what was "Citycycle central" New Farm is still missing it's link to the CBD with it's replacement Riverwalk not set to be finished before late 2014. The other things could be changed a bit quicker. While restricted operating hours and helmets I have no word on, access through "Go Card" is slowly progressing. The current LNP State Government promised they would look at it and they have said that it is currently being "investigated". There seams to be some problems with the way the Go Card works but lets hope they can get around that. Making things easy to access make them far more appealing.