With the flood now three weeks behind us, the mud washed away from the stations and the bikes of CityCycle still to reappear in the flood affected areas it seems CityCycle has another mess to deal with.
Let's do it the right way
At 5:12 pm on Friday the 5th CityCycle sent a message to all subscribers that they would receive an additional months subscription due to the flood. The message was sent to all 1306 subscribers including all their emails in the “to” field – Oops.
As @BrissyFail said on twitter – “Oh #citycycle, how shit you are. Cost ratepayers $8m and only 1,306 users? $6,125pp. Very expensive bikes!”
At least now we have an accurate count of the number of subscribers. Six months and 1306 subscribers – shame.
Update! The actual number of subscribers is 3590. Thanks to @HowManyPandas in the comments 
For a similar duration from launch DublinBikes had 25,000 subscribers and that included an Irish winter!
In the Brisbane Times CityCycle chief executive Steve O’Connor said it was a “regrettable” human error and apologised to subscribers.
“We’ll have to do a review of our procedures internally to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.
“It’s regrettable and we will be apologising to all the subscriber base.
“It’s unfortunate because we were trying to do something that was positive as a goodwill gesture to try to give them some relief, because they were unable to use the scheme during the floods.
“But it backfired on us, but that’s life.”
Mistakes happen and I’m sure that the person responsible for this is feeling very bad today but there just seems to be one thing after another that is preventing CityCycle being the success that it should be. Yet again this is another issue that will put a bad taste in the mouth of anyone considering subscribing. Can I trust CityCycle with my information?
Please CityCycle, look at the systems around the world, how they are working and copy what they’re doing. It’s not rocket science.
In Auckland we have been providing helmets locked w our public bikes for the last 3 years. They are easy to santize daily, fit a good size range and if customers really want to use their own they put the rental one in the basket. To provide public bikes w/o helmets in Aus or NZ is like not providing a seat – a very poor buying decision. I think somebody in Brisbane and Melbourne cities should be held accountable
Julian,
You obviously don’t use the NextBikes then…
They have been out of business for 3 months already and it’s not looking good.
“We have temporarily suspended the operation of Nextbike as of November 10th 2010.
After 3 years of running the operation as an advertiser funded service, we’ve come to a point where we can no longer sustain the business in its current format.”
and…
“On busy days we had as many as 50 rentals a day.”
These figures are far too low for a system with 55 stations, expecting to break even.
The other issue with supplying helmets is the way the legislation is written and how a business can comply with it legally. A helmet must be properly fitted and undamaged. With nobody inspecting the fit (people have varying head sizes/shapes) or that the helmets are completely undamaged (ie. not a dent/scratch), there is no way they can legally supply helmets with each Melbourne/Brisbane bike share bike and comply with the law.
It is very simple. Pedicab passengers do not have to wear a bicycle helmet (yet the cabbie does!), but only if they’re paying passengers. Repeal mandatory helmet laws for bike share and you’ll see use skyrocket…
Unfortunately for many current users the requirement to bring a helmet ‘doesn’t bother them’ and they think others should ‘just get over it’. What they don’t realise is that it is the non-cycling public that we should be listening to and I can assure you that there are many who simply don’t bother with the bikes as a result.
There are a few who persist without the helmets (cycling as slow as the joggers – they don’t have to wear them…) but they are often picked up by our friendly velocops fairly promptly. That experience will discourage them from ever taking to a bicycle again…
This helmet law mixed with a service like this is nonsense. I am not a cyclist but would use citycycle if i could ride without a helemt or find one easely. I am not going to carry a helemt just in case !
@ howmanypandas below that is still $ 2,228 pp.
You might want to fix the subscriber numbers – as your numbers are incorrect. The correct information has been out for quite a few days and you haven’t adjusted your post.
3590 is the number you are looking for.
Cheers
So where do these figures get officially released – please post a link? They are not on the official site, Council doesn’t release them and no amount of letter writing requesting numbers seems to help either…. Why don’t they just post them for EVERYONE to see so it is transparent? What have they got to hide?
…I guess you have to be a tweeting ‘friend’ of CityCycle to get any real figures. Lucky you.
Same thing happened in Toronto with our Bixi program! We already have more than 1000 subscribers and its not open until this spring.
Lets not get too carried away with common sense Paul.
The exemption is only for paying pedicap passengers. It seems being a passenger is infinitely more safer when money changes hands. If it doesn’t, then it is clearly dangerous enough to require a helmet.
Dave
Dave, what was I thinking!!??
Makes a lot of sense to give the cyclist the option of wearing a helmet or not. Plenty of studies showing that we shouldn’t have all the faith in s helmet that we do re actual protection as well as more people riding when they don’t have to wear one – namely women.
I spent a weekend in the city over Xmas without my helmet and would have loved to have used the bikes. Too hard to Pre register and I’m not going to buy a cheap helmet from a 7-11.
Frances city cycle scheme is very popular – we had a bit of a look at it but not enough.
Let’s ditch the helmet in Oz
Jim Mc
Make sure you write a letter (or two) Jim!
http://helmetfreedom.org/
Cheers!
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There is a new website where you can enter your postcode to generate a range of letters to send to your local politicians (via email too) to request that there be a mandatory helmet law exemption for bike share bikes.
After all, there is an exemption for pedicab passengers (but not the ‘driver’! Weird) so why not for CityCycle. Get letter writing folks!
Helmet Freedom
http://helmetfreedom.org/