Another elephant in the room?

On Nov 15, 11:16 am, cfsmtb <cfsmtb.302...@no-

mx.forums.cyclingforums.com said:

Scroll down to paragraphs 7-10 for some fighting words. 😉

****

SMH: Moore peddles cheap city bike service:Sunanda Creagh Urban Affairs
Reporter, November 15, 2007http://tinyurl.com/2e438q

Poll: Bike hire for Sydney?http://www.smh.com.au/polls/national/form.html

You are stuck at Broadway and you need to be at a meeting at Circular
Quay in 10 minutes. You hire a bike, hop on and drop it off at your
destination.

The Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney, Clover Moore, has flagged plans
for a rental system under which low-cost bicycles can be hired from a
"bike station" and returned to a station in another part of the city.

A recent survey commissioned by the City of Sydney showed that more
than 80 per cent of inner city people supported such a scheme, and 71
per cent said an hourly fee of $3 or more was reasonable.

Cr Moore said the scheme was popular in Paris, where it was introduced
this year. "It's a most inspirational program," she said. "I hope that
as soon as possible it will be operational in Sydney. I believe bike
traffic jumped to 75 per cent in Lyon after the system was introduced
there."

In Paris, 20,600 bikes are provided by the street furniture firm
JCDecaux and there are 1451 hire stations.

Cr Moore said the council would finalise its bike plan, which includes
construction of new separated bike lanes in King Street, Castlereagh
Street and possibly Druitt Street, before introducing a public hire
scheme to Sydney.

The cycling activist Fiona Campbell said the state's bike
infrastructure lagged "any other in Australia or the developed world.
There are towns in the Swiss Alps that have better facilities than us."

Under the conditions of the consent for the Cross City Tunnel, the
Roads and Traffic Authority was supposed to provide bike lanes on
William and Park streets and a connection from Park Street to Pyrmont
Bridge. It was also required to investigate an east-west cycle route
around Liverpool Street.

"The latter they investigated and dismissed," Ms Campbell said. "The
William and Park street lanes they constructed - although not to RTA
standards - and then removed part of it."

She blamed what she sees as an anti-bike, pro-car attitude within the
RTA, headed by ministers with no interest in cycling.

An RTA spokesman said the Government had built "more than 3900
kilometres of cycleway in NSW for the use of cyclists and pedestrians
and an average of 233 kilometres of cycling facilities built each year
since 1999".

"The Government has provided more than $291 million towards bicycle
programs since then, with a further $15 million of work to be completed
this financial year," he said.

Bicycle NSW, working with the Department of Transport, manages bike
lockers at some train stations and ferry wharves.

--
cfsmtb

Jeebus how would you go around Sydernee letting any muppet with $2
ride your bike? With those drivers and those roads?

Donga said:

Jeebus how would you go around Sydernee letting any muppet with $2
ride your bike? With those drivers and those roads?

Really basic bikes can be bought - in bulk - for under $50 each out of
China or India. The type of bike that's ridden by half a billion
Chinese every day.

If one muppet in 30 kills a bike, you've collected $60 in rental, so
you're ahead. I doubt you'd lose one bike for every 30 rentals.

You also get a pile of spare parts to fix any minor breakages (or,
more cost effectively, put tangled mess of broken bits in a container
and send to East Timor for a charitable tax dodge).

Sure, you wouldn't be making much of a profit, but I don't think
anybody is expecting to make a profit out of the rental receipts.
Profit from renting out ad space on a fleet of mobile billboards is a
different matter.

Damage to the muppet is not the bike owners concern, so long as the
bike is fit for purpose and did not cause the accident.

tim