Cycling in Brisbane Australia
Cycle2City end of trip facility. A review
I've mentioned here a bit that my consulting work takes me all over the city and it has made commuting difficult. This has changed slightly recently, I'm on an engagement at the same place three days a week for the next few months.
There are quite a few bike commuters where I am, and while there are some bike racks and a shower, but it's pretty contested.
So last week I made a decision, I'd join up to the King George Cycle Centre aka Cycle to City on Roma st and use that. Ever since it opened (I lived in Sydney at the time) I'd thought it was an awesome idea, so it seems like a great time to support it and use the facilities.
I wandered in at lunchtime and signed up, they do a three day a week membership which is perfect for me. The signup process was farly simple, fill out a form, get a photo taken and pay a signup fee and the first month's membership.
The next day whe I rode in, a security card and locker key were at the front desk waiting for me.
Security is taken seriously, after all we leave our precious bikes there all day. You swipe your card to get in and out, photos are on file and with cameras and a friendly face at the desk all the time there's not much chance of anything going missing.
The facilities are fantastic, you get :
- an allocated bike rack a locker (not huge but enough to hang your clothes and leave some bits and pieces)
- One of their selling points is the fresh towel every day (this makes a huge difference if you've biked to work before and just keep forgetting to take your towel home for a wash and it gets... well, a bit stinky!)
- Lots of showers, no waiting around for one.
- Lots of little, well thought out extras like hair dryers, ironing facilities, floor pumps near the bike racks and places to fill your water bottles on your way home
- Shoe racks under your locker
- A big set of drying racks with a fan on them, so your riding clothes are dry and not gross at the end of the day.
- Laundry / dry cleaning service. You drop your clothes off in the morning, and they get dropped back to your locker at the end of the day and charged to your account.
- On site bike mechanic, cafe and spare parts / accessories for those days you need a new tube or have forgotten your lights.
- Very friendly staff who always have a smile and a hello and goodbye!
The place is spacious, well looked after and just clean. It's a very very far cry from sharing a single grotty shower with a half dozen co-workers in a non-ventilated area with nowhere to hang your stuff, coming back at the end of the day to damp knicks. If you've ridden to work in a few different places you'll know what I'm talking about.
The price works out better the longer your committment, it's not free but it works out less than public transport for me. And I get to ride my bike!
All in all, I can't praise the Cycle Centre enough, it's a fantastic facility and a great service to city commuters. I know this sounds like a bit of an infomercial but I promise I have nothing to gain by writing it, I'm just that impressed. If you've been considering riding but the logistics have you concerned, you should drop in and have a look around. I'm really glad I did.
Does anyone else here use it ? What are your thoughts ?
Comment
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Comment by Mitch Bright on February 4, 2011 at 6:52pm
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I don't work in the city but I have used the c2c facility. The facilities are great but useful only to mon to fri day dytime workers. It should be open 24/7 to subscribers. This would allow subscribers who work Saturday s ( which is most retail store workers) to use the facilities. Opening weekends would also allow safe bike parking for social outings like going to the movies. Most other good bike parking facilities in bike friendly citys around the world open 24/7 for members. For instance Melbourne's new facility :http://www.bikepark.com.au/
Why can't the Brisbane facility be run like Melbourne's?
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Comment by Paul Martin on January 29, 2011 at 9:36pm -
If I worked in the CBD I'd definitely use it! I think it should be seen as something of an investment by Governments. They are keen to call all new roads and tunnels 'investments' - why not something that actually does some good! They should be really promoting it but instead they do nothing and hope that 'market forces' will save the day.
Spreading the word is a good idea. I think most people don't even know if its existence so the more that know, the better.
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Comment by DamianM on January 29, 2011 at 7:28pm -
I guess it's a matter of cost. I imagine it would cost a bit to operate per day, so opening it up on the weekend... just not sure the demand is there. It comes back to your point of council funding / subsidies, but if they opened it up... would people still use it on enough of a basis to make it worthwhile ? I'm not sure they would.
Still, it is under-utilised now, I was hoping with this post to spread the word a bit :)
Shame about the RBWH, I had wondered about that facility.
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Comment by Paul Martin on January 29, 2011 at 12:14pm
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I only wish it didn't just cater for CBD commuters. It should be open later, on weekends and/or for short term parking (ie. no need for shower facilities) - I don't work in the CBD but I often go there on a weekend or an evening and I would pay to use a secure bike park. I know it is being seriously under-utilised so perhaps this would be a way to boost their numbers?
Otherwise, I think it is a fabulous facility - I've walked through it early last year not long after it had been open and the racks are great.
The Cycle Centre at the RBWH has other issues. It is no longer staffed and you need an access code - which rules out any day parking unless you're really organised and know the precise date of your visit. Add to this the sparsity of bicycle racks at the hospital - they were probably all ripped out when they built the Cycle Centre!
It is a shame that such great facilities aren't being run more effectively - there should really be council funding to help them operate extended hours and have staff present during operating hours and perhaps after hours swipe card access for regular users?; it really is something that governments should be supporting. Just building the structure is the easy part; keeping it going is what matters.
© 2012 Created by DamianM.
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