Cr Cassidy used question time on Tuesday to query a $1.6 million cheque written to CityCycle operator and advertising firm JCDecaux. "Last week in this chamber, you tried to justify a payment of over $700,000 to Brisbane Marketing, also for CityCycle," he said. "In just two weeks, this disastrous scheme has cost Brisbane ratepayers over $2.3 million. "Will you today admit that your CityCycle scheme, which you claimed would be cost-neutral, has been a financial disaster for the ratepayers of Brisbane?" Cr Quirk said the expenditure went well beyond CityCycle, with much of it used on things such as campaigns designed to attract people to Brisbane.

"I would refute that CityCycle has been a disaster," he said. "On the same basis of logic, the Labor Party would close Brisbane Transport down. "…It seems that it's alright for CityCat services to lose substantial monies every year, it's alright for buses to lose substantial monies every year, but somehow or other it's not OK in the case of CityCycle, which forms part of an overall transportation system." Cr Quirk said he still expected the CityCycle scheme to eventually become cost-neutral. "That is still a few years away, but it will," he said.

Cr Quirk's deputy, active transport chairman Adrian Schrinner, said the scheme had been "much maligned" since it was installed, but pleaded for people to give it a go. And Cr Schrinner repeated his claim Queensland's mandatory helmet laws were the biggest impediment to CityCycle's success. "This is a cycle hire scheme, run by a company called JCDecaux, which runs cycle hire schemes in 60-plus cities around the world," he said. "And, in fact, there are many more than that running around the world and it's interesting when you consider why there might be different levels of success in some cities over another. "My personal belief is that mandatory helmet laws have very much held back the growth of CityCycle and you see a similar situation down in Melbourne as well, where their bicycle hire scheme has also struggled to get off the ground."

Cr Schrinner said he was comfortable with the ongoing cost of the scheme. "If we were running a bike hire scheme with the sole and only purpose of making a profit, then we would think twice," he said. "But active transport and public transport is not just about making a profit. It's about providing a community service." Cr Schrinner said there had been ongoing growth since CityCycle was introduced, from 595 trips a day in 2012 to 630 in 2013, to 794 in 2014 and 943 in 2015. Cr Schrinner said so far in 2016, there had been an average of 1126 CityCycle trips per day.

"So, between 2012 and now, we've seen around 90 per cent growth in the number of trips per day being taken on CityCycle and that is positive, we'd like to see it continue to grow," he said. "We will continue to invest in CityCycle and to promote CityCycle, not to shy away from it, as an important way of getting around the inner-city." Cr Schrinner also revealed in the chamber on Tuesday that the council had "killed" bicycle awareness zones on Brisbane roads. The zones, which were advisory only, consisted of yellow-painted bicycle symbols on roads as a reminder that the road needed to be shared. "Cyclists need to share the road with vehicles, but should keep to the left as far as possible," the council says on its website.

"Normal road rules apply." Cr Schrinner said the bicycle awareness zones, as opposed to dedicated bike lanes, led to confusion. "The difference between a yellow bike on the road and a white bike on the road, which is usually used to designate a bike lane, often confuses motorists," he said. "…So there will be no more bicycle awareness zones rolled out by Brisbane City Council, I can confirm that today, so there will be no more money spent on yellow bicycles on the road." Cr Schrinner said the council would invest on more yellow lines to prevent parking on busy routes, such as Wynnum Road, to prevent cars parking and thereby providing cyclists with more room.