Brisbane’s seniors are dancing, painting and pedalling across Brisbane in great numbers, however some are still cautious about jumping on board free public transport to travel to their activities.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said Brisbane’s senior residents continued to impress him, with Council’s Growing Older and Living Dangerously (GOLD) classes regularly attracting more than 10,000 participants each month.
“Our older residents are active, confident and fearless and the GOLD program has now been extended to include new activities including springboard diving, tennis and power yoga alongside long-time favourites of Zumba and Tai Chi,” Cr Schrinner said.
“Since August 2020, participation in our Active and Healthy program exceeded 65,000, which is just shy of pre-pandemic numbers and a promising sign considering less than a year ago all classes had to be cancelled while we faced an unprecedented public health crisis.”
Cr Schrinner said he wanted to remind seniors the Schrinner Council Administration’s free off-peak travel policy that began in October 2019 remained available, with more than 1.7 million free trips taken this year to date.
“The off-peak seniors travel patronage is at about 76 per cent of levels in 2019-20 and we would love to see more residents making the most of this free travel, be it to get to and from an Active and Healthy class or general travel across Brisbane.
“The combination of free travel with a free active and healthy class means our Seniors can get out and about enjoy Brisbane and not pay a cent to do so.
“These free events and free travel are something we’re extremely proud to offer our residents and just one of the ways we’re making Brisbane even better.”
BACKGROUND:
Council’s Active and Healthy attendance:
| JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC | JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | |
| 2019/2020 | 11368 | 14445 | 6849 | 12101 | 15455 | 6330 | 6464 | 16109 | 11469 | 0 | 816 | 2953 |
| 2020/2021 | 10003 | 14091 | 11671 | 12371 | 14547 | 6379 | 4626 |
Council’s Off-Peak Seniors Travel patronage**:
- Year 1 YTD (28 Sep 2019 – 31 Jan 2020) patronage trips 1,426,370.
- Year 2 YTD (26 Sep 2020 – 29 Jan 2021) patronage trips 1,079,021.
**This is approximately 76% of the year 1 patronage levels.