Dublin public bike scheme an unprecedented success

[markpb]

Any chance of it coming to Galway or Cork within the next 50 years?

This isn't a national thing, it's something a few Dublin CC councillors got off their asses and did themselves. Ask your local councillor what they're doing.

[The Caped Cod]

I notice the artcile makes no mention of JC Decaux's advertiing interest in this scheme.

Dublin is not an unprecedented success. The pilot scheme for this was in Lyon, France (Velo'v) in 2007 and in 2008 had 60,000 inscriptions.

[Gimpanzee]

If enough of you lobby for it florin. Although galway did a great job of imitating 40 years of mistakes in Dublin in the last few years so cycling may be a non-starter there.

40 years is a bit of an overshoot. As little as 15 years ago Galway had a huge number of people on bikes (big student population where almost none owned cars and the general traffic was lighter). The biggest impediment is the traffic - within about 5 years between 1995 and 2000 the number of cyclists collapsed because it became significantly more dangerous. I know of one secondary school where they went from hundreds of girls cycling to school each day to a grand total of one in recent times. Same with the college students - many just ditched the bikes and a significant amount got their own cars, making the traffic around the colleges even more dangerous and putting cyclists off. Infrastructure changes weren't the problem, as the road network where cyclists were common is largely untouched. A scheme like this could help reverse the process by turning a section of the car traffic into bike traffic without the need for infrastructure changes that have little chance of happening in the current climate. But has it ever been done in a place with a population density as low as Galway?

[The Caped Cod]

40 years is a bit of an overshoot. As little as 15 years ago Galway had a huge number of people on bikes (big student population where almost none owned cars and the general traffic was lighter). The biggest impediment is the traffic - within about 5 years between 1995 and 2000 the number of cyclists collapsed because it became significantly more dangerous. I know of one secondary school where they went from hundreds of girls cycling to school each day to a grand total of one in recent times. Same with the college students - many just ditched the bikes and a significant amount got their own cars, making the traffic around the colleges even more dangerous and putting cyclists off. Infrastructure changes weren't the problem, as the road network where cyclists were common is largely untouched. A scheme like this could help reverse the process by turning a section of the car traffic into bike traffic without the need for infrastructure changes that have little chance of happening in the current climate. But has it ever been done in a place with a population density as low as Galway?

Indeed. I personaly like cycling but hate to cycle in the city, or rather the traffic, so I get public transport. I'd cycle much more if there were a good bicycle lane network.

[alonso]

what i meant was that 40 years of mistakes in Dublin were carreid out in 10 years in Galway. As a related aside. I believe that if you look at the Census for 2006 only about 500 teenage girls cycle to school in the State. I'll dig up the source in a bit

[alonso]

Beyond 20/20 WDS - Table View

521 females aged 13-18 cycled to school or college in 2006.
Fcking hell. That many women in their 20's or 30's might use a DB every day alone!!!

[Harmonica]

Not wanting to be a nay sayer but on what basis is it being judged as a success? I don't know if Councillors are exactly unbiased on assessing the success or otherwise. Expecting 1,000 subscriptions seems to have set the bar very low.

The advertising deal still has not been resolved as I believe many do not have planning permission. The location of the low level advertising boards leaves a lot to be desired - they are too close to the kerb so motorists cannot see pedestrians.

[Gimpanzee]

Beyond 20/20 WDS - Table View

521 females aged 13-18 cycled to school or college in 2006.
Fcking hell. That many women in their 20's or 30's might use a DB every day alone!!!

Yes, crazy stuff.

[Supermanpolitician]

A success but not an unqualified success. Let's keep a grasp on reality.

1. What is the unit cost per bike?
2. What is the maintenence cost per bike?

On a related issue I was in Halfords yesterday and saw bikes for sale with three pices quoted on them.

1. The actual price.
2. The price claiming the cycle to work tax break at the lower rate.
3. The price claiming the cycle to work tax break at the higher rate.

I then looked up Halfords.co.uk and saw the the prices of the exact same bikes in the UK were all lower than the lowest price quoted here.

[Harmonica]

On a related issue I was in Halfords yesterday and saw bikes for sale with three pices quoted on them.

1. The actual price.
2. The price claiming the cycle to work tax break at the lower rate.
3. The price claiming the cycle to work tax break at the higher rate.

I then looked up Halfords.co.uk and saw the the prices of the exact same bikes in the UK were all lower than the lowest price quoted here.

Lower VAT in UK?

In my experience Halford prices in the UK are fairly close to the ones I have seen in Ireland. I bought car battery recently which was 100 Euro compared with 83 pounds. They don't seem to be anyway as bad as clothes retailers.