Dublin public bike scheme an unprecedented success

[Evil Eco-Fascist]

Wheels are in motion to expand hugely successful city council bicycle scheme

Well done to all involved in the planning! It's great to occasionally see the Irish learning from other countries' mistakes.

[alonso]

One for the nay sayers, the inferiority complex-ridden Oirish eejits and the begrudgers. You should look back to some of the comments made here about this scheme before it launched.

While i opposed the advertising deal and still haven't heard about any of the illegal decaux billboards coming down as of yet, at least the bike element has kicked ass beyond belief. The other day while crossing Pearse st, 3 of these went past, driven by people ranging from their early 20's to their 60's, none looked foreign or like tourists, all looked like they were on the way to work.

Great stuff. Expand, expand, expand!!!! now.

[toughbutfair]

I was wrong on this one. I thought bikes would be stolen. Great to see something work.

[hammer]

An unqualified success. Unfortunately it has wiped out the taxi business further.

Next the Council will probably ban taxis from Dublin City Centre

[brughahaha]

One for the nay sayers, the inferiority complex-ridden Oirish eejits and the begrudgers. You should look back to some of the comments made here about this scheme before it launched.

While i opposed the advertising deal and still haven't heard about any of the illegal decaux billboards coming down as of yet, at least the bike element has kicked ass beyond belief. The other day while crossing Pearse st, 3 of these went past, driven by people ranging from their early 20's to their 60's, none looked foreign or like tourists, all looked like they were on the way to work.

Great stuff. Expand, expand, expand!!!! now.

Should anyone of note be reading this, may I suggest a rack of bikes including childrens models near say Clontarf and Seapoint Dart stations allowing families to rent the bikes and use them on the excellent bayside cycle paths..... also allowing Parents to teach kids in safety and easily reachable by most (and far cheaper than forkig out for bikes for all the family)........just an idea ........

[toughbutfair]

Should anyone of note be reading this, may I suggest a rack of bikes including childrens models near say Clontarf and Seapoint Dart stations allowing families to rent the bikes and use them on the excellent bayside cycle paths..... also allowing Parents to teach kids in safety and easily reachable by most (and far cheaper than forkig out for bikes for all the family)........just an idea ........

good idea - anything that encourages kids to be active is great - see obesity thread.

[alonso]

An unqualified success. Unfortunately it has wiped out the taxi business further.

Next the Council will probably ban taxis from Dublin City Centre

Well i've used them once or twice as an alternative to a taxi alright. no harm though, better value and quicker. Nothin like a bit of competition eh...

Should anyone of note be reading this, may I suggest a rack of bikes including childrens models near say Clontarf and Seapoint Dart stations allowing families to rent the bikes and use them on the excellent bayside cycle paths..... also allowing Parents to teach kids in safety and easily reachable by most (and far cheaper than forkig out for bikes for all the family)........just an idea ........

That would require a massive expansion of this particular scheme though. Perhaps an independent scheme for those coastal areas would be more advantageous. One of the features of the city scheme is that there are stations around 400m apart so if one is empty on arrival or full on return you don't have far to go to another. It's most suited to an area with a high density demand for short trips. I can't see it going much further than places like Phibsboro, Kilmainham, Ringsend etc.

Your post also brings to mind the stalling Sutton to Sandycove cycleway, S2S. It's been talked about for a decade or so but while parts are in situ, there's a helluva lot still to be done.

But it's incredible. The weather, the traffic, the state of the roads, the actions of certain drivers, the poor image of cycling - none of these factors seem to have played any part in the success of this scheme. Dublin bikes seem now to have entered many hundreds of peoples daily commute permanently. Brilliant stuff

A few more bike parks in the city centre like Drury St and we'll all be laughin
Dublin City Cycling Blog New cycle parking facility on Drury Street

[brughahaha]

Well i've used them once or twice as an alternative to a taxi alright. no harm though, better value and quicker. Nothin like a bit of competition eh...




That would require a massive expansion of this particular scheme though. Perhaps an independent scheme for those coastal areas would be more advantageous. One of the features of the city scheme is that there are stations around 400m apart so if one is empty on arrival or full on return you don't have far to go to another. It's most suited to an area with a high density demand for short trips. I can't see it going much further than places like Phibsboro, Kilmainham, Ringsend etc.

Your post also brings to mind the stalling Sutton to Sandycove cycleway, S2S. It's been talked about for a decade or so but while parts are in situ, there's a helluva lot still to be done.

But it's incredible. The weather, the traffic, the state of the roads, the actions of certain drivers, the poor image of cycling - none of these factors seem to have played any part in the success of this scheme. Dublin bikes seem now to have entered many hundreds of peoples daily commute permanently. Brilliant stuff

A few more bike parks in the city centre like Drury St and we'll all be laughin
Dublin City Cycling Blog New cycle parking facility on Drury Street

As I said just an idea (although wasn't really thinking of intergration more families using them for fun day trips and teaching purposes etc and returning them to the same rack before hopping on a dart, )

Wasn't aware of that plan, would love to see it happen and I,m more than familiar with the Northside leg of that trip ( and if i ever win the euromillions I'll personally sponsor a boardwalk between the wooden bridge and the raheny causeway!)
Finding a route from sutton to Howth would be nice too as that leg is pretty scary but still what we have is a b eautiful and easy cycle for people of all ages (hence the suggestion of family bikes and teaching) and Ive had many a foreign visitor out here marvel that the coastline isn't a collection of expensive private high rise apartments and in awe of the open space along the coast (St Annes is the nicest park in Dublin - he says biasedly)so close to the city centre


And while we mightn't match some German or Dutch cities I find cycling far more common in Ireland than any cities in the UK or Spain (Bilbao and Barcelona) (purely on personal observation) and most kids are still taught to ride a bike thankfully

Sometimes I think we're overly self critical,

EDIT Just looked at that link .... what a great idea!!!

[florin]

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

[alonso]

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.