Dublin City to trial on-street bicycle lockers for residential areas

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IMAGE: The Fietshangar (fietshangar.nl)

Residents of Dublin City who have limited options to park their bicycles at home are being sought to trial on-street bike lockers.

This is further to Dublin City Council’s plans for high-density bicycle parking around retail and railway stations in the city centre, which we reported on recently.

The bike lockers or “bikehangars” are for streets where residents do not have access to secure or dry locations for parking in private. In other cities, the units are usually rented by the space for between €40 and €60 per year.

However, the rental cost for Dublin has yet to be confirmed. The full cost of a units and the space it would take up is estimated at €380 per year, but it’s unconfirmed at this stage if this will be split between neighbours and if it will be subsidised or not.

IMAGE: Hackney
IMAGE: The Lambeth Bikehangar pictured in Hackney (Cyclehoop)

The trial is a Beta Project Macro being run by the city architects division of Dublin City Council. The council has ordered one of the lockers from UK bicycle parking firm Cyclehoop. It is understood that a ‘Lambeth Bikehangar‘ model of locker has been ordered.

The trial is set to look at how rental of the lockers could work and deal with the question of are the lockers even a desirable option.

The lockers take up about half a car parking space. But given the movement of cars vs the static nature of the lockers, it’s estimated that one locker takes up the same or less spaces than an average car.

The initial trial in Dublin will be for “1 hangar, 1 household, and last 3 months.” People interested in being part of the trial are asked to email betaprojects@dublincity.ie with their name, address, number of people in the household, and number of bicycles in the household, as soon as possible. The council will be making a “decision before the end of August.”

The preference location is in or around the city centre, somewhere reasonably close to Dublin City Council’s offices at Wood Quay.

Bikehangar8
IMAGE: An opened Lambeth Bikehangar (Cyclehoop)

Between the Cyclehoop-designed Lambeth Bikehangar and and a Dutch model called the Fietshangar, lockers of this type are installed in cities around Europe, mainly Dutch cities such as Amstelveen, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Utrecht, as well as in in Brussels and in London.

The Lambeth Bikehangar holds 6 bicycles and the Fietshangar holds 5 — both are designed for average-sized bicycles without larger crates or child seats attached which are not removable. The council are also looking at options for cargo bicycles.

Cyclehoop in Dublin City
IMAGE: Cyclehoop’s main product — the Cyclehoop — has been used in Dublin City to make traffic sign polls into more effective and secure bicycle parking (IrishCycle.com)

The ‘bikehangar’ solution is more common in some cities than others: Amsterdam has only around 8 of the storage units, but the smaller city of Utrecht has around 80 units and, in the UK, London has over 100 units between the two models of lockers. Rotterdam and surrounding cities, some of which are known to have more spacious streets, have a total of over 600 units.

It’s unknown at this point how many units Dublin City Council will eventually order if the trial goes well.

In London a space can be rented for €37 to €52 (£30 to £42) per year depending on area, with a key deposit of around €25-€30. In the Netherlands, Rotherdam offers spaces for €13.56 per quarter or €54.24 per year; and in Utrecht a space costs €58.11 per year.

MORE: Dublin City Beta Projects – Bike Hangar

IMAGE BELOW: This Fietshangar in Utrecht, pictured below, is featured in Dutch Cycling Series feature on parking, due to be published this week (IrishCycle.com)

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4 comments

  1. Thatvwould becso cool!! We have a perfect spot under the footbridge. A the end of our road, claude rd. . Pleaaaase Dublin corp.??? Do it

    Reply

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