Minister for transport Paschal Donohoe has confirmed today that eight new stations will be added to Galway’s bicycle share scheme.
In a speech he said: “The NTA and Galway City Council have now agreed on the construction of eight additional stations, demonstrating the success of the scheme so far.”
He added: “Galway Bike Scheme was launched in November 2014. To date, 15 stations have been constructed and at the end of July 2015, the Scheme had 2,151 members and as many as 12,840 trips have been made using the scheme in Galway.”
When we requested details of the expansion, a spokesman for the National Transport Authority (NTA) said it “is examining additional stations in Galway; however, we are not yet at a stage where we can provide any details.”
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Some clarification is needed here.
Strictly speaking, there will not be eight “new” stations. Currently there are 15 stations, and when the Galway bike share scheme is expanded there will be 23, an increase of 8.
However, the original plan was for 19 stations: http://irishcycle.com/2013/09/20/irish-regional-city-bike-share-to-carry-coca-cola-brand/
Unfortunately, partly due to objections from Galway City Councillors (http://irishcycle.com/2014/11/06/bike-share-docking-station-to-be-removed-parking-restored-due-to-galway-councillors/) and others, only 15 stations were installed.
So in reality four of the eight “new” stations were part of the original plan, which was not fully implemented. These are now being reinstated, in number if not in terms of location. Technically there are only four additional (new) stations over and above the number originally proposed.
I think this is still pretty good news. There seems to be some resistance around Galway for improve cycling infrastructure. Getting agreement on the greenway route from Athlone to Galway is also going to be a challenge.
I think as more Galwegians become accustomed to bikes around the city, attitudes will change. So it’s great to see a commitment to the original number of stations, plus a further expansion by a factor of over 20%. This is within a year of the scheme being introduced, so fair play to the people of Galway, and the council, for making it a success.