Dublin may get bicycle share system without docking stations

Bicycle sharing systems without docking stations could be coming to Dublin — Dublin City Council has said that companies are interested in rolling out the so-called 4th generation bike share in the city.

“What 4th generation bike share means is non-stand, app-lead bike share — you don’t need a stand [at a docking station] and the bikes are found on an app on a handheld device or your phone,” said Dick Brady, the assistant chief executive of the council with responsibility for transport.

He added: There’s companies out there who are interested in bringing this to the city. There’s lots of positives to this but there are also negatives — you can drops the bicycle anywhere and it locks it self. There are issues in relation to that and in some cities there are big issues with people dropping off bikes. There are also issues in relation to standards of the bicycles in terms of lighting and sturdiness.”

Council management plan to bring a report on 4th generation bike to the next transport committee meeting.

“Because there are people interested in putting this onto the streets of the city, it’s something we need to consider and we need to consider what our interaction is going to be with it — whether we stand back and let it happen unregulated or whether we take the best points out of it and try to regulate it,” said Brady.

Cllr Ciaran Cuffe (Green Party) said that a report on the issue would be very welcomed.

Cllr Cuffe said: “It’s both an opportunity and potentially a challenge, particularly in terms of management of public space. The last thing we want is a load of bicycles just leaning against a wall, perpetually the challenges [of getting around the city] for partially sighted people could be exacerbated. On the plus side it could offer another form of sustainable urban mobility.”

ALSO READ: Fourth Generation Bikeshare and Social Innovation


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1 comment

  1. I would be careful calling dockless bike share systems “4th Generation”. They have existed paralell to docking systems for a long time. In Germany they are known with Call a Bike since about 15 years and actually still dominate the market there. When it comes to redistribution, usage per bike, vandalism and integration into public transport, docking systems are at an advantage that should not be underestimated in my opinion.

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