Dublin City residents, commuters and tourists should be spoiled for bicycle share choice this spring as DublinBikes expands and, separately, stationless bicycle share is expected to launch by April.
Work on the long-delayed DublinBikes expansion with 15 new docking stations and at least 100 extra bicycles is due to start this week and finish by the end of March.
It is focused on the north inner city around the DIT Grangegorman campus, but also includes other locations, including beside three docking stations Connolly Station and two stations on the south side to add to capacity.
Meanwhile at least four different stationless bicycle share companies are interested in launching in Dublin. If all goes well, approved stationless bicycle share will be on the city’s streets in April.
Paul Corcoran, chairman of the Dublin “The DublinBikes expansion is great for the city based on their previous success and popularity. The north side was neglected initially and now three stations are going up beside DIT Grangregorman campus which is a green campus, priortising public transport.”
Corcoran said that stationless bikes should be great for areas outside the canals and people commuting into the city.
Asked if there’s space for both types of systems, he said: “Stationless bikes may act synergistically with DublinBikes but only time will tell if they will be competing.”
Cllr Andrew Montague, who was the original promoter of DublinBikes when most people were skeptical of the idea, said: “I’m delighted to see the expansion of dublinbikes. It’s very welcome and should be the first step of a much larger expansion.”
“The stationless bikes are an interesting addition to the bike service within our city. I hope they are successful but the jury is still out for them. They have had decidedly mixed results around the world,” said Cllr Montague.
He added: “DublinBikes get 5 million trips per year, and they have cost the state about €7 million so far. The Luas Cross City cost €368 million and is expected to generate 10 million trips. Clearly DublinBikes provide much better value for money, and the scheme should be dramatically expanded.”
Cllr Montague.said that there’s a number of improvements DublinBikes and other bike sharing providers.
He said that bicycle share is part of our public transport infrastructure but that redistribution is hindered by bike share trucks “sitting in traffic” rather than being able to use bus lanes; bicycle share should go beyond council borders; and subscribers to state-owned systems should be able to use the bikes in all cities.
The 15 DublinBikes stations are as follows:
- 1 Grangegorman Lower No1, D7
- 2 Grangegorman Lower No2, D7
- 3 Grangegorman Lower No3, D7
- 4 Rathdown Road, D7
- 5 Charleville Road, D7
- 6 Phibsborough Road, D7
- 7 George’s Lane, D7
- 8 Western Way, D7
- 9 Avondale Road, D7
- 10 North Circular Road, Drumcondra, D1
- 11 Mountjoy Square East, D1
- 12 Killarney Street, D1
- 13 Buckingham Street Lower, D1
- 14 Merrion Square South, D2
- 15 Wilton Terrace, D2
A spokesman for Dublin City Council said: “We still expect to issue licences and commence operations in April. No companies have as yet been approved. The Council intends to hold an information session for all prospective operators in [this Thursday, 25th] January, following which we will advertise for licence applications in February.”
He added: “An operator’s licence will be €200 per year. While a permit fee per bike has still to be agreed it is expected to be in the region of €100 per year per bike.”
Details of the information session for companies interested in running stationless bicycle schemes was advertised as follows:
Map of the new DublinBikes locations:
The expansion of the Dublin Bikes network is due to get underway this week with 15 new docking stations (mostly northside) being built by the end of March.
See the full list of new stations here: https://t.co/hvsKDCK8ug pic.twitter.com/HYLyqoObwn— Dublin Cycling (@dublincycling) January 23, 2018
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I completely agree with the idea that the stationless bike operators should have to pay a fee instead of just piggybacking on the existing bike parking for free to make their profits. Hopefully a significant amount of this money will go towards improving and increasing the amount of bike parking around the city.
The numbers on Dublin Bikes tell is that they facilitate a lot of trips every year. I wonder what percentage of mode share they make up. In other words if 5,000 bikes go down the quays every day what percentage of them are Dublin Bikes?
Good Man Andrew Montague…..let’s call a spade a spade! Bikes win out not just on cost effectiveness, but also on a wide range of health and social benefits. Bike systems end up saving the State money as a result!