Advocates in Dublin Cycling Campaign are asking members of the public to contact their local councillors and Dublin City Council officials to ensure that the Bike Bunker programme is rolled out promptly.
Bike Bunkers are on-street lockers for residents without bicycle storage, which is especially an issue around the city centre and some inner suburbs.
A number of the units were rolled out and bikebunkers.ie was set up as part of the Dublin City Beta project, a section of the council that trials new ideas. But the hundreds of lockers that were planned never materialised after the project stalled following its exit form the beta stage.
It’s unclear why the rollout stalled, sources have indicated that there were staff issues and concerns including the space the Bike Bunkers would take up. Councillors were recently told that the project is under review and external consultants have been hired to look at the programme.
Just the other day this website reported how Waterford City looking to provide such for residents without backyard access. The lockers are also highly popular in London, where there are waiting lists for them, and are also used in some Dutch cities, known respectively as ‘bike hangers’ or ‘fietshangar’.
The Dublin Cycling Campaign suggests that people be polite and positive in demanding that the Bike Bunkers are rolled out as planned after the council announced the external review of the stalled programme.
“350 of the bunkers were to be installed — where residents requested them — in 2020. But nothing happened. Sadly we’ve heard that the scheme is ‘under review’ in Council and there’s a possibility it won’t go ahead at all,” the campaign said on its sub-campaign webpage.
The campaign said: “This is unacceptable. We’ve made our views known to the Council, but we need them to know that Dublin’s bike users won’t tolerate Bike Bunkers being cancelled”.”
It added: “Dubliners cannot afford to wait another 8 years before implementing secure communal bike parking.”