NTA’s bicycle share system in Cork, Limerick, and Galway a “barrier to other operators”

One of the stationless bicycle share companies that operate in Ireland claims that the TFI Bike Share system is a barrier to more bicycles and better coverage in Irish cities. Bolt, one of the international operators in Ireland, also said that the lack of access to cities — including Dublin — is harming its long-term viability in Ireland.

Bolt launched shared e-bike services in Sligo in June 2022 and then ramped up to operate in seven local authorities: Kilkenny, Wexford, Carlow, Portlaoise, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, and Bray in Wicklow. However, over the weekend, Moby, another operator, replaced the company’s operations in Bray.

Aisling Dunne, head of public policy for Bolt in Ireland, said: “We have just been able to launch in any of the cities [outside of Dublin]. The reason for that is the presence of the TFI Regional Bike scheme in each of the cities, Limerick, Cork, Galway and Waterford.

“The fact that the NTA subsidises it and that they are there, it’s great to have them, but it has been a barrier to other operators,” she said.

Dunne said: “It’s our understanding from councils that with TFI regional bike schemes, that adding in private competition would be less than ideal, and, for that reason, the councils have not wanted to put forward any tender, or memorandum of understandings or licenced agreements as you would see in other cities across Europe.”

She said that councils responsible for Irish towns have been “enthusiastic” about bicycle share and, internationally, electric bicycles are seen by local authorities in cities as an attractive way of trying to get people out of cars, but “that does not seem to be the case in Ireland” with cities.

Dublin City Council is a separate case with both DublinBikes and two private stationless bicycle operators.

Dunne said that the Dublin City Council made the decision in 2017 to limit its two operators and a cap of 3,000 bikes in total, and it would think this should be surpassed by now. However, the limit in 2018 for the two operators, Bleeper and Moby, was just 150 bicycles each, and this has been scaled up since then.

If they were allowed to, Bolt would increase coverage and the number of bicycles on offer in the four main Irish cities, describing the current layout of TFI Bike stations in Cork, Limerick and Galway are laid out in linear way along main roads, which is not seen as best practice, while saying the system in Waterford is planned better.

“We’d be very enthusiastic to try and launch bikes in Dublin and the other cities, to try and make, Ireland as a whole arrival market viable… the Irish Market in its current form is not viable,” said Dunne.

She said that the operations in towns are not just demonstration areas, but it would be hard to make operating in smaller locations viable in the long-term without the scale in the country as a whole provided by cities.

Bolt would welcome wider competition in cities, but areas like Kilkenny or Sligo would just support one company at a time.

Bolt, she said, would also be interested in running TFI Bikes.

Dunne said that she was “disappointed” to see their competitor Tier-Dott leave Ireland and said that while they were aware that the NTA was planning changes, it was likely too late for Tier.

For the private operators running stationless bicycle schemes in its area, Dublin City Council has also made a requirement that operators use what can be termed hybrid systems where no stations are used, but the bicycles must be physically locked to public bicycle stands.

The operators contributed towards the cost of extra bicycle parking stands but users of bicycles often complain that bike share bicycles are taking up a high percentage of key bicycle parking areas such as in the city centre or other main urban centres.

This system does not fit in with a new generation of share bicycles from some of the larger international operators, which have no chain or loop lock on their bikes to secure them to a stand.

Dublin City Council made the requirement when such locks were more common on shared bikes, and it did so to avoid the situation of shared bikes blocking footpaths.

Dunne said the virtual parking areas, such as those marked with paint on the ground without stands, would mean that bicycle share would not affect people cycling their own bicycles at locations at train stations and other busy locations,

She said that Bolt would be aware of the issue of bicycle parking blocking footpaths, which are not as wide as in some cities, and that’s why they think clearly marked painted bicycle parking bays are the best solution.

She said that Wexford County Council conducted an audit and it found a 95% compliance result. She said: “Obviously, I would prefer 100% compliance. But it done by the local authority as opposed to Bolt… so, I was pretty happy with that as a result.”

Geo-fencing parking has improved over the years, she said, to prevent the really poor behaviour of bad parking blocking footpaths.

“So we do that in Kilkenny, on the main thoroughfare, outside Kilkenny Castle, the council wanted it as one of the bike share parking locations,” Dunne explained, but not too many of them as to affect others. So when it gets to six bikes there, the next person won’t see the location as an option on the Bolt app.

The interview was conducted with Dunne before Christmas. The NTA has since looked for tenders for a new operator to run TFI Bikes.

Dublin City Council is mentioned in the NTA tender to replace their regional bike share systems. IrishCycle.com asked the council if it is looking at the option of discontinuing DublinBikes as it is now and joining in as part of a national system under the NTA tender.

A spokesperson said: “Dublin City Council has a contract in place for Dublin Bikes until 2027, and there is no change to this position. As is common with most NTA frameworks, Local Authorities may use those frameworks provided they have been listed in the documents and it is normal to do so even if the Local Authority may never use the framework.”

A spokesperson for the National Transport Authority pointed to a tender that the NTA recently published seeking interested companies to operate the regional bike share system.

Part of the process is a review of the structure of the scheme, and it will work with the winning bidders on the details.

The NTA spokesperson said: “The NTA is in the process of reviewing the existing Regional Public Bike Schemes to enhance coverage, operations, and potentially integrate electric bikes into the system. This review includes assessing the feasibility of expanding the scheme to new areas and improving the overall user experience.

“As part of this review, the NTA is considering various factors such as the demand for bike-sharing services, infrastructure requirements, and funding availability. The NTA aims to ensure that any expansion of the public bike scheme aligns with the evolving needs of cyclists and contributes to sustainable urban mobility,” the spokesperson said.

They added: “The NTA has initiated a procurement process for a new contract, or contracts, to operate the schemes.  It is expected that this procurement process will be completed and contracts awarded in Q3 of this year. The successful operator(s) will be involved in finalising the operational model for each City.”