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Dublin City Council annouces details of its Bike scheme

Issued : Thursday 30 April, 2009

The Council announced details of its dublin bikes scheme today. This was something the Labour Group on the Council pushed for although we were not happy with the lack of transparency to the deal done by the City Manager with JC Decaux.

According to the annoucement the scheme, which will provide 40 public bike stations, is due for completion in late summer 2009. The bicycle scheme will provide a fully integrated transport alternative that is an innovative system allowing people to take bikes from automated self-service stations. The network will be monitored and distribution teams will maintain and move bikes around the City depending on demand and supply.

The network of stations will extend from the Mater Hospital in the north to Grand Canal in the south and from Smithfield in the west to the IFSC and North Docklands in the east. See attached map.

The locations for the ‘dublinbikes’ stations comprise the following:

1. Chatham Street	21. Leinster Street South
2. Blessington Street	22. Townsend Street
3. Bolton Street	23. Custom House
4. Greek Street	24. Cathal Brugha Street
5. Charlemont Place	25. Merrion Square East
6. Christchurch Place	26. Merrion Square West
7. High Street	27. Molesworth Street
8. Custom House Quay	28. Mountjoy Square West
9. Exchequer Street	29. Ormond Quay Upper
10. Dame Street	30. Parnell Square North
11. Earlsfort Terrace	31. Parnell Street
12. Eccles Street	32. Pearse Street
13. Fitzwilliam Square West	33. Princes Street North/ O’ Connell Street
14. Fownes Street Upper	34. Portobello Harbour
15. Hardwicke Street	35. Smithfield
16. Georges Quay	36. St. Stephens Green East
17. Golden Lane	37. St. Stephens Green South
18. Grantham Street	38. Talbot Street
19. Herbert Place	39. Wilton Terrace
20. James Street East	40. Jervis Street

Such a concentration ensures that choices are available for people at regular intervals to either embark on a cycle journey or return a bicycle to a station on the network. The avoidance of long distances between stations is important. The target users for the network will be city centre residents and workers in the immediate north and south city centre, primarily the core employment destinations in Dublin.

The ‘dublinbikes’ station locations have been thoroughly assessed by the projects working group with consideration given to future traffic management proposals within the city, avoidance of disruption to users of the public realm, avoidance of existing service utilities, analysis of proposed planning initiatives, physical space available at locations, access to cycle lanes / strategic cycle network, servicing proposals and employment levels in the locations reviewed. Removing car-parking bays will facilitate the majority of the stations. Where this option was not available at a particular location, only areas of sufficiently wide footpath were considered.

The ‘dublinbikes’ scheme will operate between the hours of 5.00am – 12.30am seven days a week. The ‘dublinbikes’ network will provide an automated terminal at each station where either (a) membership card details or (b) credit card readings can be taken to allow a bicycle to be taken. It is envisaged that the majority of users on this system will be people who apply for a membership smartcard. For an annual subscription fee of €10.00 bicycles can be taken and returned to any station on the network. Non-members can also avail of the network by using a credit card. This is necessary to provide security in the event of a bicycle not been returned. Charges for all users will allow an initial 30-minute free period per bicycle used with a relatively low charge per hour of rental thereafter (e.g. 30-60 minutes use will cost €0.50).

Dublin will join other European cities such as Paris (Velib), Lyon (Velo’v Lyon), Vienna (Citybike Wien) and Seville (Sevici) in possessing a city centre network of automated bike stations. The general aims of the ‘Dublin Bikes’ network within the city are to:

· improve mobility within the city centre that compliments public transport and pedestrian movements and lessens the reliance on private car journeys;

· improve the quality of city life by fighting pollution (less CO² per km travelled), reduced travel times and encourage regular physical exercise;

· boost cycle usage within the city.

People will be able to take a bike from any of the stations and return it to any of the other bike stations on the network. The bike stations are being provided as part of an Outdoor Advertising and Public Amenities contract which also provides the City with free civic information advertising and a wayfinding scheme aimed at visitors to the City.

The cost of the installation of the bike scheme, together with its management and maintenance (including replacing and repairing bikes) over the next 15 years will be provided under the contract at no cost to Dublin City Council. In all, 450 bikes will be provided at 40 locations in the City.