The Dublin Bike Scheme has just passed a massive milestone. It's one of the coolest, most effective and most progressive public resources ever introduced to the capital; here's 10 very good reasons why.
The Dublin Bike Scheme's success from roll-out in 2009 caught everyone by surprise.
Continuing overwhelming demand from commuters every day has necessitated its rapid expansion to a much wider area across the greater Dublin area than originally planned for.
It represents the first time cycling has been taken to the masses in Ireland in a successful, meaningful and sustainable way.
Having just passed a very significant milestone in user numbers, the time is right for stickybottle to give you 10 very, very good reasons why the Dublin Bike Scheme absolutely bloody rocks.
1. It’s just had its 10,000,000th journey
Yep, they marked the milestone just yesterday when a woman called Mairéad Roche was the historic punter. She was plucked from obscurity on a very sunny day in Dublin to go for a wee cycling with Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe from the Kilmainham stand. How lucky can one girl be?
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2. They said it couldn’t be done
With the huge success of the scheme since its launch in 2009, it’s easy to forget just how negative the naysayers were and how numerous were their voices. But suggestions the idea was “too European” for us spud-loving Paddies has been blown out of the water. The scheme has been constantly expanding since inception and it is still unable to keep up with demand.
3. The council resisted being silly about helmets
Make no mistake; had Dublin City Council insisted users wear helmets the scheme would have never taken off. In Melbourne, where users must wear helmets, the take-up has only be around 10 per cent of that in Dublin. Instead of insisting on users wearing lids here - which have never been compulsory for cyclists in Ireland - the council and the Department of Transport took the sensible approach of leaving the issue to personal choice. And amazingly the sky hasn’t fallen in.
4. There have been no fatalities
Considering the scheme has now sailed past the 10 million journey mark, it’s amazing that nobody has been killed, especially given the level of congestion on some very tight Dublin streets. It’s hard to measure the extent to which it has changed how people think about cycling from a safety perspective. But a scheme with such a good record must have won over many who doubted the safety of cycling around the city. And despite the fact the vast majority of users don’t wear helmets; there’s been no epidemic of head injuries and nasty newspaper coverage that could have undermined the whole project.
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5. It’s extremely handy
For those who both live and work within a short distance of the scheme’s stations dotted around the city, there would be no need to buy a bike. And even for those of us who cycle to work or college on our own bikes, the availability of the rental machines means we don’t need to use our bikes to make short journeys during the day. And that means there’s no need to lock our expensive and much-loved mounts on the mean streets of Dublin where bike thefts have reached epidemic levels.
6. It has helped make cycling cool
There’s no doubt the scheme has made cycling a viable commuter option for tens of thousands of people who without it would never have gone out and bought all of their own gear and begun commuting by bike. The success of the scheme has helped make cycling cool and makes the strongest argument yet for further investment in the project and in other badly needed cycling infrastructure.
7. Driver behaviour seems to have improved
With so many more bikes on the streets of Dublin, drivers have become more accustomed to meeting cyclists on the road. They seem to refrain from treating us as an annoyance, certainly to the extent they did before. Not everyone will agree with this point. But (with plenty of exceptions and still much room for improvement) motorists in Dublin are generally better disposed towards cyclists now. And the scheme has likely given many motorists their first taste of cycling around Dublin; an invaluable development for all road users.
8. They didn’t all get robbed or end up in the Liffey
For us Dubliners of a certain vintage, two of the abiding memories of our childhoods – especially in neighbourhoods with the meanest streets – are the plastic bags that littered the environment and vandalised and abandoned shopping trolleys as a near permanent presence. Many feared when the bikes were introduced they would be nicked, vandalised and that many would end up in the Liffey. But none of these scenarios has come to pass. The bikes are well maintained and respected by those who use them.
9. Dublin's success has trickled down elsewhere
In the space of two months late last year, schemes mirroring the Dublin experienced were launched in Limerick, Galway (above) and Cork. Combined there will be 740 bikes in the first phase of those schemes, with an estimated 750,000 trips annually. That’s an average of between two and three trips per day on every bike in the three spin off schemes.
10. It’s still very cheap
An annual subscription to the scheme is just €20, though a €150 deposit is required. All journeys up to 30 minutes are free. And after that, an hour is just 50 cent and up to two hours is €1.50. The fees rise to €6.50 for four hours and every extra ½ hour after that is €2. So as long as you make journeys of less than 30 minutes; €20 per year covers you. That’s unbeatable.
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