DublinBikes

Greenmachine · 24-04-2015 9:43am #1

I have friend who would love to use the service but feel that there is a different level of depots in the north city vs the south city. On the south Grand Canal dock and ringsend are serviced. Do people think there would be enough demand for the service any time soon around ballybough, eastwall and the north strand in the north of the city.

Carawaystick · 24-04-2015 11:32am

The Dublin bikes scheme is heavily weighted against working class areas. As you pointed out North Wall/Ballybough have no stations, but neither does the Liberties, or Stoneybatter.

jpm4 · 24-04-2015 11:41am

Carawaystick wrote: »

The Dublin bikes scheme is heavily weighted against working class areas. As you pointed out North Wall/Ballybough have no stations, but neither does the Liberties, or Stoneybatter.

But it is in Phibsborough is that not working class?

Carawaystick · 24-04-2015 11:45am

At the Mater only. None near Dalymount, Cross Gunns Bridge, or Cabra rd.

noelfirl · 24-04-2015 12:06pm

It's a few years old now so may have changed somewhat. The next targeted zone for expansion is the Liberties and Dolphin's barn, then to be followed by Ballybough and Cabra.

Obviously that is entirely dependent on getting funding.

Aard · 24-04-2015 12:53pm

The scheme is centred around Dublin's central business district. This extends into Dublin 4. The CBD does not go much further than a block or two into the northside. That's why there's more bike stations southside.

Greenmachine · 24-04-2015 2:18pm

noelfirl wrote: »

It's a few years old now so may have changed somewhat. The next targeted zone for expansion is the Liberties and Dolphin's barn, then to be followed by Ballybough and Cabra.

Obviously that is entirely dependent on getting funding.

Thanks for the image. I heard alright, there were plan to eventually put a station near DCU. Do the red dot represent where the proposed stations would go?

Andru93 · 24-04-2015 2:28pm

Greenmachine wrote: »

Thanks for the image. I heard alright, there were plan to eventually put a station near DCU. Do the red dot represent where the proposed stations would go?

From what I can tell red dots only represent area names. Stations as far as I remember would be spread out evenly with up to 400m between then.

Greenmachine · 24-04-2015 2:57pm

noelfirl wrote: »

It's a few years old now so may have changed somewhat. The next targeted zone for expansion is the Liberties and Dolphin's barn, then to be followed by Ballybough and Cabra.

Obviously that is entirely dependent on getting funding.

Thanks for the image. I heard alright, there were plan to eventually put a station near DCU. Do the red dot represent where the proposed stations would go?

markpb · 24-04-2015 4:16pm

Greenmachine wrote: »

Thanks for the image. I heard alright, there were plan to eventually put a station near DCU. Do the red dot represent where the proposed stations would go?

The map itself explains what the dots mean. Look at the bottom right corner.

tampopo · 25-04-2015 11:51am

Carawaystick wrote: »

The Dublin bikes scheme is heavily weighted against working class areas. As you pointed out North Wall/Ballybough have no stations, but neither does the Liberties, or Stoneybatter.

There's a bike station on Oliver Bond St. and at Guinness. They're both in the Liberties.
Houston station has two.

Emme · 27-04-2015 12:12pm

I work in the Rialto area and it's almost impossible to get a bike at any station most of the time. Then you go into town and people are going around looking for parking spots because all the bike stations are full! I would not recommend Dublinbikes to anyone who is depending on them to get them from A to B in a specific timeframe.

RainyDay · 28-04-2015 2:37pm

Emme wrote: »

I work in the Rialto area and it's almost impossible to get a bike at any station most of the time. Then you go into town and people are going around looking for parking spots because all the bike stations are full! I would not recommend Dublinbikes to anyone who is depending on them to get them from A to B in a specific timeframe.

I want to pick up a bike from Stephens Green around 8am to get to Thomas St for 8.15 am. What are my chances of getting a bike easily and having space to drop the bike easily?

Iwannahurl · 28-04-2015 8:56pm

Dublin Bikes celebrated 10 million journeys recently.

An impressive achievement, I reckon.

Velib' in Paris has reached the 200 million journey mark, I believe, with 18000 bikes and over 1200 stations.

No sure how many bikes or stations in Dublin.

Contrast Dublin and Paris with the execrable Australian experience. Melbourne has a population of 4 million and no more than 600 bikes, afaik. Most of the stations are concentrated in the CBD.

Mandatory helmet laws are a factor in Oz, of course, but to have a real impact bike share schemes need to have enough bikes and enough stations where they matter.

Chris_5339762 · 28-04-2015 10:09pm

I definitely think expansions will get funded... the scheme is a phenomenal success. Sadly, cycling infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired.

07-05-2015 10:39am

Emme wrote: »

...you go into town and people are going around looking for parking spots because all the bike stations are full! I would not recommend Dublinbikes to anyone who is depending on them to get them from A to B in a specific timeframe.

I'd have to echo that. I've been using it 18 months now, mostly in the summer months. Great service but not without issues:

- many areas at peak times are full of bikes or have none.
- a lot of the bikes are in a bad way, the gears change on their own mid cycle and I've had one or two with very dodgy brakes.
- they recently took money for annual renewal but my card expired. The machine said nothing just reset every time I scanned. Called support and they said that happens and to login and add my card details again. TF?

Great service overall, but don't hang your hat on it.

RainyDay · 07-05-2015 11:37am

G wrote: »

- a lot of the bikes are in a bad way, the gears change on their own mid cycle and I've had one or two with very dodgy brakes.

Did you contact them to report the problems? I had a bike with dodgy gears recently. I logged a query on their website later that day, and they told me that they would lock the bike at it's current station so that nobody else could get it, and then it would be flagged for a maintenance check.

bigar · 10-05-2015 1:20pm

G wrote: »

I'd have to echo that. I've been using it 18 months now, mostly in the summer months. Great service but not without issues:

- many areas at peak times are full of bikes or have none.
- a lot of the bikes are in a bad way, the gears change on their own mid cycle and I've had one or two with very dodgy brakes.
(Snip)

Great service overall, but don't hang your hat on it.

To balance this comment: I have been using them to get to and back from work each day for 5 years and rarely have no bicycle or a space to leave it. I travel fom Smithfield and back during normal working hours. Friends who use them daily across the city say the same. So for us they work very well.

Sometimes the bicycles need some service but I never had one that was "in a bad way" so much that it was dangerous or was impossible to ride on, save a few punctures.

beauf · 10-05-2015 2:19pm

I think it depends on your route. I found them not viable for commuting due to lack of bike and stations. Recently switched office and my location has a better availability. Mainly use them at lunchtime though to get in and out of city centre.

Aard · 11-05-2015 1:16am

I would agree that bike availability is one of the weaknesses of the system. Finding "parking" in Dublin 2 in the morning can be difficult. Finding a bike in Dublin 7/8 after 09:00 can be difficult. It's good to have a Plan B for such days. A 15 minute bike ride can often turn into a 40 minute walk. If the cycle would otherwise be along a public transport line, then it's not so bad.

mugs11 · 27-05-2015 11:39pm

Going to order an annual card but just wondering how quick they are at posting it out to you? Or is there a way of using the bike in the meantime since the €20 will come out of my account straightaway?

schemingbohemia · 28-05-2015 10:42am

mugs11 wrote: »

Going to order an annual card but just wondering how quick they are at posting it out to you? Or is there a way of using the bike in the meantime since the €20 will come out of my account straightaway?

You can't use the system without a card. I signed up at the start but the card came pretty quickly, not sure what the story is now though.

elric · 28-05-2015 12:45pm

Apparently, new annual subscribers are now issued a temporary ticket number and PIN by email. So you should be able to use a bike while waiting for your card. That's according to the May 2015 update on the dublinbikes site.

schemingbohemia · 28-05-2015 1:17pm

That's me wrong then, sorry!

bk · 31-05-2015 4:11pm

I'm in Rio De Janerio at the moment and they have a very impressive city bike scheme.

It looks like it is a lot more convenient and easy to use compared to the Dublin bike scheme and I'd say much cheaper to setup each station.

The bike stations have no screens or credit card machines, instead you first register either by phone or smartphone app and then when you want to take a bike you just use the app or phone and it automatically unlocks the bike.

This is far more convenient then the Dublin system as most people always have their phone with them and no need to remember to bring yet another card and remember yet another pin!

The stands are much simpler, they seem to be simply bolted to the existing road or footpath with eight bolts. No need for the massive infrastructure work of Dublin bikes. They are powered by solar and they are controlled over the mobile phone network, so no power connection needed.

I'd say they cost about 1/10th what a Dublin Bike station does to install, yet they look like they work just as well.

I hope they at least retrofit unlocking the bike with your smartphone app to the Dublin Bikes stands. It would at least help when you forget your card and when a lot of people are queueing at the screen to Unlock a bike, much faster.

As they extended the scheme to the areas outside of the city Center, they could use the same approach as Rio and use the much simpler stands with no screens. It would allow Dublin Bikes to be rolled out much quicker and cheaply.

RainyDay · 31-05-2015 10:17pm

bk wrote: »

I'm in Rio De Janerio at the moment and they have a very impressive city bike scheme.

It looks like it is a lot more convenient and easy to use compared to the Dublin bike scheme and I'd say much cheaper to setup each station.

The bike stations have no screens or credit card machines, instead you first register either by phone or smartphone app and then when you want to take a bike you just use the app or phone and it automatically unlocks the bike.

This is far more convenient then the Dublin system as most people always have their phone with them and no need to remember to bring yet another card and remember yet another pin!

The stands are much simpler, they seem to be simply bolted to the existing road or footpath with eight bolts. No need for the massive infrastructure work of Dublin bikes. They are powered by solar and they are controlled over the mobile phone network, so no power connection needed.

I'd say they cost about 1/10th what a Dublin Bike station does to install, yet they look like they work just as well.

I hope they at least retrofit unlocking the bike with your smartphone app to the Dublin Bikes stands. It would at least help when you forget your card and when a lot of people are queueing at the screen to Unlock a bike, much faster.

As they extended the scheme to the areas outside of the city Center, they could use the same approach as Rio and use the much simpler stands with no screens. It would allow Dublin Bikes to be rolled out much quicker and cheaply.

In fairness to the Dub folks, those smartphone options wouldn't have been widely available when the Dublin Bikes started, hence the use of previous generation technology. I heard some talk of moving to the new generation for the further rollout, where there are no terminals, and in fact, no stations!

You just lock your bike on the street when you finish with it, and the smartphone app directs the next user to find it.

Aard · 31-05-2015 10:51pm

That's not the direction that so-called 4th generation bike share is going.

4-gen is all about security and better real time data gathering/analysis. Docking stations are here to stay too.

Read Susan Shaheen if you're interested.

RainyDay · 01-06-2015 9:48am

Aard wrote: »

That's not the direction that so-called 4th generation bike share is going.

4-gen is all about security and better real time data gathering/analysis. Docking stations are here to stay too.

Read Susan Shaheen if you're interested.

From http://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/progcity/tag/4th-generation-bikeshare/

Fourth generation bikesharing might also consider omitting docking stations altogether which would allow users employ mobile phone technology and street furniture for bicycle pickup and drop-off. These stationless designs are both cheaper and less impactful on the environment while also offering riders higher levels of flexibility and trip customization.

beauf · 01-06-2015 10:14am

RainyDay wrote: »

In fairness to the Dub folks, those smartphone options wouldn't have been widely available when the Dublin Bikes started....

In my office I'd say about half of the regular uses of Dublin Bikes don't have smart phones. Some might have smartphone and no data plan. You might have a windows phone, which would be likely to get an app, or a decent browser.

Subpopulus · 01-06-2015 11:42am

bk wrote: »

The stands are much simpler, they seem to be simply bolted to the existing road or footpath with eight bolts. No need for the massive infrastructure work of Dublin bikes. They are powered by solar and they are controlled over the mobile phone network, so no power connection needed.

The Belfast bikes have the same 'tray bolted to the ground' design. They look a bit cheap and temporary. They also work using solar and mobile phone signals, as do the Cork, Galway and Limerick bikeshare systems.

Subpopulus · 01-06-2015 11:47am

RainyDay wrote: »

Fourth generation bikesharing might also consider omitting docking stations altogether which would allow users employ mobile phone technology and street furniture for bicycle pickup and drop-off. These stationless designs are both cheaper and less impactful on the environment while also offering riders higher levels of flexibility and trip customisation

That sounds like a mess to be honest. It would be like going on an easter hunt around a city, smartphone outstretched, looking for hire bike chained to a lamppost or a railing somewhere. Can you imagine 150 bikes locked to street furniture and random bike stands around Heuston Station? Having stations gives consistency as to where bikes can be found and returned.

DublinBikes

Comments