Dublin Bikes oversubscribed?

JayeL

I was out of the country from mid-October to early November and in that time, I get the impression that Dublin Bikes has gone from mere success to over-subscribed, particularly on the route I take in the evening.

I usually go from Exchequer St to the Custom House. On Monday and Tuesday, Exchequer St was almost out of bikes and Custom House had one empty bay. Yesterday, Exchequer St was completely empty when I got to it (around 5.10) and across from the Olympia, I took the 2nd last bike. And Custom House was completely full!

It's great that it's working and every second cyclist is on a DB, but they should really look at bringing in whatever extra bikes/stations they've planned sooner rather than later. I know there's trucks moving around bikes to ensure sufficient supplies, but since I got home, I see certain stations always full and others always empty.

Anyone else notice a jump in Dublin Bike use?

Ste.phen

I was away for 6 weeks, was using it a lot before I went away (haven't so far since I got back), and have noticed the usage seems a lot higher. They definitely need more stations and more bikes and more people collecting them and moving them from station to station.

THey should increase the cost of the 3 day ticket, and roll out lots more capacity for next summer, the extra revenue might pay for the improvements, who knows!

Colm R

I presume the system is gathering data.

They will, over time, work out where bikes are most often picked up and returned. In fact, its interesting data I would like to see but I would imagine thats private.

But yeah, it does look like a huge success so far. Great to see it.

dereko1969

have you been checking beforehand to see availability? might be worth checking if there are other stations that habitually have spares in the morning. such as outside the bull and castle up at christchurch?

i think it's always likely that there will be some spots that will be busier and some quieter, that's why the stations are so close together to enable you to have another opportunity to return or get a bike.

markpb

JayeL wrote: »

And Custom House was completely full!

I've tried returning bikes to Custom House several times and it's almost always full. I don't think it's in a great location, it's hard to get to by bike, it could be closer to IFSC, etc.

Posher

I reckon the pressure on the Custom House bay will ease when the Northern Commuter train line is back up and running this Monday. Lots of people are getting off the buses at Connolly and using the bikes to go southside. The IFSC one is very busy too. Hard to get a bike in the morning and full most evenings by 5pm.

getmoving

The City Council have said they're looking at increasing the number of spaces at some of the stations - http://www.dublincycling.com/node/451

loyatemu

Posher wrote: »

I reckon the pressure on the Custom House bay will ease when the Northern Commuter train line is back up and running this Monday. Lots of people are getting off the buses at Connolly and using the bikes to go southside. The IFSC one is very busy too. Hard to get a bike in the morning and full most evenings by 5pm.

yeah, the CHQ one is empty most of the day (I was unable to get a bike there this lunchtime) then fills up rapidly in the evening - I saw 5 people queueing to drop bikes back there the other evening because it was full.

Aard

If/when more bike-bays are set up around the city, should they be going for a broader or a denser distribution, or indeed just add more capacity to existing ones? The system in Paris looks fairly dense, and I think that this is the best solution. It would mean that there'd be a bike-bay wherever you want to go in town, rather than having to find the nearest one to your destination.

olivernash

I have spent a little effort gathering and doing some simple analysis of the dublin bikes data. Based on the comments in this page I thought it might be interesting to provide a link to my results:
http://ocfnash.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/dublin-bikes/

You can see which stations are the busiest and which times of day are as well as a few other basic stats.

If people are interested I could certainly do more on this.

loyatemu

olivernash wrote: »

I have spent a little effort gathering and doing some simple analysis of the dublin bikes data. Based on the comments in this page I thought it might be interesting to provide a link to my results:
http://ocfnash.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/dublin-bikes/

You can see which stations are the busiest and which times of day are as well as a few other basic stats.

If people are interested I could certainly do more on this.

very interesting data - I'm not surprised that CHQ is the busiest station. Mayor Square would be a good location for an extra station in the area.