Dublin Bikes and lack of bikes at a station

Trampas

Does anyone know what time the people who run DB get going at the morning?

Sometimes in the morning around 7.30 you can struggle to find a bike on stations around nassau street and st stephens green.

I would check on the site around 7am and it would be the same situation half an hour later so it wouldn't be a case of having 20 bikes at a station and then all gone just never been there.

Like they don't restock stations early morning after the night before

loyatemu

don't know how many trucks they have for redistributing the bikes, but I've seen them doing it and its a slow process - restocking all the busy stations during rush hour would require a lot of trucks...

grizzly

I'd say this situation won't improve until more stations are built further in towards the suburbs.

seamus

Nassau St and St. Stephen's Green would be "inner" stations. In the evening the bikes would be taken from these stations and moved to "Outer" stations like Ranelagh and Portobello because they are the busiest. I imagine there are probably only a handful of bikes left at Nassau St in the evening, which end up being hired out and moved during the evening or early in the morning.

If you check about an hour later, you'll find these stations full to capacity as they would be popular stations for people to leave the bikes at.

Cookie_Monster

The problem is its a bit of a victim of its own success, lots of people using it for short commuting routes from the outer station in and back out later. This means a lot stock moving is required.

BostonB

I kinda stopped relying on them for commuting, for this reason. No bikes where I want them, and no stands free at the destination. For off peak it much less a problem.

manwithaplan

I suppose that if bikes are moved from the centre to the edge in the evening, the tendency might be to leave them there for the next morning when they will be required and to leave stands free in the city centre. The alternative is to redistribute them but they may not feel it's worth it for the intervening hours.

There must be a system of some sort based on the real time data that's available, general usage patterns and the time of day - I am sad enough to wonder what it is.

Kooli

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

The problem is its a bit of a victim of its own success, lots of people using it for short commuting routes from the outer station in and back out later. This means a lot stock moving is required.

Yeah I tried to use one yesterday morning to go to work and I had to go to 6 stations to find a bike (the 6th one being Fitzwilliam Square so I was practically in town already).

RainyDay

manwithaplan wrote: »

I suppose that if bikes are moved from the centre to the edge in the evening, the tendency might be to leave them there for the next morning when they will be required and to leave stands free in the city centre. The alternative is to redistribute them but they may not feel it's worth it for the intervening hours.

Bumping to ask for an update on the current situation. I'll be looking for a bike around St Stephen's Green around 8am to head out to Thomas St. From reading this old thread, it looks like I'll be going against the tide, with most users coming the opposite direction. So hopefully, I'll be OK in terms of getting a bike and finding a free stand at the destination.

Can anyone give me a better idea of current usage patterns around that time of day on a weekday?

Doctor Bob

8am is before the real morning peak. I'd say if you head for the station at the south-west corner of SSG (Harcourt Street junction) you should be ok, as the Clonmel Street station (back entrance to Iveagh Gardens) is just around the corner as a back-up.

Can't comment on the likelihood of parking at Thomas Street, though- probably ok, as I'd suspect it's a morning *origin* station rather than a destination one.

Decaux's own app, AllBikesNow, is apparently quite good. (I've never used it, nor for that matter have I ever used a Dublin Bike.)

Pinch Flat

Doctor Bob wrote: »

8am is before the real morning peak. I'd say if you head for the station at the south-west corner of SSG (Harcourt Street junction) you should be ok, as the Clonmel Street station (back entrance to Iveagh Gardens) is just around the corner as a back-up.

Can't comment on the likelihood of parking at Thomas Street, though- probably ok, as I'd suspect it's a morning *origin* station rather than a destination one.

Decaux's own app, AllBikesNow, is apparently quite good. (I've never used it, nor for that matter have I ever used a Dublin Bike.)

I'd say use the app - it up dates in near realtime. So if you're walkimh to a station it'll show you the bikes available at that and the next nearest one