Dublin Bikes - no room at the inn

Seve OB

I'm a new and fairly infrequent user of Dublin bikes. I only signed up about 2 months ago as I work on James Street and the odd time would slip into town at lunch, so the bikes are handy and easier than driving!

Nearly every time though I find the same problem, as compounded both yesterday and today. I looked up the website yesterday before lunch and there were 40 bikes available on James Street. When I went down less than 30 mins later, there were none. Got one of the last few around at Guinness's though so not the end of the world. Then I headed for Grafton Street area, tried 4 stands and they were all full. I needed to head to Henry street, so just went over there instead. Full at GPO, got one of the last 2 spots off Liffey Street.

Roll forward to today. Exact same. I checked website and 40 bikes available on James Street and more or less empty at all stations in town. Go down and all bikes are gone again on James Street. (4 left at Guinness) Into town and all bikes stands are full, Foggy Dew, Exchequer St, Chatham.... I got a spot up on Stephens green. A pain in the arse when I wanted to go to College Green.

There were a few people waiting to drop bikes off. I did notice some bikes had been abandoned and tied to lampposts ets. ( I haven't figured out the lock on them yet). What's the story here, can you just lock them to a lamppost? how do they know you have returned the bike? How do those locks work?

It is my opinion that the van dudes appear to be picking all the bikes up which are out of town and filling the stands to capacity in the centre. How stupid is that? Why don't they leave some capacity for you to drop a bike off?

And why don't they leave a few bikes at each stand rather than take them all away, because there in no way in hell 40 people went down and took all the bikes on James Street within a space of about 30 minutes 2 days on the trot.

Rant over..... for now!

Subcomandante Marcos

I find the app helpful for keeping track of stuff in real time.

Jem72

I work on the east side of the city centre and would use the bikes in the same way. Around lunchtime there is a strong flow from areas on the edge of the city centre in towards the city centre proper so there is always a lag between the guys in the vans getting these bikes back out so empty stands are unavoidable. I never have any difficulty if I get out by 12:30 but will find it difficult to find a bike if I leave it a lot later.

I can see a stand from my office window and it will indeed empty out completely over the course of 30 minutes or so after 12:30. But I am in an area with a high density of hipsters.

In terms of parking up, the lock is dead simple - just click it into the frame where the parking bracket is. I find it handier if there are no parking spaces in town as you can get an extra 15 minutes for free at any full station and then park up right outsider wherever you are going.

schemingbohemia

Seve OB wrote: »

I'm a new and fairly infrequent user of Dublin bikes. I only signed up about 2 months ago as I work on James Street and the odd time would slip into town at lunch, so the bikes are handy and easier than driving!

Nearly every time though I find the same problem, as compounded both yesterday and today. I looked up the website yesterday before lunch and there were 40 bikes available on James Street. When I went down less than 30 mins later, there were none. Got one of the last few around at Guinness's though so not the end of the world. Then I headed for Grafton Street area, tried 4 stands and they were all full. I needed to head to Henry street, so just went over there instead. Full at GPO, got one of the last 2 spots off Liffey Street.

Roll forward to today. Exact same. I checked website and 40 bikes available on James Street and more or less empty at all stations in town. Go down and all bikes are gone again on James Street. (4 left at Guinness) Into town and all bikes stands are full, Foggy Dew, Exchequer St, Chatham.... I got a spot up on Stephens green. A pain in the arse when I wanted to go to College Green.

There were a few people waiting to drop bikes off. I did notice some bikes had been abandoned and tied to lampposts ets. ( I haven't figured out the lock on them yet). What's the story here, can you just lock them to a lamppost? how do they know you have returned the bike? How do those locks work?

It is my opinion that the van dudes appear to be picking all the bikes up which are out of town and filling the stands to capacity in the centre. How stupid is that? Why don't they leave some capacity for you to drop a bike off?

And why don't they leave a few bikes at each stand rather than take them all away, because there in no way in hell 40 people went down and took all the bikes on James Street within a space of about 30 minutes 2 days on the trot.

Rant over..... for now!

Try a little logic. How many people do you think will be doing the opposite journey to you at that high demand time? Very very few, so lots of bikes going from outskirts to inner core, the bike vans do remove bikes from the centre but not all of them as people in centre will still need to have some to use.

What solution are you proposing? Having 20 bike movers with vans for the 90 minute lunchtime period? If you waited a couple of minutes you'd be able to dump a bike if no-one else was waiting, sometimes a little patience is required.

You could just lock it as instructed and shock horror pay for the extra 30 minutes you need it for.

ArmaniJeanss

Seve OB wrote: »

because there in no way in hell 40 people went down and took all the bikes on James Street within a space of about 30 minutes 2 days on the trot.

Good chance that this is exactly what happened.

Seve OB

Subcomandante Marcos wrote: »

I find the app helpful for keeping track of stuff in real time.

Was getting same on app.

Seve OB

Where I am on James's street is not exactly high density and hopping with people, so unlike the center of town, there is no way that 40 bikes would be taken within 20-30 mins

schemingbohemia wrote: »

Try a little logic. How many people do you think will be doing the opposite journey to you at that high demand time? Very very few, so lots of bikes going from outskirts to inner core, the bike vans do remove bikes from the centre but not all of them as people in centre will still need to have some to use.

Logic? That is exactly what my post was about. Where is the logic in the van dudes filling every station in the center of town to capacity. Of course demand will be higher in the city center and it makes sense that they move the bikes there, but it makes no sense for them to completely empty ranks and fill others to the brim. There is no logic in that.

schemingbohemia wrote: »

What solution are you proposing? Having 20 bike movers with vans for the 90 minute lunchtime period? If you waited a couple of minutes you'd be able to dump a bike if no-one else was waiting, sometimes a little patience is required.

I'm not proposing any solution, just saying the van dudes could use a bit of logic
I waited 5 minutes at one stand yesterday and maybe 3 at another before I moved on

schemingbohemia wrote: »

You could just lock it as instructed and shock horror pay for the extra 30 minutes you need it for.

As I said, I'm new enough, so can you please explain what you mean here? And somebody else refered to an extra 15 minutes free?

schemingbohemia

Seve OB wrote: »

Where I am on James's street is not exactly high density and hopping with people, so unlike the center of town, there is no way that 40 bikes would be taken within 20-30 mins Why do you think you're so special and individual that you are the only person in that area that wants to use a bike at lunchtime? You're not far from James Hospital and NCAD and numerous other areas of likely users.



Logic? That is exactly what my post was about. Where is the logic in the van dudes filling every station in the center of town to capacity. Of course demand will be higher in the city center and it makes sense that they move the bikes there, but it makes no sense for them to completely empty ranks and fill others to the brim. There is no logic in that. They don't, I've never seen them totally fill a station there are always a few spaces left, they also never totally empty a station. You are incorrect here.


I'm not proposing any solution, just saying the van dudes could use a bit of logic
I waited 5 minutes at one stand yesterday and maybe 3 at another before I moved on

The van "dudes" do use logic, they don't do as you say they do. 5 minutes is a long time, I've never had to wait that long.

As I said, I'm new enough, so can you please explain what you mean here? And somebody else refered to an extra 15 minutes free?

There is a charge for using the bike from than the free initial 30 minutes hire, if you lock the bike it will be there for you when you need it again. You will have to pay the charge for additional use. The 15 minutes free is available when the chosen bike station is full, you can click on the system and get the extra time.

Seve OB

schemingbohemia wrote: »

There is a charge for using the bike from than the free initial 30 minutes hire, if you lock the bike it will be there for you when you need it again. You will have to pay the charge for additional use. The 15 minutes free is available when the chosen bike station is full, you can click on the system and get the extra time.

Thanks. So if you lock it to a lamppost or whatever you need to come back later and return it properly?

Do you just go to a machine at bike stand for the extra 15 mins?

ArmaniJeanss

Seve OB wrote: »

Thanks. So if you lock it to a lamppost or whatever you need to come back later and return it properly?

Do you just go to a machine at bike stand for the extra 15 mins?

You just log in at a machine and the system knows that a)you have a bike out and b) this is a full stand, so the first thing it will do is offer you the extra 15 minutes.

loyatemu

it's 50c for up to 1 hour and €1.50 for up to 2 hours - that's still very cheap if you're only an occasional user. Just lock the bike wherever you're going and then cycle it back to work afterwards.

Seve OB

loyatemu wrote: »

it's 50c for up to 1 hour and €1.50 for up to 2 hours - that's still very cheap if you're only an occasional user. Just lock the bike wherever you're going and then cycle it back to work afterwards.

how do the locks work? are they on a combination or something?

Tenshot

how do the locks work? are they on a combination or something?

You take the wire cord from the basket, wrap it around a convenient lamp-post (or the front wheel if there's nothing else handy) and then click it into the lock point which is at the front right of the bike, just beside the bracket that holds the bike in one of the ranks.

Once you click the lock in, it releases a key which you can then take with you. Put the key back in the keyhole and turn it to release the lock. Similar principle to lockers in gyms etc.

If you arrive at a full station, you can use your card to login to the system. It will detect you already have a bike out, offer you the extra 15 minutes, and show you the nearest stations with free spaces.

If you lock the bike nearby and walk away, you will have to return at some point to properly check it in, or you'll continue to accumulate charges once you go beyond the initial 30+15=45 minutes free use time. (Yes, this is a major pain when things are busy.)

Seve OB

Thanks tenshot, that makes some sense.

Voipjunkie

If the demand is going into the city centre at lunch time and the van driver moved bikes back out to outskirts then when the people who used the bike to get into the city wanted to return the bikes wouldn't be there and you would have another problem.

listermint

Buy an old bike and a lock?....

Peregrinus

Seve OB wrote: »

And why don't they leave a few bikes at each stand rather than take them all away, because there in no way in hell 40 people went down and took all the bikes on James Street within a space of about 30 minutes 2 days on the trot.

At lunchtime in the week before Christmas? There's every chance. You think you're the only person who wants to needs to slip into town at lunchtime?

suicide_circus

They need to up their game on the redistribution of bikes from full to empty stations. How many of those flatbed trucks are they operating?

loyatemu

suicide_circus wrote: »

They need to up their game on the redistribution of bikes from full to empty stations. How many of those flatbed trucks are they operating?

I'd imagine redistribution is tricky - there are a lot of stations and the busy periods don't last that long (2 rush hours and lunch time) - there's a limit to what they can realistically do. The service makes a loss, if they jack up the price to pay for more trucks, they'll lose a lot of users.

Thargor

It was always going to be like this, same thing happens in Paris, service is basically unusable at certain times of the day.

I have a cheap old Raleigh bike that I leave locked at various Dart stations around the place, it looks like a piece of crap but the gears and brakes are perfect. Nobody ever bothers stealing it and its twice as fast around town as a Dublin bike and I can park where I like, thats my solution anyway.

monument

Seve OB wrote: »

Where I am on James's street is not exactly high density and hopping with people, so unlike the center of town, there is no way that 40 bikes would be taken within 20-30 mins

Your view isn't abnormal but I'd still love to know: why do you think it's not exactly high density?

Excluding the hospitals and Guinness, the lowest population density I can find for a 'Small Area' around James's Street is over 8,000 people per squared km. The highest is north of 37,000 people per square km and most seem to be between 8,000 and 20,000 people per square km.

The average for urban Dublin is 3,500 people per square km, so this area is well, well above average. Only the areas of Guinness and the Royal Hospital Kilmainham grounds are below the city-wise average.

So, there's thousands of people living within just a minute or two of a walk from the DublinBikes stations around James's Street and there's thousands more working in the hospitals / HSE HQ / Guinness's, the Digital Hub, and other offices etc.

Sorry for the rant, I've become keenly interested in density and why people think Dublin is low density.