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Dublin bikes demand!

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    #32
    SeeMoreBut
    Registered Users Posts: 797 ✭✭✭SeeMoreBut


    They need to expand a little more south as only goes to the canal.

    Ballsbridge to Rathmines would gain a lot I say.


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    #33
    Muahahaha
    Registered Users Posts: 19,613 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    Was reading last week that both Bleeper and new entrant Mobi are to introduce 400-500 electric bikes in early Spring and eventually total out at 1,000 in this phase. CEO of Bleeper believes there is potential for 5,000 electric bikes inside the m50 They expect people to use electric bikes for journeys of 5km-7km and it looks like the charge will be 2 euro per trip
    Up to 1,000 electric bicycles will be available for hire on Dublin streets in the coming months with two separate companies due to launch similar operations in early Spring.

    Dublin City Council has said that two Irish companies, BleeperBike and Moby, will be licensed to hire out “pedelecs” (electrically assisted pedal cycles) throughout the capital.

    The average journey length for a pedal cycle was about 3.5km, he said, but he expected electric-assisted bikes to be used for longer journeys, typically five to seven kilometres.

    The price point for e-bike rental was still being worked out, but Mr Cooney said it would be at least double the charge of a push-bike. BleeperBike currently charges a minimum of € 1 per journey on its service.

    Mr Cooney said he welcomed the fact that Moby was also entering the market. He said two operators in competition, both Irish-owned, would raise the profile of the service. He said the experiences in other cities throughout Europe showed e-bikes have had a transformative effect on urban and commuter travel.

    He pointed to countries like Germany where e-bikes now outsell traditional push cycles. “Inside the M50 there is potential for a fleet of 5,000 shared e-bikes in the long-term,” he said.
    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/up-to-1-000-electric-bikes-to-be-available-for-hire-in-dublin-1.4137549


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    #34
    Caquas
    Registered Users Posts: 1,298 ✭✭✭Caquas


    Just started with Dublinbikes. Delighted to have this option to get around the city centre but frustrated that bike racks south of Stephens Green are empty every evening by 5.30 until after 7 pm.

    Last night there wasn’t a single bike in six stations I.e. over 180 empty spaces with no bike available. The app showed a few bikes at one station but when I got there 5 minutes later, they were gone.

    Obviously the office workers are taking them at the end of their day and but why isn’t there a system to replace them quickly?


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    #35
    Utter Consternation
    Registered Users Posts: 926 ✭✭✭Utter Consternation


    Does this mean that the scheme is considered a success? :D


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    #36
    machaseh
    Registered Users Posts: 777 ✭✭✭machaseh


    This is why I have me own bike.


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    #37
    loyatemu
    Registered Users Posts: 14,758 ✭✭✭✭loyatemu


    Caquas wrote: »

    Obviously the office workers are taking them at the end of their day and but why isn’t there a system to replace them quickly?

    what system do you suggest. There is a truck that moves bikes around during the day but you'd need a huge fleet of trucks (and drivers) to cope with that sort of one-way demand.

    as others have said if you're relying on them on a daily basis for a regular journey, you might consider buying a cheap bike you can leave locked at a stand.


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    #38
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    Utter Consternation wrote: »
    Does this mean that the scheme is considered a success? :D

    It's one of the most successful in the world.

    Probably be even more successful if there wasn't so much neglect of cycling in Ireland by govt etc.


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    #39
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    Caquas wrote: »
    .. .but why isn’t there a system to replace them quickly?...

    There is a system. But it has limited resources.

    This has been discussed to death earlier. I think in this thread.


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    #40
    Stark
    Registered Users Posts: 20,895 ✭✭✭✭Stark


    p_haugh wrote: »
    They’re also handy if you commute from the greater Dublin area by bus/train and then it’s either a 10 minute cycle or a long enough walk.
    Would be difficult to bring a bike with you on the commute every day, especially on the bus as Dublin bus for eg you can’t bring on bikes.
    This is why a lot of people use the Dublin bikes when they get into the city to go the “final mile”.

    Just get your own bus, problem solved :pac:


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    #41
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    SeeMoreBut wrote: »
    They need to expand a little more south as only goes to the canal.

    Ballsbridge to Rathmines would gain a lot I say.

    They'd want to sort out the Northside first. There was uproar a few years ago when it emerged that 65% of the stations are over the southside while only 40% of the advertising hoardings, which is pretty disgraceful.

    https://www.thejournal.ie/dublin-bikes-row-2977594-Sep2016/

    Even take a look at the station map, it's criminal how little penetration there is North of the Liffey and how narrow the focus is in an East/West direction:


    503198.PNG


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    #42
    donvito99
    Registered Users Posts: 5,818 ✭✭✭donvito99


    [Deleted User] wrote: »
    They'd want to sort out the Northside first. There was uproar a few years ago when it emerged that 65% of the stations are over the southside while only 40% of the advertising hoardings, which is pretty disgraceful.

    https://www.thejournal.ie/dublin-bikes-row-2977594-Sep2016/

    Even take a look at the station map, it's criminal how little penetration there is North of the Liffey and how narrow the focus is in an East/West direction:


    503198.PNG

    Seems appropriate given the way areas of employment are concentrated.


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    #43
    machaseh
    Registered Users Posts: 777 ✭✭✭machaseh


    Deleted User wrote: »
    They'd want to sort out the Northside first. There was uproar a few years ago when it emerged that 65% of the stations are over the southside while only 40% of the advertising hoardings, which is pretty disgraceful.

    https://www.thejournal.ie/dublin-bikes-row-2977594-Sep2016/

    Even take a look at the station map, it's criminal how little penetration there is North of the Liffey and how narrow the focus is in an East/West direction:


    503198.PNG

    It should be rolled out all over dublin, in my opinion. People in the suburbs bike too, and in fact, there is often BETTER biking infrastructure in the suburbs than there is in town, as well as fewer public transportation options making the bike a more sensible alternative.

    Even so they can of course start slowly by expending south as far as Dundrum, west as far as liffey valley/phoenix park, north as far as say Artane Roundabout/Omni shopping center / Glasnevin, west as far as Ringsend and south as far as say Dundrum. That'd be a good start.


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    #44
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    donvito99 wrote: »
    Seems appropriate given the way areas of employment are concentrated.

    Why what are they advertising?


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    #45
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    machaseh wrote: »
    It should be rolled out all over dublin, in my opinion. People in the suburbs bike too, and in fact, there is often BETTER biking infrastructure in the suburbs than there is in town, as well as fewer public transportation options making the bike a more sensible alternative.

    Even so they can of course start slowly by expending south as far as Dundrum, west as far as liffey valley/phoenix park, north as far as say Artane Roundabout/Omni shopping center / Glasnevin, west as far as Ringsend and south as far as say Dundrum. That'd be a good start.

    Hasn't the expansion stalled for now though?


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    #46
    dubrov
    Registered Users Posts: 3,549 ✭✭✭dubrov


    They won't expand the scheme much more than now.
    The further out you go from the city centre, the more one-way flows will occur.
    This adds greatly to cost with the redistribution of bikes required.


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    #47
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    donvito99 wrote: »
    Seems appropriate given the way areas of employment are concentrated.

    Yeah, cos only people with jobs know how to ride a bike.


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    #48
    Thargor
    Registered Users Posts: 17,869 ✭✭✭✭Thargor


    I've had a cheap Raleigh mountain bike that I bought for 20 EUR on Adverts locked around town and in various random spots from Dublin to Bray for a few years now, I literally never bring it home, it lives in town. It regularly spends a week locked outside Heuston Station under those trees beside the LUAS stop, it's spent weekends locked outside Tara Street station aswell which I always think is going to be the end of it but I'm running for a GoBus at the time and had no choice but its always fine, the scum are only interested in what will sell.

    It's completely superior to a Dublin bike to ride, faster, lighter, lock it anywhere, bring it on a DART if you need it etc. Plus its free and has paid for itself many times over. I don't know why everyone doesn't do it, I'd go mad if I had to rely on Dublin bikes. Just put a good lock on it and find somewhere public for it and it'll be fine, nobodies interested in 20 year old Raleighs, Adverts is crammed with them


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    #49
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    €20 bike plus €40 for a good lock = 6 years worth of subscription fees for DB, when it first came out. That was under the old pricing structure...think its €25 per year now, so only 2.5 years........but still makes sense as the odds of having a bike nicked or wrecked or rusted or parts robbed in that time when you're leaving it around town on a permanent basis.

    Plus, what happens if its locked outside Heuston and you need it around Merrion Square?

    To be honest, the bikes themselves are brutal, could do with another 5 gears at least, so I know where you're coming from......but there's also an argument to be made that subscribing to and supporting the scheme lets the powers that be know there is demand for improving the infrastructure. Everyone's a winner when more people are cycling around town, especially the car drivers.


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    #50
    Muahahaha
    Registered Users Posts: 19,613 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    dubrov wrote: »
    They won't expand the scheme much more than now.
    The further out you go from the city centre, the more one-way flows will occur.
    This adds greatly to cost with the redistribution of bikes required.

    Yeah its looking like the DCC plan from here on in is to let Bleeper and Urbo take up the slack for the rest of the city.

    Also those companies are putting around 500 electric bikes on the streets sometime this Spring so that will extend things a lot. Though at 2 euro a ride it is not all that much cheaper than the bus with a leap card.


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    #51
    Caquas
    Registered Users Posts: 1,298 ✭✭✭Caquas


    beauf wrote: »
    There is a system. But it has limited resources.

    This has been discussed to death earlier. I think in this thread.

    Not on this thread and I haven't see the others.

    Resources? Just pay someone to take bikes from the full racks and ride them to the empty racks.

    I will abandon this service if I can't rely on it. I'll be sorry to add to the random bikes strewn all over Dublin.


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    #52
    dubrov
    Registered Users Posts: 3,549 ✭✭✭dubrov


    Caquas wrote: »
    Not on this thread and I haven't see the others.

    Resources? Just pay someone to take bikes from the full racks and ride them to the empty racks.

    I will abandon this service if I can't rely on it. I'll be sorry to add to the random bikes strewn all over Dublin.

    But that costs more money which would result in a rise in membership fee.

    If you are constantly finding bike racks empty before you start or full when you finish, you are exactly the sort of customer Dublin bikes would prefer to be without.


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    #53
    Alf Veedersane
    Registered Users Posts: 24,554 ✭✭✭✭Alf Veedersane


    Caquas wrote: »
    Not on this thread and I haven't see the others.

    Resources? Just pay someone to take bikes from the full racks and ride them to the empty racks.

    I will abandon this service if I can't rely on it. I'll be sorry to add to the random bikes strewn all over Dublin.

    Pay someone to ride a bike to another rack? There are already trucks that go around the city taking bikes from full stations and moving them to empty stations. At peak demand, they will never be able to ensure that all stations are neither full nor empty and someone may have to go to another station.

    There are finite resources. There is no way to ensure that you can rely on it. Certainly not the chap who would be employed to move a bike at a time. If you can't rely on it, so be it. But it was never set up for people to be reliant on. It was set up to offer an alternative.


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    #54
    cgcsb
    Registered Users Posts: 9,275 ✭✭✭cgcsb


    All over Europe there are now stationless electric scooter schemes, Ireland left behind by policy makers again.


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    #55
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    Caquas wrote: »
    Not on this thread and I haven't see the others.

    Resources? Just pay someone to take bikes from the full racks and ride them to the empty racks.

    I will abandon this service if I can't rely on it. I'll be sorry to add to the random bikes strewn all over Dublin.

    Yeah it was discussed earlier...
    punisher5112 wrote: »
    ... they have the vans and truck beds moving them around.

    A few of us have already said why we don't use them for commuting, there was a while discussion around if they were originally meant for commuters or not...
    listermint wrote: »
    ...that. It's the notion that someone is reliant on it and complains when there is little capacity because it's being overloaded with similar minded individuals.

    The scheme has finite resources.


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    #56
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    cgcsb wrote: »
    All over Europe there are now stationless electric scooter schemes, Ireland left behind by policy makers again.

    If FFG get back in which is likely they'll continue to do nothing.


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    #57
    Muahahaha
    Registered Users Posts: 19,613 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    cgcsb wrote: »
    All over Europe there are now stationless electric scooter schemes, Ireland left behind by policy makers again.

    Yeah we're never the fastest out of the traps on these things. In any case I think in this instance it might be a good thing, I was in Lisbon and Madrid last year and the footpaths everywhere were absolutely strewn with them. Many of them were just knocked over too which would invite court cases here. Lisbon was particularly bad for it, felt like every street corner you came across there was at least 5 or 6 available and some park areas had 15-20+. I think they allowed about 5 or 6 different companies compete and now the city is absolutely saturated with them with supply far outstripping demand.

    It'll come in here eventually (legality of e-scooters needs to be cleared up first) and it should work well provided DCC avoids the mistakes of other cities when it does. The scooter companies would want to think long and hard about parking and how they're going to avoid people tripping over them too, could see court cases flying in no time here.


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    #58
    PhilOssophy
    Registered Users Posts: 2,114 ✭✭✭PhilOssophy


    Thargor wrote: »
    I've had a cheap Raleigh mountain bike that I bought for 20 EUR on Adverts locked around town and in various random spots from Dublin to Bray for a few years now, I literally never bring it home, it lives in town. It regularly spends a week locked outside Heuston Station under those trees beside the LUAS stop, it's spent weekends locked outside Tara Street station aswell which I always think is going to be the end of it but I'm running for a GoBus at the time and had no choice but its always fine, the scum are only interested in what will sell.

    It's completely superior to a Dublin bike to ride, faster, lighter, lock it anywhere, bring it on a DART if you need it etc. Plus its free and has paid for itself many times over. I don't know why everyone doesn't do it, I'd go mad if I had to rely on Dublin bikes. Just put a good lock on it and find somewhere public for it and it'll be fine, nobodies interested in 20 year old Raleighs, Adverts is crammed with them

    Do something similar myself, have a crappy old bike which owes me nothing (and in fairness, I probably owe it a new chain any day). I doubt it'd retail for 50 quid if sold (the big bell might be worth a fiver!) so if somebody wants it, work away and steal it because it owes me nothing!

    I always think a truck driving around the city replacing bikes in stands is a complete contradiction in terms.

    But I think what has happened is a load of people signed up to see what it was like, thought it was a good service, and went "Hey, maybe I'll buy myself a bike to get around instead of dealing with full/empty stations".


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    #59
    Caquas
    Registered Users Posts: 1,298 ✭✭✭Caquas


    PhilOssophy wrote: »
    Do something similar myself, have a crappy old bike which owes me nothing (and in fairness, I probably owe it a new chain any day). I doubt it'd retail for 50 quid if sold (the big bell might be worth a fiver!) so if somebody wants it, work away and steal it because it owes me nothing!

    I always think a truck driving around the city replacing bikes in stands is a complete contradiction in terms.

    But I think what has happened is a load of people signed up to see what it was like, thought it was a good service, and went "Hey, maybe I'll buy myself a bike to get around instead of dealing with full/empty stations".
    The city is already littered with bikes locked to railings and poles. That's what this system is supposed to avoid but if I can't find a bike when I need one (or a space to return it), I'll probably go that route. Electric scooters would be a good alternative but they are practically outlawed!


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    #60
    loyatemu
    Registered Users Posts: 14,758 ✭✭✭✭loyatemu


    worth signing up to Bleeper if you haven't already. The bikes aren't amazing and the unlocking mechanism can be temperamental, but could get you out of a jam if you can't find a DB, and they cover a larger area too.


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    #61
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    I have bleeper and used to use it a fair bit. In the last year though I can never find a bike. I pretty much use Dublin bikes only now as result. And my own bike.

    Its probably just location specific.


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