No plans to extend the bike scheme beyond city
By Maurice Garvey
THE DublinBikes scheme has proved to be extremely popular since it’s introduction in 2009, but there are no current plans to extend the scheme out to Ballyfermot and beyond.
Dublin City Council say the scheme is dependent on the identification of additional sustainable funding for capital and operational costs.
Dublin Bikes
Independent Councillor Vincent Jackson has called for the extension of the scheme towards Chapelizod, Ballyfermot and Bluebell.
“The areas are suffering with chronic levels of motor traffic and the opportunity to cycle in and out of town would be a major step forward,” he said.
The city council say the Just Eat sponsorship of DublinBikes “offsets a proportion of current annual operational costs but would not have sufficient quantum to enable a further station extension.”
The city council also cited the impact of dockless bike hire schemes on the DublinBikes business model BleeperBike, which currently has 450 permits.
“There is therefore no definite timeline in place for the delivery of station extension towards Chapelizod, Ballyfermot and Bluebell,” said the city council.
The DublinBikes scheme has 116 docking stations and approximately 1,600 bikes in operation.
According to 2019 statistics from JCDecaux, who operate the bike rental service, approximately 4,000 journeys are made between 7am and 10am.
Last year saw the introduction of pedelecs (electrically assisted pedal cycles) to the Bleeperbikes fleet, and a second operator is scheduled to commence operations in 2019 with a fleet comprised totally of pedelecs.
