Dublin Bikes

The Dublin Bikes rental scheme is reportedly one of the most successful in the world.  Although limited to the city centre, it has ended up being incredibly popular with locals and visitors alike.

The scheme has 40 bike stations, hosting 450 bikes, which can be rented for short periods of time.  Users either subscriber to an annual card that costs €10 a year, or a 3-day ticket for just €2, and then each usage of a bike is charge based on the time you have it.  The first half an hour is free, and then you’re charged 50 cents per half-hour block for the next 90 minutes, and from then onwards the costs rise.  Obviously it’s priced to encourage short trips, and indeed around 96% of all hires are free, with an average rental time of 16 minute per journey.  To sign up you need a credit card (or direct debit details for the annual card), as you will be charged €150 if you fail to return the bike.

In the first 8 months since launch in September 2009, over 21,000 long term members have signed up, and over 10,000 people have used 3-day tickets.  The bikes have been rented over 550,000 times, which averages out to about 10 journeys per day per bike.

In fact it’s been so successful, that it was announced in April that the scheme is due to expand.  100 extra bikes are being provided, 4 new bike stations are being built, and some existing stations are increasing their parking capacity by adding more stands.

And certainly when you’re in the city centre, you see a lot of the distinctive Dublin Bikes weaving their way through traffic.  Tourists use them to navigate between attractions, and locals use them extensively for commuting from the inner suburbs to the city centre and home.  Indeed at the bike stations at the edges of the area it can be tricky to find a bike on a morning, as they’ve all been ridden into the city centre during the rush hour.  However, the Dublin Bikes people do have vans which they use to re-distribute bikes around the city.

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