Video: Blazing saddles... bike scheme gets off to flying start under blue skies
Dubliners saddled up yesterday at the launch of the new 'dublinbikes' scheme which provides 450 bikes for use around the capital
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AND they're off. Over 1,000 cyclists took to the streets of the capital for the first day of the long-awaited 'dublinbikes' scheme.
Dubliners and tourists got to grips with two wheels yesterday as the city's first public-hire bike initiative was launched yesterday under a blue sky.
By 6pm, more than 1,000 people had hired bikes with no reports of any being vandalised.
Dublin City Council received the bicycles free of charge as part of a controversial 'bikes for billboards' deal with outdoor advertising giant JC Decaux. While the billboards have been in place for the past year, the bicycles only became available to the cycling public yesterday.
There are 450 bikes available for hire at 40 stations scattered across the city centre allowing people to make free short-hop trips of up to half-an-hour. The busiest stations yesterday were at St Stephen's Green, Smithfield and at Christchurch.
The council is hoping that each bicycle will be used nine times per day leading to 4,000 bike journeys.
So far, 2,000 people have subscribed to the scheme, with the council expecting this to grow to 9,000 by the end of this week.
Environment Minister John Gormley said the success of the new scheme showed that cycling was going "mainstream" and called for it to be extended beyond the city centre.
"I would like to see a considerable expansion in the 'dublinbikes' scheme from its current level of 400 cycles. It needs to be spread out further throughout the city and into its suburbs."
The Green Party leader said official traffic statistics showed cycling in Dublin has increased by more than a quarter since 2006.
"Cycling is no longer a niche interest. People realise that it is in many instances a real alternative to the car, especially in our cities."
Infrastructure
Speaking at the launch of the scheme yesterday, Dublin City Councillor Andrew Montague said it was a great addition to the city's transport infrastructure.
"The network is designed to facilitate people using the bikes for short journeys in the city centre area. This also facilitates each bike being hired several times a day.
"Trips of up to 30 minutes are free and that's how we'd encourage people to use dublinbikes," he added.
Bicycles can be hired from 5.30am to 12.30am each day and users must register for either a year-long subscription, costing €10, or a three-day card, costing €2. The first half-an- hour is free of charge while the first hour costs 50c and rises to €6.50 for four hours.
In the event a bicycle is not returned within 24 hours, the person's bank account is automatically debited by €150.
There has been much speculation as to how the robust unisex bicycles will fare in the face of vandalism and theft. Since a similar public bike hire scheme was launched in Paris in 2007, 16,000 bikes have been vandalised and 8,000 stolen.
In Dublin, the council said it had learned from the French experience and had better locking systems and more prominent stations, meaning would-be thieves can be spotted by passers-by.
Liability
Organisers advise people to wear their own helmets in the interests of safety.
The website also informs users that they are "not insured by the provider to use dublinbikes and you do so entirely at your own risk". The providers advise that cyclists take out their own public liability insurance if they don't have a policy.
There was no reports of vandalism yesterday, and Dublin City Council said that a number of its employees were travelling to various stations throughout the day to take away or add bikes depending on demand.
Also in the city, hundreds of cyclists took part in the inaugural 'Tri-A-Cycle' event organised by Cycling Ireland and the Olympic Council of Ireland.
- BREDA HEFFERNAN and BRIAN HUTTON
