ubliners havereally taken thedublinbikesscheme to theirhearts,” says

Ciarán Fallon, Senior Executive Engineerwith the Roads & Traffic Department,Dublin City Council.

The statistics don’t lie. Since dublinbikeslaunched last September, the number whohave signed up for the service has grownfrom 2,000 to 25,000. “It’s the mostpopular public bike scheme in the world,”says Fallon. “On average, each bike isbeing used by 10 different people a day.”Our own fair city has beaten the likes ofStockholm and Amsterdam, where similarschemes operate.

The self-service scheme is incrediblyeasy to use. Across the capital there is anetwork of 40 stations. At each of thesestations a bike can be picked up andwhen you are finished using it the bikecan be returned to any station.

It’s one of the most pleasant ways oftravelling through the city – whether youare living in town, working there, or justwant to see the sights. What’s more, thefirst half-hour of use of any bike iscompletely free.

While the service is a delight fortourists, it’s mostly Dubliners themselveswho are using dublinbikes – and, those

who haven’t cycled in years arerediscovering the bug.

“We know it’s mostly native Dublinersusing the service because of the travelpatterns,” says Fallon. “Use is spikingduring the morning and evening peaksand at lunchtime, mirroring other modesof commuting. So, people are using themas part of commuting around Dublin, toand from work and college.

“The average journey time is 16 min-utes. People are using the bikes to coverjourneys where before they might havetaken a taxi or a bus, or simply walked.”

A survey of users by Dublin CityCouncil and students from DIT, foundthat 40 per cent had rarely or nevercycled before signing up for dublinbikes.

“We’re attracting lots of new people tocycling. Plus, two thirds of our membersare annual members, so they’ve signed up for the whole year.”

Dublin has a compact city centre, andit’s easy to zip from place to place on abike. In many ways it’s the ideal cycling city.

“When we asked people why they usedthe bikes, 82 per cent said convenience;the bikes are just a very handy way to get around.”

Greener LivingThe impressive level of uptake for the

scheme is part of a larger encouragingtransport trend in the capital.

The canal cordon count, an annualreview of the number of vehicles movinginto the city centre (between the Royaland Grand canals) during the morningrush, shows a 60 per cent increase in thenumber of people cycling into the city inthe last five years, with a 12 per centreduction in the number of cars since2000.

“And actually, most people arecombining the dublinbikes with a bus ora Luas or a train trip, so they’re using thedublinbikes with other forms ofsustainable transport,” says Fallon.

Following unprecedented success,where to now for dublinbikes?

Currently around 3 per cent of all workjourneys nationally are by bike. TheGovernment’s aim is to have that figureup to 10 per cent by 2020 – so localauthorities have their work cut out forthem. Dublin City Council is alreadybusy keeping up with demand for bikes,but there are plans to expand the scheme further.

It’s green, it’s healthy, it’s handy – andit’s definitely been a hit with Dubliners.

To start using dublinbikes or to findour more, simply log on towww.dublinbikes.ie

03National Bike Week

Born again bikersThanks to dublinbikes…

I’ve been usingthe dublinbikessince they wereintroduced. I usethem to get toand from theDART and to workduring the week.Before I wouldhave just walked,and missed theDART I’m able to

get now! The bike scheme has got mecycling again simply because it’shandy. I wouldn’t have cycled to workbefore the dublinbikes.

Gerry Nolan, 43

I’ve been using thebikes for abouttwo months, justfor getting from Ato B in town andavoiding the traf-fic. I never cycledbefore, so I guessthe dublinbikeskind of made me acycling convert. Sarah Leahy, 26

“D

Get back in thesaddle

Launched last September, ‘dublinbikes’ has become one of the most successful bike sharing schemes in the world,creating many new cycling converts. Ben Murnane reports