Dublin Bikes Scheme Is Set To Be Spread Further Afield

Plans for a total redesign and expansion of the Dublin Bikes cycling scheme are set to be drawn up by Dublin City Council, after the council proposed a 14-stage expansion plan over the five years between 2011 and 2016.

This new plan sees new bike stations being located outside of the city's centre, where the scheme began back in 2009.

The growing demand for the service has placed an overwhelming sense of pressure onto the expansion, which has yet to expand beyond phase two, bringing bikes to the docklands and to Heuston Station.

The reason for this lack of expansion is, naturally enough, due to lack of funding, and also lack of suitable advertising sites to fund the overall costs.

Fianna Fáil councillor and corporate policy group member Paul McAuliffe had this to say on the matter:

Extending the service to anywhere outside of the city centre would wholly depend on that area accepting the advertising units.

The “huge appetite” of suburban dwellers for the scheme has been recognised by McAuliffe, parricularly in areas where there are no active bus services between neighbouring villages.

The system could be used to link urban villages and visitor attractions. For example, a natural route from the current Mater hospital station would be to locate stations in Phibsborough village, then Hart’s Corner, then the Botanic Gardens, and so on out to DCU and Ballymun.”

The advertising strategy and the tenders for the new sites could be prepared as efficiently as next year, with the suburban bike stations in place from 2018.

Here's hoping...