Dublinbikes.ie - anyone signed up?

paddy2k

catkingcole wrote: »

trying to figure out if i have this right from trying to navigate the site -
you pay a 10 euro subscription for long term use - and this is debited from your cc every month that you use the service? eg. €120?
or that every month you use it a bit more of the €10 euro subscription fee is debited?

seems really unclear.

It's €10 for the annual pass, I'd say mainly to cover the cost of the smart card (Luas users might know that the Luas smart card costs €10 also, €7 for the card plus €3 fare).

Once you have your Annual Pass it costs nothing more for the rest of the year unless you use it for more than 30 mins at a time, then the pricing on the site applies. Monthly you have to pay for any time over 30mins in a single session, but thats only if you use it for 31+mins at one time.

Hence as long as each time you use a bike it's for less than 30mins, it will only cost €10 a year.

paddy2k

fusio have had to pull the dublin bikes iphone app from the itunes appstore because of legal threaths from jcdecaux. i hope they get things sorted and get it back in the appstore. in the meantime http://dublinbikes2go.com still works and gps works on iphone and android

lostexpectation

paddy2k wrote: »

fusio have had to pull the dublin bikes iphone app from the itunes appstore because of legal threaths from jcdecaux. i hope they get things sorted and get it back in the appstore. in the meantime http://dublinbikes2go.com still works and gps works on iphone and android

5 minutes after the site went live somebody spotted the xml was available and went off to make an app... now they tell people to stop?

is there no official dublinbikes app?? you'd think there would be, its so obvious.
i thought fusio's was the official one, as it the does a lot of government work...


its like yerman web2sms app for o2, they sent him a legal threat, then he simply removed the blue gradient background to make it clear it wasn't official app and it was back up.


came across recently that had used dublin council xml data to have mobile live traffic conditions app,circa 2007, for some ungodly reason dublin council turned the info streams off. bastards http://tjamm.mobi/

free the xml

BrianD

Are you Fusio selling the app or is a free app?

If they are selling the app then it was perhaps a little underhand. Having said that, surely JCD and Fusio could come to an arrangement that would benefit both parties.

paddy2k

BrianD wrote: »

Are you Fusio selling the app or is a free app?

If they are selling the app then it was perhaps a little underhand. Having said that, surely JCD and Fusio could come to an arrangement that would benefit both parties.

It was free, Fusio said they approached JCDecaux about making it the official app but they turned them down

bk

paddy2k wrote: »

It was free, Fusio said they approached JCDecaux about making it the official app but they turned them down

This sort of carry on really pisses me off. Developer goes and puts time and effort creating an app for free * that the JCD should have done themselves from day one and then JCD go and get their nickers in a twist. Despicable.

Seriously how does JCD benefit from getting this pulled. They did the right thing in the first place in offering an API interface so that a lot of interesting apps could be built off it. Will JCD now go and build an iPhone app? What aout a Palm Pre Web OS, Android, WinMo, Nokia app?

* Frankly I wouldn't even mind if they had been charging a little for it.

paddy2k

bk wrote: »

This sort of carry on really pisses me off. Developer goes and puts time and effort creating an app for free * that the JCD should have done themselves from day one and then JCD go and get their nickers in a twist. Despicable.

Seriously how does JCD benefit from getting this pulled. They did the right thing in the first place in offering an API interface so that a lot of interesting apps could be built off it. Will JCD now go and build an iPhone app? What aout a Palm Pre Web OS, Android, WinMo, Nokia app?

* Frankly I wouldn't even mind if they had been charging a little for it.

I know, that's the question that was on my mind when i wrote the webapp

Metrobest

paddy2k wrote: »

I know, that's the question that was on my mind when i wrote the webapp

Intellectual property rights issue.

JC have to protect their commercial interests.

Just count yourself lucky you weren't sued!!

paulm17781

I figure it's because if people all looking at their iPhones, they're not walking around the city looking at JCD's horrendous advertising billboards - some nonsense like that anyway.

shaneosullivan

I don't see what the issue is with the intellecutal property claim - dublinbikes is run in partnership with Dublin City Council, so that data belongs to all of us, or should at least.

People can give http://dublinbiker.com a go too, it finds the closest station to you (if your phone's browser supports geolocation), and lists how many bikes are available at each station.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Stark

Well it's doubtful that the benefits to a minority of people will outweigh the downside of having scores of pissheads riding around on the things in the early hours of the morning.

Aard

Does DB collect data on people's movements? It could be of benefit when trying to decide where to put other public transport infrastructure (busses, mainly), and where might benefit from land-rezoning.

paddy2k

Aard wrote: »

Does DB collect data on people's movements? It could be of benefit when trying to decide where to put other public transport infrastructure (busses, mainly), and where might benefit from land-rezoning.

I've started to collect useage stats for the bike and it is quite interesting to see the trends over the days.
http://dublinbikes2go.com/stats2.php
(sorry there's a bug in the page so it doesn't work for the first 15mins of every hour, i'll fix it soon)

bk

paddy2k wrote: »

It's €10 for the annual pass, I'd say mainly to cover the cost of the smart card (Luas users might know that the Luas smart card costs €10 also, €7 for the card plus €3 fare).

Then really they should both be one card and also shared with the Dublin Bus cards.

Aard

That's really interesting paddy2k - good job!

shaneosullivan

paddy2k wrote: »

I've started to collect useage stats for the bike and it is quite interesting to see the trends over the days.
http://dublinbikes2go.com/stats2.php
(sorry there's a bug in the page so it doesn't work for the first 15mins of every hour, i'll fix it soon)

That's a cool idea, I was thinking of doing something similar. Could you maybe change the colours on the page though, it's very hard to read. Also, numbers on the Y axis would be useful.

BendiBus

How are people finding availability of bikes? I had great difficulty today

Went to Christ Church this morning - none left. Walked instead.

Later in the day tried to pick one up at Herbert Place - someone got the last one just ahead of me. Got the 2nd last one at Wilton Terrace instead.

Then this evening I dropped one off at Exchequer St and when I arrived there wasn't another bike there. When I came out of Dunnes 5 minutes later, the bike I'd lust left was gone and once again the Exchequer St stand was empty.

Obviously this is a sign of the huge success of the scheme, and I'm sure as patterns emerge, the repositioning of bikes will improve.

Overall I think the scheme is fantastic and it's great to see so many (and such a variety of people) using the bikes.

Maldini2706

Surely if it's such a success they'll put more stations around the city? Extending it up towards Rathmines, Ranelagh and Harolds Cross would make sense given the demographic that lives in those areas.

ArmaniJeanss

Maldini2706 wrote: »

Surely if it's such a success they'll put more stations around the city? Extending it up towards Rathmines, Ranelagh and Harolds Cross would make sense given the demographic that lives in those areas.

And for similar reasons on the Northside it would also make sense to roll it onwards from where it currently ends (the Mater hospital) into Phibsboro, Cabra, Manor Street. And there are probably areas along the west and east sides of the scheme that it could reasonably be rolled into as well.

I don't how feasible it is though - If you add say an extra 2km onto roughly 8 points of the compass how many more stations and bikes do you need to not dilute the system/chances of getting a bike and/or parking spot.

And who would pay for this expansion, is there anything in the contract between JCDecaux and DublinCountyCouncil covering the terms of any expansion.

Might be good if a mod could get Councillor Montague to do a Q&A thread where we throw these questions at him.

Metrobest

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

And for similar reasons on the Northside it would also make sense to roll it onwards from where it currently ends (the Mater hospital) into Phibsboro, Cabra, Manor Street. And there are probably areas along the west and east sides of the scheme that it could reasonably be rolled into as well.

I don't how feasible it is though - If you add say an extra 2km onto roughly 8 points of the compass how many more stations and bikes do you need to not dilute the system/chances of getting a bike and/or parking spot.

And who would pay for this expansion, is there anything in the contract between JCDecaux and DublinCountyCouncil covering the terms of any expansion.

Might be good if a mod could get Councillor Montague to do a Q&A thread where we throw these questions at him.

Basically, there are 2 options for extending the scheme.

Dublin City Council funds it direcly, or it's funded by allowing JC Decaux throw up some more advertisements.

Due to the economic situation it seems the latter option is more feasible.

In that case I recommend a special 'mega panel' zone be erected along the M50 towards the airport. The revenue these posters generate would pay for thousands more bikes and hundreds more stands. They also have the advantage of not worrying the safety lobby.

These types of ads are common on many urban motorways, especially near airports. Dublin could and should have them, to pay for more bikes...

ArmaniJeanss

Metrobest wrote: »

In that case I recommend a special 'mega panel' zone be erected along the M50 towards the airport. The revenue these posters generate would pay for thousands more bikes and hundreds more stands. They also have the advantage of not worrying the safety lobby.

These types of ads are common on many urban motorways, especially near airports. Dublin could and should have them, to pay for more bikes...

I don't think this is politically feasible? The M50 at the airport is Fingal County Council so they would get the money from any new advertising posters, whereas the current bike scheme is in the Dublin City Council area.

Stark

d

Metrobest wrote: »

Basically, there are 2 options for extending the scheme.

Dublin City Council funds it direcly, or it's funded by allowing JC Decaux throw up some more advertisements.

Due to the economic situation it seems the latter option is more feasible.

Advertising revenue has also dropped massively during the recession. JC Decaux may not consider it worth their while putting up more advertisements.

Metrobest wrote:

In that case I recommend a special 'mega panel' zone be erected along the M50 towards the airport. The revenue these posters generate would pay for thousands more bikes and hundreds more stands. They also have the advantage of not worrying the safety lobby.

These types of ads are common on many urban motorways, especially near airports. Dublin could and should have them, to pay for more bikes...

The M50 is county councils territory. DCC has no authority to place advertisements in these areas.

Metrobest

All the reason why Dublin needs a directly-elected mayor! Too many fiefdoms looking after their own patch and not thinking of the overall interests of the city as a whole.

That said, Fingal are one of the better councils in Ireland with a general interest in promoting sustainable transport (eg. metro north). Maybe they would cave in to pressure from a green?

BrianD

Metrobest wrote: »

All the reason why Dublin needs a directly-elected mayor! Too many fiefdoms looking after their own patch and not thinking of the overall interests of the city as a whole.

That said, Fingal are one of the better councils in Ireland with a general interest in promoting sustainable transport (eg. metro north). Maybe they would cave in to pressure from a green?

Fingal have no interest in promoting anything sustainable other than themselves. They are not a progressive council. We could do without three councils in Dublin but I don't think that a directly elected mayor would help Dublin.

As far as I recall, DLR were advanced in getting a similar bike scheme but it collapsed but I think a different outdoor advertising firm was the likely candidate. No doubt they would use a different system and there would be some integration problems.

dereko1969

BendiBus wrote: »

How are people finding availability of bikes? I had great difficulty today

Went to Christ Church this morning - none left. Walked instead.

Later in the day tried to pick one up at Herbert Place - someone got the last one just ahead of me. Got the 2nd last one at Wilton Terrace instead.

Then this evening I dropped one off at Exchequer St and when I arrived there wasn't another bike there. When I came out of Dunnes 5 minutes later, the bike I'd lust left was gone and once again the Exchequer St stand was empty.

Obviously this is a sign of the huge success of the scheme, and I'm sure as patterns emerge, the repositioning of bikes will improve.

Overall I think the scheme is fantastic and it's great to see so many (and such a variety of people) using the bikes.

last wednesday, my first time using the bikes i tried to get a bike on nassau street at 630pm none available so walked to pearse street and managed to get 1 of the 3 available, cycled to talbot street but not a space to be found, thankfully a passerby showed me on his iphone app that there were 3 spaces at custom house quay so went there. thought the bike was great very comfortable.

lucernarian

They could also start with installing the mythical bike stand that is, according to their press release, on Grand Canal St.

AMontague

The Council is definitely interested in expanding the scheme - although I think we need to monitor how things go for a couple of months before making any decisions. In the first two weeks 11,000 people have signed up. AFAIK the target was 5,000 people in 2 years! So it's obviously proving very popular.

The stations need to be about 300m apart. If they are further apart, we run into problems when people arrive back at a full station - there needs to be other stations close by to allow them park the bike. Heuston Station is an obvious target - but it will need large numbers of bikes for it to be viable.

Funding will also be an issue - although I think it will be easier to look for funding now that the scheme seems to be going so well. Although as someone else said on this thread - we would probably need to wait a few more months before passing judgement on the scheme.

Regarding the hours of the scheme - I thought it would be best to close it at 12.30 in order to reduce vandalism. However, we can look at expanding the hours if the vandalism levels stay low.

Andrew Montague

markpb

AMontague wrote: »

Heuston Station is an obvious target - but it will need large numbers of bikes for it to be viable.

I understand the problem serving suburban and intercity train stations but I wish the Luas stops had been more directly served.

I also hope the council will see the added cyclists as a reason to put more cycle friendly facilities in place around the city centre (a contra-flow lane up Parnell Sq East, a right turn from Kildare St onto St. Stephens Green North, segregated cycle lanes on the centre of O'Connell St and properly segregate the contra-flow on St. Andrew St so people can't park on it).

AMontague

Hi Mark,

Part of my thinking in backing DublinBikes was to get a whole new cohort of cyclists, who will hopefully push for better cycling facilities in the city. Although there has been improvements in recent years, we've quite a ways to go. We have to plan the city with a whole new mindset and we need the public behind that as well as the traffic engineers.

We are planning a few new initiatives in the city such as the reduced speed limit in the city centre to 30 kph. The Transport Committee approved this last week and it will be on the agenda for the next City Council meeting on 5th October.

We are also introducing new parking facilities for cyclists. Drury Street car park belongs to the City Council. We have taken over the bottom floor and turned it into a bike park. There is space for 200 bikes. The facilitywill be protected by CCTV and a security guard. Parking is free for cyclists and is open today!

We started planning the segregated bike lane for Parnell Square East - but were told to stop because of the Metro North Plans (Let's hope Metro North goes ahead).

It's handy enough for bikes to turn right at the top of Kildare Street on to St. Stephen Green - there's nothing stopping bikes - only cars.

We did have a segregated cycle lane in the middle of O'Connell Street but it didn't work out too well as cyclists had to switch from the left side of the road to the right side of the road and back again to the left side of the road. We changed the layout to have a 4.5m bike/bus lane on the left. I know it's not ideal, but there is plenty of room for a cyclist to pass a parked bus - and stay within the bus/bike lane. We also narrowed the car lane to 3m. A narrower lane tends to encourage drivers to drive more slowly.

That's a good ide about the contra-flow lane on Andrew's Street. It's next to useless at the moment with all the cars/vans parked in it.