Dublin Bikes [many] months on.

Carawaystick

noelfirl wrote: »

Where did you get that price tag from??

my bad, it's only 55 grand a bike
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=63581966&postcount=121

shotamoose

Carawaystick wrote: »

my bad, it's only 55 grand a bike
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=63581966&postcount=121

No it's not. It's £1.5m a year for the entire cost of the scheme, capital and current expenditure - so that's bikes, docking stations, maintenance, power, labour, etc. Why are you trying to make it look as bad as possible? Anyone would think you had some sort of axe to grind.

Ste.phen

Just checked the site there, I consider myself a very light user of it and yet I've taken
37 Journeys with a total of 5h 34min journey time.
Would love to dig around in that database and see what else is going in

oceanclub

Ste.phen wrote: »

Just checked the site there, I consider myself a very light user of it and yet I've taken
37 Journeys with a total of 5h 34min journey time.
Would love to dig around in that database and see what else is going in

It only shows January for me; pity, I'd like to see my entire stats since the scheme started.

P.

Ste.phen

Aye, I had to tinker with it a bit to get it to go back the full year, but it has all those stats there under the hood

bigar

I am moving into town next week and intend to sign up. A bit confused about the 150 EUR guarantee, though. Do they block that for the whole year on an annual subscription or is it just an authorisation you sign. Does anyone know?

Duckjob

bigar wrote: »

I am moving into town next week and intend to sign up. A bit confused about the 150 EUR guarantee, though. Do they block that for the whole year on an annual subscription or is it just an authorisation you sign. Does anyone know?

It's only a guarantee. Essentially, you are authorising them to charge you 150euro in the event that you take a bike and don't return it within 24 hours. It is not charged to your card unless that happens.

Wishbone Ash

seamus wrote: »

Since you can make the trip between the furthest stations in well less than 30 minutes (except in extreme circumstances), there's not really any need to be bike hopping in order to hold onto it for longer

But if you are choosing a bike at one of the outlying stations and just barely get back within 30mins, it's a bit annoying having to wait 5 mins or having to walk to the next station to kill time before hiring again. I had to go to Dublin Port this morning. I took a bike on Chatham Street and went to Custom House Quay. I had to change there as I knew I wouldn't get to the Port and back within 30 mins but I had to wait 5 minutes there and again when I returned to CHQ before continuing. Why can't we drop off one and pick up another immediately?

Apart from that I think it's fantastic - best thing to happen in Dublin for many years.

Anyone else have trouble cycling across Grattan Bridge? I've been struck by vehicular traffic on 3 occasions to date (minor) and had another near miss today!

the boss of me

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

I took a bike on Chatham Street and went to Custom House Quay. I had to change there as I knew I wouldn't get to the Port and back within 30 mins but I had to wait 5 minutes there and again when I returned to CHQ before continuing. Why can't we drop off one and pick up another immediately?

You are aware that you don't have to drop the bike back within half an hour ? You can just keep it and pay the rental charge. First hour 50c ,first two hours €1.50..

Anyone else have trouble cycling across Grattan Bridge? I've been struck by vehicular traffic on 3 occasions to date (minor) and had another near miss today!

That's very worrying..Maybe try an alternative route ?

Wishbone Ash

the boss of me wrote: »

You are aware that you don't have to drop the bike back within half an hour ? You can just keep it and pay the rental charge. First hour 50c ,first two hours €1.50.

I do realise that but I am trying to keep a clean slate!

the boss of me

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

I do realise that but I am trying to keep a cheap skate!

Fixed that for you

Carawaystick

shotamouse wrote: »

No it's not. It's £1.5m a year for the entire cost of the scheme, capital and current expenditure - so that's bikes, docking stations, maintenance, power, labour, etc. Why are you trying to make it look as bad as possible? Anyone would think you had some sort of axe to grind.

well as the cheerleader in chief pointed out in my link, it's EUR25million. There's only 450 bikes. and say 4 times that so say 1800 docking poles. how much does a docking pole cost?

Power? a flat screen is what about 25W and a few leds on the docking poles at 20 cents per kWh, there's a big bill of 44 euros a year to quickly eat into the 25 million.

dublin corpo signed a secret contract with jcdecaux for this scheme. I'd imagine they could have done better with an open tender, or at least not installed advertising that fails to meet legal standards for blind people and created traffic hazards on the cities streets.
Secret dealings by dublin local authorities have a long history of corruption. I doubt this is much different.

noelfirl

It's €1.5million p/a. There are 27 staff. 6 vans on the go. Bike repair/replacement. Back end accounting. IT management, etc. A significant cost was probably incurred during docking station installation due to the roadworks involved. Goodness knows, there's a scar right across the road on one side of Stephen's Green I pass over every day.

The Velib article on Wikipedia suggests a price for each bike anywhere from €300 to $3500. and considering Dublin is a direct clone, one would imagine it's something similar for each bike. JCDecaux would hardly only take €150 for a non-return if the bike was worth 350 times that amount.

monument

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Anyone else have trouble cycling across Grattan Bridge? I've been struck by vehicular traffic on 3 occasions to date (minor) and had another near miss today!

This should not be happening. Try adjusting the way you cycle... What are you doing when you get hit? What position on the road are you in?

If you leave room for cars to pass you where there is not really enough room to do so then you increase the chances of getting hit. The typical example is that a new / untrained cyclist will always cycle close to the kerb / edge of a lane because it makes sense and seems safer to do so. But it's often not. It is generally far safer to cycle away from kerb / edge of a lane, and cycle in the middle of a lane where there is no safe way a car/bus could pass you.

UK cycle training outlines this (see http://www.cyclecraft.co.uk/ -- it's a great book to pick up if you're not used to urban cycling!), our Department of Transport has also recently gave this advice ("Cycle WELL AWAY from the KERB and from PARKED CARS"... see here PDF), and apparently Garda bicycle training also teaches this.

Wishbone Ash

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Anyone else have trouble cycling across Grattan Bridge? I've been struck by vehicular traffic on 3 occasions to date (minor) and had another near miss today!

monument wrote: »

This should not be happening. Try adjusting the way you cycle... What are you doing when you get hit? What position on the road are you in?

But I don't have a problem anywhere else. On the three occasions it has been van side mirrors which have struck me so I think it may be a problem with their driver's visibility when entering the left lane (from the centre lane in Capel Street) to be in the correct position for going up Parliament Street.

Run_to_da_hills

It will be great to see these bikes outplacing city traffic from today on.

Pigeon Reaper

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

But I don't have a problem anywhere else. On the three occasions it has been van side mirrors which have struck me so I think it may be a problem with their driver's visibility when entering the left lane (from the centre lane in Capel Street) to be in the correct position for going up Parliament Street.

The lanes on Grattan bridge are narrower than normal. Many drivers fail to realise this and anything wider than two cars will find it difficult to drive side by side. This is a possible reason for the hits as drivers will try to overtake despite a lack of space. If you continue to have problems try moving into the centre of the lane to take control of the space.

Poster King

Just heard something on the news about "300 new Dublin Bikes Stands". Did I misshear? I'm sure they said new stands, and not just extra bikes. Can't find any confirmation on the internet. It would be great if it is true.

seamus

Poster King wrote: »

Just heard something on the news about "300 new Dublin Bikes Stands". Did I misshear? I'm sure they said new stands, and not just extra bikes. Can't find any confirmation on the internet. It would be great if it is true.

What station?

Stark

100 extra bikes (450->550) and 300 extra stands (800->1100) spead across the 40 existing stations and 4 new stations from what was said on the news.

Cookie_Monster

When, today? Or in the short / medium term

Stark

June/July I believe.

Capt'n Midnight

Stark wrote: »

100 extra bikes (450->550) and 300 extra stands (800->1100) spead across the 40 existing stations and 4 new stations from what was said on the news.

Are you sure about the extra bikes ?

Please please

monument

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Are you sure about the extra bikes ?

Please please

Yes.

It was on the news last night on RTE2, Looked it up on RTE Player just now:

• current 800 stands at 40 stations, going to 1,100 stands at 44 stations
• numbers of bikes going from 450 to 550
• More than 2,000 extra subs since Christmas [Irish Times reported "Almost 23,000" in December]
• 330,000 journeys since September

Cllr Andrew Montague said on the news that they "Hope to have that in by early Summer" and then look at expanding again.

Run_to_da_hills

The locks are a very weak point on these bikes.

The keys easily bend, it will only be a matter of time if not already that a frustrated customer will snap off a key trying to open a lock. (Constructive criticism.)

I normally ride my own bike (GSXR 750) in as far as the former Greens Bookshop and take a bike from the nearby rack. I also carry my own high security bike lock as I dont want to loose my e150 deposit.

loyatemu

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

The locks are a very weak point on these bikes.

The keys easily bend, it will only be a matter of time if not already that a frustrated customer will snap off a key trying to open a lock. (Constructive criticism.)

I normally ride my own bike (GSXR 750) in as far as the former Greens Bookshop and take a bike from the nearby rack. I also carry my own high security bike lock as I dont want to loose my e150 deposit.

If you lock the bike, and it gets nicked - they're not going to take 150 off you - after all you secured the bike with the lock they provided (assuming you report it to the Gardai etc).

Duckjob

Just noticed when taking out a bike yesterday, that on the terms & conditions screen before you get to pick the bike, it has a notice to the effect of "don't leave the bike unattended, even if you've locked it". Does that not defeat the point of having a lock???

Run_to_da_hills

Duckjob wrote: »

Just noticed when taking out a bike yesterday, that on the terms & conditions screen before you get to pick the bike, it has a notice to the effect of "don't leave the bike unattended, even if you've locked it". Does that not defeat the point of having a lock???

Those locks would be more of a deterrent, and only really meant for locking it for a couple of minutes while buying a newspaper, sandwich etc. I wouldn't depend on them at all.

Capt'n Midnight

ALDI do bolt cutters for less than a tenner , the Dublin bikes lock won't stop anyone who's determined.

The bikes are non-standard to make it less tempting for a thief, can't re-use the parts so no use stripping also no point in stealing it for you own use as you can't get it fixed.

delta_bravo

loyatemu wrote: »

If you lock the bike, and it gets nicked - they're not going to take 150 off you - after all you secured the bike with the lock they provided (assuming you report it to the Gardai etc).

Their site says the bike is your responsibility until you lock it at a station so they may take the €150 off you if its nicked even if locked