Limerick Bike Scheme

zulutango

panda100 wrote:

I can't say I've seen any vandalism on the bike scheme in limerick. I think people tend to over sensationalise the potential vandalism of the bikes when really it doesn't appear to be an issue at all

I've seen a lot! Both stations on Clancy and O'Callaghan Strands were down for a few days lately with smashed touch screens. I've seen small damage to the bikes too, from broken lights to bells removed to buckled wheels.

zig

Do you think the there would be a huge increase in usage if they spread these further out? Or is it just the select few fooling themselves living in hope?

Im asking because I'd nearly consider starting a petition or something to get more stations built.

I've to walk 20 mins before I meet the first station, then its a 5 minute cycle. so Im probably saving myself 5 or 10 mins max. Seems like such a waste!

Tim76

zig wrote: »

Do you think the there would be a huge increase in usage if they spread these further out? Or is it just the select few fooling themselves living in hope?

Im asking because I'd nearly consider starting a petition or something to get more stations built.

I've to walk 20 mins before I meet the first station, then its a 5 minute cycle. so Im probably saving myself 5 or 10 mins max. Seems like such a waste!

I think a station at the flyover just before the Crescent would contribute to a huge usage increase.

Others areas that would attract more users would be Thomand Park/LIT, Gaelic Grounds and the Parkway/UL side of town.

pigtown

Well I'd definitely use it if it was in Castletroy. I also think more bike infrastructure is needed in the city to encourage usage, see the bike lanes in Cork city for example

zig

I sent them a message on their contact form and got this response. I guess you cant argue with it given that the population and footfall at the heart of the city is so low in Limerick, they probably assume the workload vs usage wouldnt justify it

Thank you for getting in touch and we hope you enjoy using Coca-Cola Zero Bikes. Bikeshare schemes are usually focused on short internal trips within a City centre. In an ideal situation they rely upon users self-distributing the bikes between the different bike stations. This Self-distributing means that there would be a flow of people taking bikes out from the station and a reasonably equivalent number of people bringing bikes back to the station. Such an arrangement ensures both bike availability for other people who want to hire bikes from the station and empty spots for people who want to return bikes. However, in practice there is rarely such a balanced flow and more bikes get hired from one station than get returned or, alternatively, there are more people seeking to return the bikes to a station than there are spaces available. To deal with these imbalances, a system of manual bike distribution has to be put in place. These requires a fleet of trucks and drivers who load up excess bikes from one station and move them to another station which is short of bikes. This manual redistribution is expensive to operate. There is a significant cost for trucks and drivers, particularly for an operation that runs 7 days a week from 5.00 am to 12.30am. In addition, the trucks don't have the advantage of the bikes in getting quickly through traffic - the trucks have to contend with the same traffic delays as other road vehicles. As bike stations move further out from a central area, the flow of bike users generally becomes more unbalanced at each station, requiring a lot of bike redistribution by truck.

Given the increasing operational costs associated with this redistribution, the schemes in the cities of Cork, Galway and Limerick have adopted a prudent approach, focussed on the central area of the cities as the initial schemes. However, it is the National Transport Authority's intention to review the geographic area of the bike schemes following an initial period of operation and, if the schemes are successful, to examine the potential for further expansion of the schemes.

As a side rant, when you have the council signing off decisions like this http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/home/207768/Major-Crescent-Shopping-Centre-expansion-is.html its a wonder our footfall is so low in the city.

zulutango

They were fairly poorly located. No surprise given the Council picked the locations. There's a glut of them out towards O'Connell Avenue and Mary Immaculate College, yet there's none on the whole north side of the city (apart from the ones on Clancy and O'Callaghan Strands.

cgcsb

pigtown wrote: »

Well I'd definitely use it if it was in Castletroy. I also think more bike infrastructure is needed in the city to encourage usage, see the bike lanes in Cork city for example

The bike lanes in Cork are great, but Cork still needs a lot more imo. What limerick is crying out for is contraflow bike lanes. The one way system is very anti-cycling.

zulutango

cgcsb wrote: »

The bike lanes in Cork are great, but Cork still needs a lot more imo. What limerick is crying out for is contraflow bike lanes. The one way system is very anti-cycling.

We'd be better off getting rid of the one-way system altogether, and greatly reducing the volume of motorised traffic through the city centre. Much of the current volume is simply transiting from one side of the city to the other, via the centre.

Poxyshamrock

The station at the train station is nearing completion.

phog

This could be old news but I saw during the week that the station at King John's Castle in open again

sioda

Still shows offline on the app

zulutango

phog wrote: »

This could be old news but I saw during the week that the station at King John's Castle in open again

Hadn't heard that. Great news!

phog

sioda wrote: »

Still shows offline on the app

I didn't use it but there were bikes in the station as I passed it. I'll check over the weekend if I get an opportunity.

celligraphy

Why is there none for raheen/dooradoyle

zulutango

celligraphy wrote: »

Why is there none for raheen/dooradoyle

Too far out. You have to have clusters of stations together so that if you're returning your bike and a station is full, then you can go to the next one.

OfTheMarsWongs

zulutango wrote: »

Too far out. You have to have clusters of stations together so that if you're returning your bike and a station is full, then you can go to the next one.

How far is too far? The stop at the top of O'Connell Ave is approx 1600m from The Crescent Shopping Centre. The hospital just under 1km from the shopping centre. The entrance to the industrial estate is about 1km from the hospital.

phog

OfTheMarsWongs wrote: »

How far is too far? The stop at the top of O'Connell Ave is approx 1600m from The Crescent Shopping Centre. The hospital just under 1km from the shopping centre. The entrance to the industrial estate is about 1km from the hospital.

If you cycle out to the Crescent and the Station is full then you need to cycle back into O'Connell Ave to hand back the bike. The reason the stations are in clusters is that it provides better chance that stations will never be full or empty.

Poxyshamrock

phog wrote: »

If you cycle out to the Crescent and the Station is full then you need to cycle back into O'Connell Ave to hand back the bike. The reason the stations are in clusters is that it provides better chance that stations will never be full or empty.

How many times does this need to be explained? :pac:

OfTheMarsWongs

I didn't ask for an explanation as to why they need to be close. That's obvious. I asked how far is too far? Is there a max/optimum distance?

styer

Especially with the M7 ring road around Limerick, there isn't a need for as much traffic to go through the city center...

Also earlier in this thread there was talk of low numbers int he city centre... The county council obviously have no interest in addressing this allowing the expansion of the cresent shopping centre!

zulutango wrote: »

We'd be better off getting rid of the one-way system altogether, and greatly reducing the volume of motorised traffic through the city centre. Much of the current volume is simply transiting from one side of the city to the other, via the centre.

styer

Completely agree tim, I live in Raheen and its a 30 minute walk to the nearest station, (2 min from Punches cross). One on the town side of the fly over would be a huge asset they could put another station between there and punches to help with distribution, maybe at the hairdressers where there is a road linking Ballinacurragh and southcircular road.

Tim76 wrote: »

I think a station at the flyover just before the Crescent would contribute to a huge usage increase.

Others areas that would attract more users would be Thomand Park/LIT, Gaelic Grounds and the Parkway/UL side of town.

phog

styer wrote: »

Especially with the M7 ring road around Limerick, there isn't a need for as much traffic to go through the city center...

Also earlier in this thread there was talk of low numbers int he city centre... The county council obviously have no interest in addressing this allowing the expansion of the cresent shopping centre!

The access to/from the ring road for the city is abysmal and is one of the reasons why there is still so much traffic going through the city.

Between the Raddisson Hotel and Annacotty there are 6 junctions, three have restricted access and there seems to be little or no movement on the ring road from the N18 via Meelick/Parteen to Annacotty.

Bored_lad

phog wrote: »

The access to/from the ring road for the city is abysmal and is one of the reasons why there is still so much traffic going through the city.

Between the Raddisson Hotel and Annacotty there are 6 junctions, three have restricted access and there seems to be little or no movement on the ring road from the N18 via Meelick/Parteen to Annacotty.

The road going though Parteen was stopped months ago and isn't being built.

phog

Coke Zero bike users to be rewarded on Car Free Day in Limerick

Anyone who uses a Coke-Zero Bike will be entered into a draw for a number of €500 bicycle vouchers across the cities.

panda100

Anyone know if the bike station at the rail station is opened yet? Or if not, when it might be opened?

theblackstuff

how is this scheme working out for people, see there is trouble in Belfast with theirs, 19 stolen over Easter weekend..

http://bikefast.org/2017/04/19/belfast-bikes-the-end/

would be great to have it expanded out more..

Poxyshamrock

That's terrible about the Belfast scheme. Luckily the Limerick bikes have not been vandalised much.

In Limerick usage fell by 15 per cent to just over 33,000 trips last year from almost 39,000 in 2015. An average of 90 trips are made daily from a station network involving 215 bikes.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bike-schemes-back-pedal-in-regional-cities-x55sz29cs

Tim76

Scheme working out great for me. My nearest station is Mary I and I use it the whole time when i need to go down town.

I still think that if they want to increase usage numbers then they need to expand the scheme. As mentioned before a station near the Crescent and stations close by to take overflow such as Ballinacurra Road or South Circular Road would really get people interested.

This would have been a life saver for many people who needed to commute to Raheen during the recent bus strikes.

leakyboots

Yeah, I use this regularly and it's great. Would love to see it expanded out to the Crescent, Thomond Park etc.

Poxyshamrock

leakyboots wrote: »

Yeah, I use this regularly and it's great. Would love to see it expanded out to the Crescent, Thomond Park etc.

Could easily be expanded to the Crescent (stations at Crescent, South Circular Road, Ballinacurra Road and Punches) and Thomond Park (stations at Thomond Park, Thomondgate, Shelbourne Park, Union Cross/Ennis Road).