Limerick Bike Scheme

IsaacWunder

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

The problem with UL is that it's a lot further out than NUIG and UCC, both of which are within walking distance of their city centres. To put bikes in UL, you would have to put them in a linear fashion all the way out the Dublin Road and that doesn't really work.

I understand, UL is, comparatively speaking, out of the way, but this scheme is in use over much longer distances in Dublin today. It takes me 20 minutes cycle from Arthurs Quay to UL via the tow path, and I'm not fit, so it's well within the 'free' half hour range for most people.

There would be as many students going into as coming out from town from both colleges, so it wouldn't be one way traffic. Additionally, the Arena is popular with people all over the city who use the gym, swimming pool, and it makes sense for people to cycle out if they're going to exercise anyway. Ditto UL Concert Hall brings in people from all over town for shows as does the Millennium Theatre in LIT.

It's a great scheme as planned, but I propose five more stands and it'd be perfect: one stand outside LIT in Moylish, a second outside the art college on Clare St (there's already one by Grove Island in Corbally), one by Arena in UL, one outside the library, and one by health sciences building.

barrymanilow

Shame that the Limerick bikes membership card doesn't include use on the Dublin bikes also for when I pop up to the big smoke . I was hoping it would , could have been a major sell to tourists , for example a single card for a week that allows travel on Bus/Train and the use of the rental bikes in 4 cities . Bikes at L.I.T and U.l is a no brainer ,especially when you consider that some of the ones in town are very close to each other .

IsaacWunder

barrymanilow wrote:

Shame that the Limerick bikes membership card doesn't include use on the Dublin bikes also for when I pop up to the big smoke . I was hoping it would , could have been a major sell to tourists , for example a single card for a week that allows travel on Bus/Train and the use of the rental bikes in 4 cities . Bikes at L.I.T and U.l is a no brainer ,especially when you consider that some of the ones in town are very close to each other .

If you have a Leap card they can be used for bikes in all cities (except Dublin, for now), but you still have to register individually for each city (€10 each for Cork, Galway and Limerick) before you use it outside your 'home' city.

rok

IsaacWunder wrote: »

The locations all make sense except nothing out by UL and LIT.

This is a staggering oversight. The Galway one has stations out by NUIG, the Cork one by UCC, and even the Limerick one has a stand near Mary I.

+1 to this, most people will have to get a bus or car into town anyway just to use these.

Do there operate 24 hours a day? can see people cycling home on these after the pub!

zulutango

rok wrote: »

+1 to this, most people will have to get a bus or car into town anyway just to use these.

Do there operate 24 hours a day? can see people cycling home on these after the pub!

No, they close at 12.30 am. I'm not sure if you can keep them out overnight and simply pay for the time that you have them.

On the other point, if you're living at one end of the city and want to go to another, say Clare Street to O'Connell Avenue, or Clancy Strand to St. John's Square, they'll be pretty useful. But, yeah, i do think they could have had a few more in the nearer residential areas.

redron74

rok wrote: »

+1 to this, most people will have to get a bus or car into town anyway just to use these.

Do there operate 24 hours a day? can see people cycling home on these after the pub!

I presume most people would be over the limit when they leave the pub.

wonderboy76

zulutango wrote: »

No, they close at 12.30 am. I'm not sure if you can keep them out overnight and simply pay for the time that you have them.

The Stations in Dublin 'open at 5.30am and close at 12.30am, yes, but you can return a bike 24 hours a day to any station with spaces.

You can only keep the bike for 24 hours. After 24 hours the €150 deposit is taken from your account and they'll try and recover the bike (not that most people would have it for more than 24 hours though!)

what_traffic

Does the title of this thread need to change?
Its a regional Bike Share. At the minute you cannot sign up to the Dublinbikes on it, but you can sign up for Cork and Galway on your Limerick card?

zulutango

what_traffic wrote: »

Does the title of this thread need to change?
Its a regional Bike Share. At the minute you cannot sign up to the Dublinbikes on it, but you can sign up for Cork and Galway on your Limerick card?

Good point.

Cookiemunster

So has anyone seen the bike stands going in yet? It's due to open just over 3 weeks so I assume they must be well into construction at this stage.

zulutango

Cookiemunster wrote: »

So has anyone seen the bike stands going in yet? It's due to open just over 3 weeks so I assume they must be well into construction at this stage.

There's some excavations at some of the locations. It doesn't inspire confidence that they're not actually in yet, but maybe it can be done very quickly ....

touts

I cycle a lot but looking at that range of points I have to say why would you bother. It looks like a very limited range of points. By the time you factor in the time to book out a bike at one end and check it in again at the other unless you are going between the extreme points it is hardly worth it. There seems to be a cluster of 5 or 6 points in the middle all within a 1 minute walk of each other.

Hopefully it is just a starting point and they plan to roll out other locations. They really need to include UL, LIT, Mary I, The Cresent and possibly Raheen industrial estate.

cgcsb

Like Dublin Bikes the present phase of the scheme is just that, a phase. The scheme will be expanded. Regarding checking in and checking out. The checking out procedure takes seconds, scan your card, enter a pin and select a bike number. There is no checking back in procedure, you simply insert your bike into an available slot, the system knows that it's the bike you took out Xmins ago.

Poxyshamrock

touts wrote: »

I cycle a lot but looking at that range of points I have to say why would you bother. It looks like a very limited range of points. By the time you factor in the time to book out a bike at one end and check it in again at the other unless you are going between the extreme points it is hardly worth it. There seems to be a cluster of 5 or 6 points in the middle all within a 1 minute walk of each other.

Hopefully it is just a starting point and they plan to roll out other locations. They really need to include UL, LIT, Mary I, The Cresent and possibly Raheen industrial estate.

It doesn't take long to rent a bike. There's no booking and checking in. It's a simple case of swipe your card, enter your pin, take your bike.

The reason stations are so close to each other is to allow you to return a bike with ease, e.g. If the bike stand at The Crescent is full then you can return it to Pery Square.

wingnut

Anyone know if they put a hold on your card for the €150 deposit?

Poxyshamrock

There's no hold on my card anyway.

I think they take €150 if the bike isn't returned.

dellas1979

Just came back from Amsterdam - cycled around for 3 days (and kept the bikes for 2 nights) and paid a total of e10. My friend (who is dutch), scanned her travel card (so the 2 bikes are registered to her name while we use them).

Am I getting the impression that this is working out (as per usual) really expensive for the people who'd like to use the bikes?

Poxyshamrock

It's certainly not as expensive as the Barclays scheme (Boris bikes) in London! There, you pay £90 for an annual subscription!

wingnut

Was catching up on last week's limerick post. Read the article on the Bike scheme only to find they had included a quote from me! Lifted from Facebook. Had I known I would have phrased it better.

I signed up for Limerick last night, don't want to come off as a perpetual moaner but the should have integrated the schemes (don't mind paying the extra). Having three cards/packs/registrations is odd.

squonk

Where's the website for this? Googling Limerick Bike Scheme shows a Leader article with Alan Kelly and doesn't specify a url to register like the Dublin scheme. Bit stupid doing an article on the launch with little or no information on registration etc.

timesnewroman

https://www.bikeshare.ie/limerick

Poxyshamrock

Has anyone received their registration pack in the post yet?

Boscoirl

Signed up this evening, selected Galway also

The website states that limerick will go live on the 8th Dec

Poxyshamrock

Boscoirl wrote: »

The website states that limerick will go live on the 8th Dec

Which means they have just under 3 weeks to get 23 bike stations up and running! There are some sites (e.g. Bedford Row) where work hasn't started at all! :eek:

Wise Old Elf

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

Has anyone received their registration pack in the post yet?

Not yet. I registered early last week I'd say and not a peep since. Really can't see how they'll manage to have this ready for their anticipated launch date.

DoYouEvenLift

How much is this again?

Wise Old Elf

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

How much is this again?

€5 for a year before a particular date (not sure when, but sometime in December). €10 per year otherwise.
There's a whole schedule of price per usage on top of that on their website: www.bikeshare.ie

Poxyshamrock

Wise Old Elf wrote: »

Not yet. I registered early last week I'd say and not a peep since. Really can't see how they'll manage to have this ready for their anticipated launch date.

Yeah, there's not much work being done at the moment.
They still haven't finished the station in Eyre Square in Galway and it's due to open on Monday! They probably haven't got their cards yet either.

what_traffic

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

Yeah, there's not much work being done at the moment.
They still haven't finished the station in Eyre Square in Galway and it's due to open on Monday! They probably haven't got their cards yet either.

Docking Station at the Galway Firestation on Fr Griffen Rd looks finished when I passed this morning. I registered on the 11 of Nov for both Galway and Limerick (money taken off the Credit Card on the 12th) but have not got the Coke Zero Card yet

Poxyshamrock

How do they expect people in Galway to use the scheme on Monday if they don't have a card?