Dublin Bikes: A review and general discussion

Sunsets On Tuesday

Hi all,
So I have been using the DublinBikes for the last few weeks, and think at this stage that I can comment on what I think so far.

I think, all things considered, that it is a great service. Really makes getting about in town that bit easier.
●Service is easy to use and quick to set up.
●The bikes are actually quite nice to cycle. The gear range isn't the best- but for the flat Dublin City it is perfect.
●It's quite cheap. I know it's gone up in price over the years, but €25 for the year is great. Even in the last few weeks I believe I've got my money's worth.
●The "free for up to 30mins" is great, as that's how long you'd be using them anyways.
●The lights that are provided are good quality and make night riding safe.

Quite impressed with it so far. But, inevitably, there are some pitfalls, such as
■Lack of stations. I really feel they should have a lot more throughout the city.
■Limited range of stations. The furthest South one can go is Charlemont (I think) which is very limiting.
■■■The big one, lack of distribution of bikes. I know they have a team that (supposedly) take bikes from full stations that won't be used at that time and move them to stations that have few bikes and will be in high demand. But in practice, this seems to never be the case. A lot of the time, you can't find a bike in the place you want it, and even if you find one, you can't park it as the other station is full. They could really improve on that front.

So yeah, happy with it so far but far from perfect. How do you guys find it (or similar services in Galway/Cork/Limerick?)

Also I find this quote quite sad and disappointing:
"In November 2010, a major five-year expansion plan was adopted due to the huge success of the scheme thus far. The plan will see the number of bikes increase from 450 to 5,000 and the number of bike stations increase from 40 to 300. The scheme will be extended as far north as DCU, as far south as UCD, as far east as Sandymount and as far west as Inchicore. The expansion will be funded differently than the original scheme, most likely through a mix of public and private funding."

That, clearly, has not occurred. Anybody know if there's anything in the works for Dublin bikes expansion?

tomasrojo

The scheme did extend to Inchicore though.

I'm not in the city centre without a bike of my own that often, so haven't used the scheme in a while. I always found it excellent for the city centre, and I occasionally have taken a bike for a few hours to get to somewhere in the suburbs. If the scheme ever does extend from UCD to DCU it'll be really great, but the willingness of councillors to get behind cycling seems to have dissipated a lot in the last ten years. Funnily enough, as the rates of cycling have risen very substantially.

buffalo

Sunsets On Tuesday wrote: »

●It's quite cheap. I know it's gone up in price over the years, but €25 for the year is great. Even in the last few weeks I believe I've got my money's worth.

...

■■■The big one, lack of distribution of bikes. I know they have a team that (supposedly) take bikes from full stations that won't be used at that time and move them to stations that have few bikes and will be in high demand. But in practice, this seems to never be the case. A lot of the time, you can't find a bike in the place you want it, and even if you find one, you can't park it as the other station is full. They could really improve on that front.

I think these two work against each other - the only way you're going to have more distribution is to have more dedicated staff to counter-act the rush-hour flows. To do that, they'd have to increase the price. Increasing the price makes it a less attractive service, and more exclusive to better-off people. So I guess you get what you pay for?

Interested Observer

Just on the 'big one', it is a problem for sure but you can get real-time information on how many bikes there are at a given station. I used to work in Grand Canal Dock, I would never get one at that station but if I went to the far side of the Samuel Beckett I would. I found this helped quite a lot.

Haven't used it for a while since I got my own bike but thought it was an excellent service that has really added to the city. I hope it continues to expand.

ED E

Distribution was ok until the first expansion, they seemed to increase the fleet but not staffing so less gets moved.

Sunsets On Tuesday

buffalo wrote: »

I think these two work against each other - the only way you're going to have more distribution is to have more dedicated staff to counter-act the rush-hour flows. To do that, they'd have to increase the price. Increasing the price makes it a less attractive service, and more exclusive to better-off people. So I guess you get what you pay for?

It is a public service though, so (in theory) The council could just pay for extra workers. Doesn't have to come from fees. I know that the govt of these days prefers profit making public services, but it's really not much to ask for better distribution, seeing as they won't invest in anything more substantial.

Weepsie

Sunsets On Tuesday wrote: »

It is a public service though, so (in theory) The council could just pay for extra workers. Doesn't have to come from fees. I know that the govt of these days prefers profit making public services, but it's really not much to ask for better distribution, seeing as they won't invest in anything more substantial.

Which council pays extra workers? Extending it potentially brings in multiple councils which may have it's own issues

Sunsets On Tuesday

Weepsie wrote: »

Which council pays extra workers? Extending it potentially brings in multiple councils which may have it's own issues

I'd have assumed that the people working for dublinbikes would just be council workers anyways.
The expansion planned was all within DCC lands I believe. Doesn't really matter now though as no expansion is coming (it seems!)

site_owner

if you look at the data for some of the stands they are not even trying.
the one on sherrard street (temple street hospital) is topped up by returning commuters in the evening and empty by 7am.

we spent some time in the hospital and i thought it would be handy if i needed to grab something in town but could never get lucky wth a returned bike

mountjoy square, denmark street and a couple others are all the same

Sunsets On Tuesday

site_owner wrote: »

if you look at the data for some of the stands they are not even trying.
the one on sherrard street (temple street hospital) is topped up by returning commuters in the evening and empty by 7am.

we spent some time in the hospital and i thought it would be handy if i needed to grab something in town but could never get lucky wth a returned bike

mountjoy square, denmark street and a couple others are all the same

I can understand. It is a great service but distribution should be done more frequently/effectively.

ED E

Cool, but Im not sure how useful they are.

eoinken

I have used Dublin bikes for the last few years and found it useful when I go to Dublin (a few times per month). Disappointed the Galway scheme is completely different which surprised me. Thought the card would be valid for both.
I have one (possibly small minded query). My subscription ran out in Nov (changed debit card) and kept forgetting to renew but was locked out until I paid, which is fair enough. When I log back in to pay it will only renew for the original period i.e. until Nov. Its small money but the lack of any flexibility on the operators side is a bit irksome, as I could not use the system so imagine it would auto renew to the new annual date. Would be interested if other have similar experiences.

site_owner

The last 10 or so bikes I've rented all seem to have chain, brake or gear problems.

Has anyone else noticed the maintenance seems to be poor?

CramCycle

eoinken wrote: »

When I log back in to pay it will only renew for the original period i.e. until Nov. Its small money but the lack of any flexibility on the operators side is a bit irksome, as I could not use the system so imagine it would auto renew to the new annual date. Would be interested if other have similar experiences.

You should be able to do it over the phone AFAIK

AndrewJRenko

It's strange to notice the vast difference between stations just a short distance apart. I came along the Grand Canal cycle track one morning during the week. The station outside the Hilton Hotel at Charlemont was empty of bikes, with a queue of four or five people waiting for bikes to arrive. About 2 minutes later, as I passed the station at Herbert Place beside Baggot St bridge, the station was completely full, with a queue of four or five people waiting to return bikes!

marvin80

Has anyone bought a 3-day ticket via the machines?

I've seen numerous tourists attempting to buy these tickets and struggle - I presume it's an awkward process.

Blahfool

marvin80 wrote: »

Has anyone bought a 3-day ticket via the machines?

I've seen numerous tourists attempting to buy these tickets and struggle - I presume it's an awkward process.

I believe it involves a large deposit which takes a while to refund. But every tourist I see at a bike station has a furrowed brow!

The biggest improvement for me would be extending the rear mudguard by a few inches! It's hard to encourage the casual cyclist if the slightest damp on the road means a stripe of crud up your back.

quad_red

How come they still don't have an official twitter handle?

The station nearest me (Fitzwilliam square) has been down for weeks with no explanation. There is nothing on their website about it and no notifications I can find about what's wrong with it or when we can expect it to reopen. Sent them a message via the 'contact us' on their website and got the following response:

Thank you for your email.

There is currently a notice on the website and also the Just Eat dublinbikes app to advise that the station will be closed for a period of time due to a technical fault incurred during the recent extreme weather events.

If you require any further information please contact the call centre.

Regards

dublinbikes team

Thanks for nothing

benneca1

I use these regularly when in Dublin have to say they work fine much better that trying to drive at any rate and a lot less risky than bringing my own bike

quad_red

site_owner wrote: »

if you look at the data for some of the stands they are not even trying.
the one on sherrard street (temple street hospital) is topped up by returning commuters in the evening and empty by 7am.

we spent some time in the hospital and i thought it would be handy if i needed to grab something in town but could never get lucky wth a returned bike

mountjoy square, denmark street and a couple others are all the same

Where are you getting that info from?

site_owner

quad_red wrote: »

Where are you getting that info from?

i got those screenshots from here http://dublinbikes2go.com/stats

if you are looking for raw data the API is published here
https://data.smartdublin.ie/dataset/dublinbikes

h57xiucj2z946q

I was messing around with something similar. I may try to make it more available for general use, but here is a snapshot of the last 14 hours (30/03/2018 20:00 - 31/03/2018 12:40)

https://snapshot.raintank.io/dashboard/snapshot/a61l00u8ATaxm6MBtbmNFEf99cnrP24f

Trampas

Hardly a bike to be found anywhere out this area at this moment

Sunsets On Tuesday

Trampas wrote: »

Hardly a bike to be found anywhere out this area at this moment

I noticed that yesterday when I passed on the way to the Phoneix Park - thought it looked odd. Probably just a case of poor (or simply lack of) distribution.

Arcade_Tryer

Trampas wrote: »

Hardly a bike to be found anywhere out this area at this moment

Plenty of parking!