RTÉ now have podcasts of shows available on their new website. The discussion I heard on Liveline, presented by Joe Duffy is about bringing the velo’v system (explained below) into Dublin.
http://pc.rte.ie/2007/pc/pod-v-070207-25m01s-liveline.mp3
Click on the address above to listen.
This podcast is from the 7th February and is 25minutes long and 10.2MB.
The following is taken from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.com)
Vélo’v is bicycle rental service run by the city of Lyon, France, in conjunction with the advertising company JCDecaux. The relationship with JCDecaux allows the city to provide the service on a cost neutral basis for the city, and at very low cost to users, in return for providing exclusive advertising access on bus shelters and the like. The primary aim is to reduce vehicle traffic within the city. The scheme also aims to reduce pollution, create a convivial atmosphere within the city, and encourage the health benefits of increased activity.The service began on the 19th of May 2005 and now provides over 2000 bicyles available from over 157 stations situated around the cities of Lyon and Villeurbanne. The bicycles can be returned to any other station. Access is via a subscription system in which a card is purchased online or at a station giving the user an account and a PIN with which they access bicycles through a terminals situated at the bicycle stations.
Rentals can last from less than 30 minutes up to 24 hours and are available to anyone 14 years and over holding a Carte Vélo’v, (subscription card for the service).
The June 2006 edition of the Vélo’v newsletter reported that over 22,000 rentals per day were made by the over 52,000 subscribers to the service, an increase of 44% in a year, and representing 6,400,000km traveled for the year.
Click here for the rest of the article which includes pictures of the bikes and bike stations.
I’ve been living in Lyon since August and I personally would welcome the introduction. It’s an absolutely excellent service.
Clearly good planning needs to be in place. The public should get information with the planned locations of bike stations. However by no means do they obstruct anyone and as for the advertisements they do not look in any way out of place. It’s all very professionally done and maintained.
The negative comments from the people in the discussion are extremely exaggerated. The following nearly had me in tears laughing:
“Seeking to take control of foot paths”
“Advertising structures“
“120 massive structures“
“I think they would obstruct pedestrians”
The advertisement “structures” were also described as a “visual impairment”.
“this is a backward step”
These statements are nothing short of complete balderdash.
Finally I think the problem is that people haven’t seen these things in operation and it seems that from the studying the plans and hearing various peoples’ own version of the scheme (as these stories get passed on they get more exaggerated) they now have a very negative perspective. This is a shame.
Please feel free to leave a comment!
velo’v is a great way to get round the city – its so much faster than walking, its cheaper than taxis and the metro, costs €1 for a week or even less if you get a long term card, gets you fit and doesnt cause any pollution. plus its a really funny way to get home when you’ve had a few. recognise!
Well said nothing short of Baboonish what some of these busy bodies have been vomiting onto the airwaves…Anally retentive..i could say more but i wouldn’t want to be branded a tree hugger…
It would never work in Dublin, for one, there are too many uneducated, immature fools – the bikes would end up at the bottom of the liffey. Secondly, I wouldn’t cycle around Dublin city centre unless I had a deathwish, far too much traffic!
Dublin isnt a very big city not even half the size of lyon so i cant see it being a very big operation at all. If they can do it and it works well then i dont see why dublin couldn’t. For me personally it would be very handy and i think it would without a doubt lead to less traffic jams in dublin which at the moment is out of control. People taking a half an hour to drive a quarter of a mile down the road. Added to that public transport is a joke and i dont see anything but positives for it.
Im pretty sure you’ll find most people who have never seen it work in Lyon could never imagine it working in Dublin. Until spending six months here, i would have laughed off the idea as environmentalist manure. It won’t be making any difference to the cities traffic or pollution problems but it would be another nice addition to our town…And in response to Mr Spunky the scheme does not lend itself to hooliganism, in future, research before making wild sensationalist comments.
A very noble and laudable suggestion and so on and so forth. While it is true that the pollution caused by the traffic congestion in the capital is causing an adverse affect on our breathing air, there are far more sinister status quotes that need to be addressed. The great unwashed quote unquote at the other spectrum of the Liffey would I’m sure see these bikes as a soft target. As for man of the people, bring Rugby to the Northside Taoiseach Ahern I see it as political vehicle he would use to further drag our Nation into the dark ages. Tribunals, where’s the tax due for 1973, use bicycles instead cars – no thank you very much.
Great idea.Spent a few days in Lyon and this concept was of great assisstance in enhancing my experience of the city!!cheap,environmentally friendly,efficiently operated and healthy.Spunky is misguided and his comment shows an element of ignorance and a lack of foresight.
Mr ‘Lived in a cocoon on the southside all my life’ Kelly’s opinion manifests a clear bias .To say that the bringing of Rugby Internationals is a’political vehicle’used to bring us into ‘the dark ages’is unfounded.Firstly,the decision to open Croke Pk was made democratically by members of the GAA at Central Council.
Secondly,Croke Park was the only practical option available to the IRFU.The only other option was to play the match outside this jurisdiction.Something Mr Kelly seems to aprove of.
Dark Ages? More like a monumental leap forward for this country.
Lets not go off on a tangent, the topic being discussed is Bicycle rentals being introduced to Dublin city centre, not the opening of Croke Park ‘foreign sports’ as hardline gaa fans would call it. In response to ‘partygirls’s comment that more reserch is needed on my part, Perhaps I should have said in my previous post that this is not a new concept for Dublin, this is a topic that has been discussed before in the Irish media prior to the May 2005 introduction of this service to Lyon. Bicycle rental services have for quite some time been common place in european cities, notably Amsterdam, where public transport and walking or cycling is the preferred choice of its citizens. This is due to a history of Amsterdam being a port city, and the city centre is not easily accesible by cars. This situation does not exist in Dublin, Dublin city centre is far too acceisble for vehicular traffic, an issue which the Irish government are only recently starting to tackle (the banning of HGV’s as of February 19th of this year, and the restriction of public vehicles entering O’Connell street from Parnell square). In terms of making it’s city pedestrian friendly Dublin is a long way behind other european cities, where pedestrianisation has for quite some time been an important issue. bicylce rentles is a brilliant idea, but attitudes need to be changed in Dublin before this would be a success, which I fear is a long time off
I don’t agree that attitudes need to change in Dublin before the introduction of the bike service. According to spunky this is “a long time off”. What is “a long time off”? How do we know when attitudes have changed? And as far as it being dangerous to cycle in Dublin I beg to differ. How often do we hear of cyclists getting knocked down in Dublin?
This negative attitude to a healthy and beneficial new service for Dublin is a real shame. I have no doubt that the introduction of this service would be extremely successful. Imagine how much quicker and enjoyable it would be to cycle into town instead of getting the bus?
As regards the danger of bicycles being thrown into the river Liffey I find this very sad to hear during this day in age. The bicycles are well secured at each bike station and while a bike is on loan your credit card is charged for each hour therefore bikes must be returned to a bike station.
I’m fully in favour of these bikes being introduced to Dublin. They are a great way of getting around the city, they’re cheap, convenient and healthy. They are especially handy when trying to get home after a night out when all trams and metro have stopped.
These arquements against it all show complete ignorance of how the system works. Lyon is not a knacker free utopia with the streets empty of any traffic that could be a hazard to cyclists but the bikes are a big success here. There is no reason why it could not be adapted to be a success in Dublin.
The views expressed by some people on the Joe Duffy show are complete shite and is an example of the typical retardedness of the average caller on that forum for begrudgery.
In response to hossberts question, “How often do we hear of cyclists getting knocked down in Dublin?” It happens often enough, we may not hear of each and every accident as they are not always serious enough to warrant making national news, but as someone who drives through the city practically every day I have seen a number of minor accidents involving cyclists, and just the other month a young female cyclist was knocked down and killed by a truck. In response to mick, I dont think the arguments against the system show ignorance of how the system works. The system I’m sure works very well in Lyon, and this is where my point about attitudes comes into play – people in Lyon are already im sure open to the idea of using public transport and leaving their cars at home, as the city has a very reliable transport network:
100 Bus lines covering 1078km,
25.7 km of metro railways with 37 stations and 4 lines,
3 funicular lines connecting to the metro and 2 tramway lines covering a distance of 20km. Dublin on the other hand, whos metropolitan area has a similar population to Lyon, pales in comparison, with buses that dont arrive on time and at busy times of the day are simply too full. A tram system which has only recently been introduced (which has proved very succesful), and plans for a metro system which is still quite some way down the line. So the arguments against the introduction of a velo’v type system in Dublin are not ignorant, they are valid concerns. In my opinion when Dublin has a public transport system that provides a fast, reliable service to its commuters, then something like this could very well work here, until then people are going to continue to shun public transport in favour of their cars. On perhaps a slightly more trivial note, lets not also forget that Dublin due to its unfortunate georaphical situation is a tad bit colder than Lyon and I can’t see everyone heading off to town on their rented bikes on a cold and miserable monday morning.
What about the people who live in Dublin and don’t have cars? It is true that this works well in conjunction with the excellent public transport system in Lyon. However I do believe that the introduction of this service would encourage people to take a bike as opposed to the bus, weather permitting of course! The initial phase of the scheme is to introduce 500bikes to Dublin which is not many. Therefore they could wait until public transport and the traffic improves before expanding the scheme. The scheme was also introduced in phases in Lyon.
My fellow group members and I are attempting to create a business plan to provide this bike service in parts of Dublin City Centre as part of a final year course assessment. Does anyone have some input as to where we should look for more information? We think it is a viable business due to lucrative advertising contracts.