It’s Time To Demand A Stand

at

Cycle in Dublin?

Nowhere to park?

Read on.

Colm Walsh, of the Dublin Cycling Campaign, writes:

Have you ever arrived at a destination only to be faced with a desert of available cycle parking?

Now you can tell Dublin City Council exactly where you want more bike parking.

Over a three week period (April 9-30) we want you to log the locations where bike parking is scarce, using the Space Engagers app.

Space Engagers is an interactive mapping tool that enables citizens to gather data for social and community projects. It has already been used to map vacant lots for the Peter McVerry Tust.

The Demand-a-Stand project is collaboration between the Dublin Cycling Campaign and Space Engagers to enable our members and the general public to use the Space Engagers app to identify where they would like to see more bike parking.

We will use this to build a heatmap of the most popular logged locations and campaign for more bike parking here. We will also send our data to Dublin City Council.

The Space Engagers app is very easy to use. It is available for Android or iOS and once registered it simply involves taking a picture of where you want more bike parking. You can also use the Space Engagers website to log locations.

Check out the Dublin Cycling Campaign website (at link below) or our Facebook page for more information on how to download and use the Space Engagers app.

Dublin Cycling Campaign

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46 thoughts on “It’s Time To Demand A Stand

  1. Mr. Camomile T

    Great initiative! More bike parking is badly needed around Dublin. Many of the city centre parking stands were removed during Luas construction.

      1. Mr. Camomile T

        We cannot even provide enough beds in our hospitals so why should we buy ladders for the fire service?

          1. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

            I like all this overcast sky thinking. Maybe we could tweet these @RealTaoiseach?

          2. Mr. Camomile T

            We can’t build a motorway between Limerick and Cork so why should we resurface the roads in Kerry?

      2. Nigel

        This is so fecking stupid I can’t believe your brain didn’t climb out of your head carrying a suitcase and storm out the door and get on a bike and cycle off in search of a better skull to live in as you typed it.

        1. david

          Oh Nigel
          There is no such thing as a free lunch
          Why should my road tax be spent on Dublin cycle lanes when roads in cork are just full of pot holes.
          Nearly crashed the other day swerving past one
          Are you special up there that the whole country should pay for your infrastructure at the expense of ours ?
          Last year my business paid around 90 grand in taxes and for what?
          We have no infrastructure here virtually a pony express speed internet no public transport

          1. qwerty123

            @David -why should my taxes pay for water maintenance when we dont have an Irish space programme?

          2. Nigel

            I don’t think Dublin, or anywhere else, should be deprived of decent cycling infrastructure just because your local authority can’t get its act together. Write them a few e-mails. With your winning style, persuasive arguments and undeniable charm, it’ll get sorted in not time.

      3. david

        Taxing bikes would fund the much needed infrastructure
        We could have tolled cycle lanes
        Imagine the revenue for parking charges and what could be done for cyclists from the revenue

        1. Nigel

          Bikes are taxed at 23% VAT on purchase. That probably covers much of the costs of any infrastructure and maintenance associated with them. Cars are taxed repeatedly and expensively because their infrastructure cost vastly more to build and maintain and also they are big and smelly and loud, degrading the environment and generally making life miserable.

          1. david

            when a country is near bankruptcy like us with a 200 odd billion national debt there is no room for dead weight
            Cyclists use the roads and must pay their way

  2. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

    Most cyclists can be plonkers (I happily include myself in that) but I think Dublin bike cyclists are in a league of their own. Wobbly no-signalling fools. They really grind my gears. I LOVE seeing them waiting at empty stands in the mornings as I sail by on my rusty aul bike. BIKE WINKERS*! I shout internally, chuckling away merrily.

    *I = A

      1. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

        Oh. My point still stands but I wouldn’t ever park my bike outside, even though it’s a right rust-bucket.
        Good idea for the more trusting in society, though.

        1. Cian

          Stop the victim blaming.

          Why should we not leave our bikes wherever we want to. Can’t we just teach people not to rob bikes.

          1. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

            I’d like to teach the world to sing
            In perfect harmony
            SING WITH ME!

    1. dhaughton99

      Same here. They really have no sense of what a red light is for. I wonder what the insurance situation is if they damage a car or the rider.

  3. Pudge

    The lack of bike stands is a symptom of the division between Dublin City Council’s civil servants and the residents of the city.

        1. david

          No but I have known mannix for years
          If you had a life like what he was born into at the time when letterfrack abused its charge ,then confront ghosts that this system gave you.and become a decent honest councillor who wants nothing more than make Dublin great well I could say well done.
          Unfortunately you will never be the man to fill his shoes

  4. david

    The child in the basket sums up the mentality
    Imagine if that bike was hit
    First to go the child
    Maybe we need multi story car parks where you could charge

    1. George

      What are you talking about? You seem to be just saying you hate cyclists. Why bother if you have nothing to offer.

  5. Brother Barnabas

    i think there should actually be fewer (but bigger, way more capacity) bike stands around town. and should be covered properly by cctv. and should be included in gardai’s standard patrol – so a guard is passing each one every 30 minutes at least. that’s how it’s done in other cities. new, small bike stands are popping up around the city but people have copped on already that some aren’t safe – a new one at the top of exchange street gives you a 50/50 chance of getting your bike knicked

    1. George

      That’s the opposite of what we need. One of the main benefits of bikes are that they allow near door to door travel. Cycle parking needs to be integrated throughout the city. The idea of centralised bike storage equivalent to car parks is not a good one.

      I have cycled my bike for 4 years in Dublin City centre. I have lost a saddle and a front wheel but that’s it and wheel was my fault as it was a quick release. The answer to bike theft is a good lock or two.

      1. Brother Barnabas

        sure. i don’t mean one central bike storage depot etc. but the city centre isn’t that massive – 10-15 bike stands would cover it. it would also mean you could leave your bike overnight if ever needed to (which, I’ve found out, you can’t )

        1. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

          Cycling with a few pints in is fun. You get home in NO TIME.
          I’ve never done it, obv.

      2. david

        Parking meters and clamping if the fee is not paid
        We need revenue to fund better
        The best thing about it is Dublin people will be funding their needs

        1. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

          In the office car park. You need a few more entries into the spreadsheet before you work the coordinates out, though, I’d imagine.

    2. Liam

      the whole point of cycling is convenience – if you have to park half a mile away you’re loosing that convenience, and people will just lock their bikes to lampposts anyway. Put the racks where people want to park.

      As for security, if you care about your bike buy a decent lock and learn how to lock it properly. Also the guards should take more interest in bike thefts and the courts should lock up the scrotes that are carrying it out, but that’s a whole other story.

      1. Brother Barnabas

        well i’m not really suggesting putting them where people don’t want to park

        i’m just suggesting they should be more secure – so with proper lighting, cctv and some occasional attention from the guards, but that’s not really practical when there are a hundred small stands – but would (or should) be with a smaller number of big ones

        really though this just comes down to me being upset over the number of bikes ive had robbed over the years (5 in 8 years, thanks for asking)

        1. The Old Boy

          5 in 8 years? Good grief, that’s rotten.

          I always parked mine on the street in Dublin, though not overnight, and never had it half-inched. That said, it was an absolute crate.

          1. Brother Barnabas

            yes, it’s a bugger when it happens

            i used to assume front square in trinity was the perfect place to leave a bicycle. turns out, trinity is the number one “hotspot” for bicycle theft in dublin city centre

  6. Pudge

    Few but large bike parking areas is the stupidest idea I’ve heard in a long while. If you want to know why, look at the (too few and always overcrowded) bike stands outside Lidl in Rathmines. People go in to Lidl, come out with heavy shopping, load it onto their bikes and cycle them home. If they had to walk a long way carrying that shopping, it would be pretty useless!

    The beauty of a bike is that you can rock up anywhere and lock your bike, nip in to where you want to go, and then get your bike and go home – no traffic jams, no cruising around waiting for parking, no one-person-in-a-car-taking-up-the-space-of-a-horse-and-cart.

    However, Japanese-style multistorey bike parking was promised “in the next four years” in July 2015. No sign of it being built yet: https://www.independent.ie/life/city-cycling/japanesestyle-multistorey-bicycle-parking-planned-for-dublin-within-the-next-four-years-31385104.html

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