THE DUBLIN CITY manager has said he was sceptical of the Dublin Bikes scheme when it was first introduced – but he was “completely wrong”.
Owen Keegan was speaking today an event to mark the 10,000,000th journey made on a Dublin Bike.
Some 980,000 journeys have already been made on these bikes in the capital this year.
“It has been a tremendous success,” Keegan told reporters, calling the scheme an “unambiguously good news story, and getting better.”
“I was quite sceptical. I just didn’t think Dublin was quite ready, and I didn’t think the Dublin population would embrace the concept.”
I’m glad to say I was proven completely wrong.
“What’s interesting about the expansion [over the last year], it has become even more successful.”
Keegan said it has “brought cycling to the masses”.
Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe said there was “understandable scepticism regarding the public uptake and the respect people would give to the bikes themselves.”
The bikes, recently rebranded under Coke Zero sponsorship, is being expanded around Dublin and in other cities around Ireland. Other European countries have looked to Dublin Bikes when planning their own public bike schemes.
September will mark its sixth year in the capital.
Keegan was hesitant to say if Dublin suburbs will gain access to the bikes.
“There’s certainly a demand,” he said, and is being looked at, but noted that it is hard to deliver in concreted business districts like Dún Laoghaire.
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