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The proposed areas where the bikes will be. Sligo County Council

Sligo County Council looking for firm to supply it with 50 bikes for free to run dockless rental scheme

The council is looking for a firm to supply it with bikes.

SLIGO COUNTY COUNCIL (SCC) is setting up its own dockless cycling scheme and wants a company to supply it with 50 bikes for free and to pay it a fee for the project. 

The council put out a tender looking for a company to supply Sligo town and its environs with a minimum of 50 bikes. 

According to the tender, the bikes must be multi-geared with a preferred seven-speed gear. They must also be suitable for “the climate and terrain of Sligo”.

The tender is part of a scheme by SCC called Urban Cycle Sligo which trialled a successful pilot of the scheme last year. The council now wishes to make it a permanent feature of the town and its surroundings.

According to the tender, there is no budget for SCC to implement such a scheme on its own. But it has offered the preferred bidder a concession contract meaning it can make money from the people who are actually using and paying for the bikes. 

The tender states: “There is no budget available to Sligo County Council to implement a public bicycle share scheme at the present time. The request for tender is being issued on the basis of offering a concession contract, whereby the successful tenderer will be entitled to retain the revenue generated from customers and sponsors over the life-time of the contract, in return for an annual payment to the council.”

A Sligo company had successfully ran the initial trial period. 

Bleeperbike offers dockless bike riding. This means it uses satellite technology and an app to track the bike’s rental. Prices during the trial included an annual subscription fee for €75 and a three-month subscription for €20. Mostly, it costs around 80c per hour of cycling. 

Sligo council’s walking and cycling strategy involves providing a combination of cycling and walking infrastructure linking the outlying population centres to the main centres of employment, colleges, schools, leisure areas and the town centre.

In 2011, just 2% of commuters living within 3km of Sligo town travelled by bicycle to work, school and college. With the provision and upgrading of cycling infrastructure, it is hoped to considerably increase this figure.

There have been similar systems set up in Dublin, Galway and Cork. In these cases, companies which set up and supply the bikes can make money by getting firms to sponsor the bikes. 

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    Mute Moorooka Mick
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    Feb 26th 2019, 6:32 AM

    They will not last long with the local ‘happy campers”. They’ll figure out a way of hobbling the sat-tracking and cash-in.

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    Mute Dotty Dunleary
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    Feb 26th 2019, 6:58 AM

    @Moorooka Mick: Not unless the bicycles are made from pure steel :-)

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    Mute DJ François
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    Feb 26th 2019, 7:42 AM

    @Moorooka Mick: they said the same about Dublin bike scheme but it didn’t happen

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    Mute Moorooka Mick
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    Feb 26th 2019, 12:44 PM

    @DJ François:
    You have obviously not lived in Sligo.

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    Mute Donncha
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    Feb 26th 2019, 6:19 AM

    I would warm Sligo Council to give any of the Chinese bike companies that approach them a very wide berth. Just look up Chinese bike mountains on Google Images to see how the “free bike” companies have worked out in China.

    Also, one of them set up in Stockholm at the end of last summer. Unilaterally, I would add as they never asked, they just did it. I’ve yet to see anyone use the bikes (partly I imagine it’s because the app that activates them looks like it was made by a colour-blind 6th class student learning to code). Despite the fact they’re close to unused, they are absolutely riddled with rust only six months later. I reckon they’re death traps at this point if someone hopped on one without a helmet.

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    Mute J.P. Ness
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    Feb 26th 2019, 8:42 AM

    Sligo is too much of a kip to merit this scheme. It really is a bunghole of a place

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:45 AM

    @J.P. Ness: They’d regard you as an asset at the local tourist information office. Failte go Shligig.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Feb 26th 2019, 1:29 PM

    @J.P. Ness: I lived in Sligo for over 11 years. Despite not being a native, I very much consider Sligo to be home. Lots of friendly, welcoming, helpful people and, despite its small size, it has so much to offer in terms of music, arts, crafts, surfing, beaches, hiking, cycling trails, mountains, lakes, fishing, pubs, places to eat and festivals. A kip it most certainly is not. What it is, however, is lacking in funding proportional to other areas of the country, though, thankfully, some of that is being addressed finally.

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    Mute john doe
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    Feb 26th 2019, 2:52 PM

    ^^don’t feed the troll ^^

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    Mute Marcus Eugene
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    Feb 26th 2019, 8:19 PM

    @J.P. Ness: Don’t feed the troll

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    Mute Dave Barrett
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    Feb 26th 2019, 7:52 AM

    And while they are looking for free bikes let the old people with empty large houses get out and down size to free up houses for those looking for them. FG take take take.

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    Mute James Wallace
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    Feb 26th 2019, 7:59 AM

    @Dave Barrett: first of all, what has a housing proposal by the government got to do with a bike scheme proposed by a local council? second of all, if the housing downsize scheme ever happens, it will be entirely optional. Go back to bed.

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    Mute John
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    Feb 26th 2019, 8:29 AM

    @Dave Barrett: what’s wrong with older people in council houses downsizing.people are always screaming about the housing crisis but people in social housing don’t want to have to help in any way.they just want to scream BUILD HOUSES………a lot of older people(including my parents)in private housing downsized because of their needs,what’s wrong with people who have enjoyed very very cheap houses.

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    Mute MarkS
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    Feb 26th 2019, 11:14 AM

    @John: bit of a tangent there love.

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    Mute kehe
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    Feb 26th 2019, 7:55 AM

    Will they ever learn? Undocked bikes just end up vandalised and thrown in rivers, ditches, fields etc in any city or town that’s tried the scheme.

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    Mute James Wallace
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    Feb 26th 2019, 8:19 AM

    @kehe: it doesnt happen much in Dublin. Can you name the towns in ireland where it has?

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    Mute Karen Wellington
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:02 AM

    @James Wallace: does Dublin have an undocked bike scheme? I thought they were all docked.

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    Mute James Wallace
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:12 AM

    @Karen Wellington: no they have bleeperbike, an undocked scheme. I do agree a docked bike scheme would be preferable if they don’t already have one.

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    Mute Karen Wellington
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    Feb 26th 2019, 10:58 AM

    @James Wallace: didn’t know that, thanks for the info

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:42 AM

    In the mid-1960s student and other utopian radicals persuaded the Amsterdam authority to place ‘white bicycles’ strategically around the city centre. Anybody could use an available bike and leave it at a designated bike rack after use. The scheme lasted a short time. I hope the Sligonian authority has taken the Dutch example into consideration. Waar is mijn fiets?

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    Mute James Wallace
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    Feb 26th 2019, 10:19 AM

    @Garreth Byrne: that was before the days of mobile technology. The bikes these days, like the bleeper bikes in Dublin , require you to register a card and the bike is unlocked using smart technology and an app. No comparison to Amsterdam in the 60s. We should copy Amsterdam in the provision of safe segregated cycle tracks, though. That would work here.

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    Mute FlopFlipU
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:00 AM

    You will probably find the any bikes that go missing up in Dublin ,them lads using the bikes to escape ,only joking now I have ties there through marriage

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    Mute John
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:14 AM

    @FlopFlipU: I wish some of the country people would escape from Dublin.might give us a bit more room.ha ha,only joking I have family down the country.

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    Mute Michael Drumm
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    Feb 26th 2019, 8:05 AM

    Shave a madra

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