Increase in use of public bike rentals despite reduced trips taken in Cork and Limerick
There was an increase in the usage of public bike rental schemes in Ireland’s regional cities in 2018 — despite a reduction in the number of trips taken in Cork and Limerick.
New figures published by the National Transport Authority (NTA), which oversees the three bike schemes which operate outside Dublin, reveal the rise was driven solely by dramatic growth in the number of people using the scheme in Galway. The combined number of rentals across the three cities last year totaled 338,358 — an annual increase of 0.5%.
For the second year in a row, usage levels dropped in Cork with a total of 271,581 rentals in 2018 — down 3.1% on the previous year. Figures peaked in Cork in 2016 with more than 291,000 trips.
The number of bike rentals in Limerick fell for the third consecutive year and were down 14.3% in 2018 to 27,772. In 2015, more than 40,000 trips were made on the Limerick scheme. The scheme in Galway bucked the trend with an annual increase of 64.5% in usage levels 1 up more than 15,000 to 39,005 last year.
A NTA spokesman said the Cork scheme is at a more mature stage of its development and the slight decrease could be accounted for by bad weather and some capacity issues at busy stations.
The NTA said it hopes to add up to another 10 stations in Cork before the end of the year, while it should also see the benefit of two new stations which opened at the city’s railway station towards the end of 2018.
The NTA said the drop in numbers using the scheme in Limerick is disappointing.
A spokesperson said:
Bike culture may not be advanced in Limerick as in other cities and it is also a grid city with a lot of one-way systems.
The majority of trips taken on the three schemes last less than 30 minutes — which means the borrower does not incur any additional charge over the annual subscription of €10 or the three-day pass which costs €3. Journeys of less than 30 minutes accounted for almost 97% of all trips in 2018. Less than 1% lasted more than two hours.
The average trip duration in the Cork scheme was 8 minutes and 40 seconds, while in Limerick the average rental lasted just under 10 minutes. The average trip in Galway was longer at more than 15 minutes.
The NTA estimates the average trips ranges from 1.2km in Limerick to 1.5km in Cork and 1.6km in Galway. It calculated more than 493,000km were travelled by cyclists using the schemes in the three cities last year.
The NTA reported 3,933 new annual memberships across the three schemes last year, with Cork accounting for 70% of these.
Galway was the most popular city for 3-day passes — which are favoured by short-term visitors — accounting for just over half of almost 2,500 short-term passes issued last year.
Coca Cola Zero’s five-year sponsorship of the regional cities bike rental scheme is due to cease in November. The spokesman said the NTA hoped the scheme will continue to be sponsored into the future, while it is also reviewing the €10 annual charge.
It is also planned that users will be able to access the scheme in all three cities with a Leap card in the future.
It was revealed earlier this year that the separate public bike scheme operated in Dublin recorded a 6% drop in usage levels in 2018, despite the addition of 15 new stations and 100 extra bikes .
