South Inner City Dublin neglected by bike schemes – Seery-Kearney

Dublin bikes stations are non-existent in areas of South Inner City Dublin, leaving communities disconnected and unsupported, a Fine Gael Senator has said.

Dublin South Central Senator Mary Seery-Kearney is encouraging the Dublin local authorities to adopt bike schemes to avoid the biking “deserts” that remain in some parts of the city. Areas close to the City Centre such as the Tenters and Dolphins Barn have no operating bike schemes. Furthermore, there are no bike schemes on the south side of the Canals in the Dublin South Central constituency, yet areas like Drimnagh, Inchicore and Crumlin are all within that fifteen-minute cycle zone.

Senator Seery-Kearney said, “We must be serving the whole city with adequate cycling infrastructure. Places that are a fifteen-minute cycle away from the centre and disconnected and neglected, this doesn’t make sense.

“These significant gaps stagger services and leave many cyclists behind. We know that more and more people are cycling and calling out for these schemes. We need to promote accessibility, not hinder it.

“Fingal County Council recently launched an e-bike scheme following a tender process. This action should be encouraged across all four Dublin local authorities. The ‘TIER’ bike scheme launched there is the first fully carbon-neutral provider of micro-mobility.

“Providers will say the demand isn’t there, but this is bigger than that. Bike schemes alleviate noise pollution, decrease the volume of traffic and fundamentally, and cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.

“We need to incentivise cycling as much as possible. Dublin City Council has worked with bikebunkers.ie to provide bike storage for bike owners in Dublin City and this is very welcome. Yet the cost of storage is €100 per year, this seems very costly when a residential parking permit on the same street only costs €50 per year. At the very least the cost should be the same, or even less in order to coax as many people onto their bikes as possible.

“We need to be proactive in making cycling as accessible and attractive as possible”, Senator Seery-Kearney concluded.