Are Dublin’s free bikes a poor deal?
DCC comes under fire in 'unsafe' billboards-for-bikes swap

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The agreement between Dublin city council and JC Decaux to set up the city’s first free public bike hire scheme has recently received heavy criticism.
The deal sees JC Decaux given space for 72 advertising panels in the capital, with Dublin receiving 450 bikes and signage in return. Critics of the scheme include one of Ireland’s biggest advertising agencies and the Dublin City Business Association.
The French company has already begun to erect their 72 advertising panels, but the positioning of the boards has been called into question, with some motorists declaring them unsafe. The council has also been criticised for granting permission for the signs, with dissenters suspicious they’re bad value for the number of bikes the city is receiving.
Stuart Fogarty, of AFA O’Meara,
BikeRadar research shows Fogarty may have a point. Rough calculations show that the scheme will offer around one bike for every 1124 inhabitants – a stark contrast to Paris’s lauded Velib’ scheme, which has approximately one bike per 110 central city area residents. In addition,
Members of
The architectural community is unimpressed with the scheme as well. Archiseek, an architectural website, estimates that it would have cost €26,400 to object to all the planned billboards individually. It also estimates that about half of the planning objections lodged so far against the new billboards have fallen at the first hurdle.
The bikes are not yet available for use, but voice your comments below – is the city of