Galway bikes users make less than one trip a month on average

Users of the Galway bikes scheme make less than one journey a month on average - making the scheme notably the least busy of such services available in four Irish cities.

Figures for the regional schemes, which opened in three cities at the end of 2014, show each bike in Galway is used about nine times a month, compared to about 66 times in Cork and 16 in Limerick. A similar scheme has been available in Dublin since 2009.

Some 15,500 journeys were made in Galway, where there are some 2,000 subscribers, in the year to the end of September.

The Galway scheme has been criticised over the short distances between each docking station. The greatest distance is between stations at Fr Burke Road and City Hall, which are 1.7km apart.

Councillor Billy Cameron described the scheme as a “complete hames” when it opened because most of the docking stations were within walking distance of each other.

Galway City Council, which chose the locations of the stations with the National Transport Authority, said it would consider introducing additional stations across a wider area, but not until a review of the first two years of the scheme had been completed.

In Limerick, where there is a bicycle for every 10 users, each bike makes about 16 journeys a month.

The 2,322 users took 30,244 journeys on 215 bicycles between January and the end of September - about 1.4 journeys a month per member.

In Cork there is about one bike for every 20 subscribers, and the city’s 330 bikes made 197,200 journeys in the first nine months of 2015. Each of the city’s 6,789 subscribers makes an average of three journeys a month.

The usage figures show students are active users across Cork, Limerick and Galway.

In Cork, the busiest stations are Fitzgerald’s Park and Bandfield – both of which are close to UCC.

Limerick’s busiest station by far is at Mary Immaculate College and Galway’s is Cathedral, the closest stop to NUIG.

Visitors to the cities can opt to pay for a three-day pass at a cost of €3. Limerick sold the lowest number of these (70) during the year to September, while 141 were bought in Galway, while Cork users bought 426.

The Galway scheme generated revenue from day-users of at least €20,713 in the year to the end of September; the Limerick scheme generated at least €23,430, while Cork took in €69,168.

Full year revenue is likely to be slightly higher when charges for usage exceeding 30 minutes are taken into account, while Coca-Cola is also providing almost €3 million in sponsorship.

In Dublin, an annual membership card costs €20 and a three-day ticket costs €5.

A total of 70,552 customers took more than 2.6 million journeys in the year to the end of August, meaning each bike in the city was taken on more than 220 journeys a month, with the scheme generating an estimated €1.2 million in user revenue.