Less than 30 people a day use TFI bikes in Limerick

FEWER than 30 people a day on average use the public bike sharing services in Limerick, it’s been revealed.

And the number of people using the shared bike scheme has been cut in half in the space of five years.

Information obtained by the Limerick Leader under the Freedom of Information Act reveals that public bikes were released from docking stations across the city only 9,414 times in 2022.

This equates to just 26 people on average accessing a bike through the scheme each day.

In 2021, there were only 4,862 people using the scheme in Limerick.

In 2020, as people started to work from home due to Covid, there were 10,447 bike uses.

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This year has seen a slight increase, with 11,882 people accessing bikes up to the end of October.

But it's still almost 50% down on 2019 when some 22,129 people got in the saddle, according to the figures released by the National Transport Authority.

Originally sponsored by Coke Zero, Limerick’s bike share scheme, now known as TFI Bikes, launched eight years ago. Then, 215 bikes were laid out in the city across 23 stations where cyclists can pick up and drop off.

Green Party councillor Saša Novak Uí Chonchúir, who chairs Limerick’s transport committee suggested it was “set up to fail”.

“I don’t think there was enough strategic vision put into it when they were planning it. The scheme is many years old, and hasn’t been improved much other than a couple of stations being added,” she said.

The northside councillor believes there is demand for a the scheme, given its success in Dublin and across Europe.

“I am up in Dublin every week, and I’d bring my own bike. I do this because on this side (the Limerick side) to go to the train station, I cannot use the scheme. Even though there is a station close to me, you cannot rely on the screen to be working. I could end up walking to it, which is 10 minutes, only to have to walk back home and find another way to the train,” she explained.

Cllr Novak said if there were improvements in Limerick, there is “no way” she would take her own bike on the train.