LIMERICK is to be granted a public bike scheme similar to the initiative that has been operating successfully in Dublin over the past few years, it was announced this week.
Speaking at this week’s Limerick City Council Transportation and Infrastructure meeting, senior engineer Pat O’Neill revealed that he had received confirmation on Monday that the scheme will go ahead.
The public bike initiative is currently in the tendering process and it is expected to be up and running by early to mid 2014.
While the scheme will initially concentrate on the city centre, it is hoped that it can be expanded to cover the surrounding areas in the coming years.
The exact locations of the bike stations and the number of bikes that will be provided are not yet known.
Mr O’Neill told The Limerick Post: “The scheme is going through the tendering process; there are sponsors involved but information on those is not in the public domain yet. We have confirmation that there will be a bike scheme for the city; it will be flexible so that means there will be the potential to expand it.
“There will be in the order of 20 bike stations around the city centre. The number of bikes has not been confirmed; we’re currently in discussions with the consultants and the National Transport Authority.
“We hope to have more details in six to eight weeks. It’s will be a terrific facility for Limerick; the more successful it is the better the chance we will have of expanding it”, Mr O’Neill added
Like the Dublin public bike scheme, the bicycles will be used on a pay-as-you-ride basis; regular users can also opt for an annual subscription.
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