As I hopped off the bike and left it at the stand on Pearse Street I could see a woman staring at me. ‘Is that the guy from Dragon's Den? Jaysus - some of those investments must have gone wrong if he’s riding around Dublin on a bike!', is what she seemed to be thinking.
I didn’t have time to discuss it with her as I was late for a meeting. Had there been time I would have told her that I’m not in any major financial difficulty (for the moment) and that I could ‘cab’ it around town. But I choose to traverse the city on a Dublin Bike.
The Dublin Bike scheme is the greatest thing to happen to my adopted city since I can remember.
Back in April, Dublin Bike marked its 10 millionth journey and there are plans for further development.
Dublin is by no means the perfect cycling city and the infrastructure is still playing catch-up to the success of the scheme - but these bikes are simply the best way to get around the city. For a relative pittance, you get free travel and you feel better about yourself.
Now the naysayers will point to poor cycle lanes, inclement weather and sweaty shirts before a meeting, but none of that passes muster for me.
"I recently went to meet a government minister and cycled there. Of the two of us at the meeting he was definitely the one sweating."
First, anyone can see that there are not enough cycle lanes, but due to the increased use of bikes on the street I think both cyclist and motorists' attitudes have changed - and the two disparate groups are learning how to accommodate each other a little bit more.
My Newstalk colleague George Hook isn’t helping that rapprochement - but he’s entitled to air his opinions (plus he's retiring some-time soon anyway!), and it will take time before there's true harmony on our roads.
The weather complaint is a misnomer - statistically speaking for the average cyclist in Ireland you’ll only get rained on once every 100 days (that’s a stat I heard somewhere and I’m sticking to it!).
As for the sweaty shirt; what’s wrong with a little sweat? I recently went to meet a government minister and cycled there. Of the two of us at the meeting he was definitely the one sweating.
Technology and sharing
It’s the old story - anything that works for everyone (especially the consumer) wins.
If you take Halo the taxi app, the driver increases his business, the consumer benefits by getting the nearest available vehicle, and you don’t need to have any cash on you to get to your destination safely and securely.
In the case of Dublin Bikes let’s look at the win-wins.
The council get to take more cars off the street and generate income for the city. The advertiser, Coca Cola, get their brand working right across the city on a service which positively promotes their image.
The user of the service (the punter) gets to where he or she is going in the quickest possible time at a very affordable price. It’s also great now to see the service rolled out to Cork, Limerick, and Galway - another endorsement of a successful service.
I have, if I am honest, only two minor gripes with the service.
The first is when I cycle to Pearse St in the evening to catch the DART home and all the slots at the bike rank are full - and I have to cycle to one that is further away in order to leave the bike back. And I ended up missing my train.
The second concerns safety. There has to be a way that you can rent a helmet like you rent a bike.
I - to my shame - am one of the many people who wear a helmet on my own bike and don’t use one on a Dublin Bike, it's probably more my fault than theirs, but surely someone can come up with a solution to this problem...
So I suppose the success of Dublin Bikes is all part of what we hear of the 'sharing economy'.
The kids say, "I don’t want to necessarily own everything, but I want to own something for when I want it and I want to give it back when I am not using it."
Sounds logical to me, why didn’t we think of that?
On yer bike,
Bobby
