The new public bike schemes coming to Cork, Limerick and Galway in 2014 will be known as Coke Zero Bikes.
Public Transport Minister Alan Kelly today announced that Coca-Cola would sponser the scheme which will comprise 700 bikes and 73 docking stations across the three cities.
315 of the bikes will go to Cork, there'll be 200 in Limerick and Galway will get 185. And there'll be 31, 23 and 19 docking stations in each city respectively.
Minister Kelly said that the scheme, set to cost €4 million to set up and a further €900,000 annually in operating costs, would not have been feasible without the private sector support.
Coca-Cola Ireland will invest €3 million over five years in exhange for branding on bikes and associated infrastructure. The National Transport Authority (NTA) will foot all of the initial investment.
Minister Kelly called the announcement a "breakthrough" for Ireland.
"We would estimate that an additional 700,000 cycling trips will be taken per annum because of this scheme."
"We had to think of an innovative way to make such a scheme attractive to a company such as Coca-Cola and I'm glad we did. Cycling has grown in Dublin by 40% since the advent of their bike scheme and it would be great to have similar results in Cork, Limerick and Galway," added Minister Kelly.
The NTA are currently in the process of competitive tendering for companies to supply, install and maintain the bikes as part of the scheme. The tender process is expected to be completed by December 2013, with the schemes set for operation from July 2014.
