Trips by Bicycle Triple In Dublin.

Dublin, Ireland: not the first place that comes to mind when you think of the world’s best bicycle cities it is however, a city on the bicycle move. And although they may not be number one, in fact maybe not even in the top ten, I don’t think the Dubliners really care because the Dubliners know how to throw one awesome bicycle party.

The week I arrived in Dublin it just so happened to be Bike Week, seven days bicycle festivities. What more could you want!

I’ve been to street parties, uncovered very cool bicycle fashions, met the Lord Mayor, ridden in the 1000 strong Grand Canal lunch time ride, encountered Ireland’s most famous/infamous/notorious (depending on your point of view) politician, Gerry Adams, on a Dublin Bicycle, spoken with bicycle cafe owners, the founder of Women On Wheels and the Chair of the Dublin’s oldest bicycle organisation, Dublin Cycling.

Ireland had fewer bicycles than I expected however, they have more than Melbourne and not only that, they have virtually none of the Melbourne angst towards their bicycle road users: there was not a honk to be herd, not a road-rage incident to be witnessed and virtually not a helmet to be seen,  just a very popular bike share system, a tax-exempt ride to work scheme, lots of Garda (police) on bikes and a serious amount if seriousness, usual for the Irish, about making their city more bicycle-friendly.

The first thing that struck me was why on earth are the Dubliners so in to their bicycles, it’s not like they have the weather for it!  I figured there was no better person to answer this conundrum than the Lord Mayor of Dublin city. Andrew Montague.

According to Mayor Montague it’s not about bicycles per say it’s about fiscal responsibility, foreign direct investment, health promotion and lowering the road toll.

“In Dublin we’ve got tram system which we’ve spent about one billion Euros on. And still to this day we have more people cycling than we have using the tram every day.”

“To double the number of people using the tram we’d have to spend another billion Euros, to double the number of cyclists, we’d only need to spend maybe 10 to 20 million Euros. It’s much cheaper to invest in cycling”, says Mayor Montague.

“Dublin also gets a lot of high tech IT companies investing here. Google and Facebook come to us and say we want better cycling facilities, so obviously as a city we react to that”.

In fact in Dublin, Google has over 3000 staff and only 12 car parking spaces for staff. They have over 1000 bike parking spaces.

Mayor Montague also says the council is also really interested in what’s been happening to the road toll since the bike scheme came in.

“In the let two years, as our bike share scheme has taken off, we’ve seen a 70% reduction in fatalities across the board, in all modes of transport”.

Unfortunately, like Melbourne, Dublin suffers a gender gap, with 80% of bicycle commuters being men. Not altogether surprising given Dublin’s weather. It rains every  five minutes and it’s so unpredictable it’s just not possible to time your ride between the showers, like you can in Melbourne.

But it can’t just be the the rain, because as I discovered Ireland’s rain really is soft, in fact you hardly notice it half the time.

So why don’t more Dublin women ride?

I found a women who not only had the the answers, but is doing great things to get women on wheels.

 

Anne Bedos is the founder of Women on Wheels (WOW) and manager of the very cool non-profit bicycle cafe Rothar, where you can get your bike and your coffee fix!

Bedos says the most important thing needed to get women on wheels is better infrastructure, the second is giving women who are not confident to commute by themselves for the first time support in the form of a bicycle buddy, and it’s also about fashion!

“We need to convince women they can cycle and look fantastic”, says Bedos.

Agreed!

So while it’s true that women are risk and rain averse and feel intimidated by car traffic, I’m going to assert that more women don’t ride in Dublin because they’re yet to discover Dublin’s best kept Cycle Chic secret. The award winning fashion duo Georgia In Dublin, a mother and daughter team who have created some of the most stylish rain gear going.

Their wet-weather bicycle style is so good, you’d by a bike just to wear it.

And my personal favourite the Georgia In Dublin Leggits!

 

And that folks is Dublin done. Next stop Brussels!