Get ready to pedal!

It’s time to check your balance and revise your hand signals: by next summer it will be hard to resist the temptation to cycle in Mullingar.

That is because the town is about to have a bike-share scheme introduced on a pilot basis.

In October, county council members were informed that the company administering the scheme will launch the pilot with the introduction of 30 bikes to the town from March.

Using a telephone app, users can rent the bikes.

The scheme will be sponsored and underwritten by the council, but they are confident it will be a success and will be extended to other areas.

It has not been tried in any other town like Mullingar, but because of the geometry of the town, they council are confident it will pay for itself, engineer Jonathan Deane told members.

Cllr Hazel Smyth is delighted that the town is finally to get a pool of rental bikes.

“When I first brought this up as an idea with the council, it was pretty much rejected flat out because there had been costings done apparently on it before and it was seen as unviable but with the way the technology infrastructure has developed, we now have things like dockless bikes and a lot better tracking for bikes,” Cllr Smyth told the Westmeath Examiner this week.

“A lot of the issue before with the idea of a bike sharing scheme was you had to put in all this infrastructure, to basically have the docking for the bikes riders in different areas but now with the bleeper bikes like you have in Dublin, you don’t need docking stations, on you just leave the bike wherever you want.”

Once finished using a bike, users ‘sign off’ their session, and the bike shows up on the app as being free for use, and a map will show where it has been parked.

“There’s also a move now from companies who are willing to sponsor this and to kind of get behind us as well. It has come a long way,” Cllr Smyth continued.

The Green Party councillor said that often users just want to travel short distances, so there would always be bikes free.

“The reality is people could use them for all different reasons, whether it’s just to cycle to the hospital or to Belvedere, wherever you want.

“I know when I get off the train in Mullingar and I want to call, say, to the council buildings, it’s a pain in the neck to have to walk and then there’s all the issues with the trains not being able to accept bikes. If there were bikes there so you could just hop on a bike and go down to the council buildings, it would be so convenient.”

Cllr Smyth is particularly happy that the bikes will be in place for the period covering Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in August 2022. “I really hope it’s a great success, and that people will make use of it.”

She added that depending on the success of the Mullingar scheme, it is likely that a similar one will be rolled out in Athlone.

Scooters

Nationally, moves are afoot to bring in regulations covering the use of electric scooters. In many European cities, they can be rented in the same way as public rental bikes and Cllr Smyth sees these too as having a part to play in the shift away from the use of cars.

“Going with the modal shift, we all have to go through, getting away from car reliance where we can, they definitely do serve a good purpose.”

However, she adds, there has been some incidents of scooters being used recklessly and endangering pedestrians: “So I do think it’s important – and I am glad – that the Green Party is introducing legislation to regulate the use of them.”

“Like all these things,similar to the bikes even, we really do need to start putting a better focus on providing the active travel infrastructure that is needed to accommodate all these new types of people powered transport devices.”