Popular bike scheme set for expansion

OUR capital city is set to become awash with more bikes. This follows the announcement last week that Coca-Cola Zero will become the commercial partner of dublinbikes in a three-year agreement.

Under the new partnership, the number of bikes will treble to 1,500 and docking stations will increase to 100. The bike scheme, which will be available to members from the end of this month, will be known as Coca-Cola Zero dublinbikes.

Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Christy Burke, said the city has had a world class public bike hire scheme since 2009.

“The scheme has exceeded all expectations and over seven million journeys have been taken so far,

? he said.

“Dublin City Council always envisaged that commercial partnership would play an important part in funding the scheme’s expansion and in Coca-Cola Ireland, dublinbikes has found a fitting partner.

?

Minister for Public and Commuter Transport, Alan Kelly, said Dublin is swiftly becoming a cycling city.

“The dublinbikes scheme has been one of the biggest drivers in making this possible,

? said Minister Kelly.

“Cycling has increased 40 per cent in Dublin city since the scheme started – those numbers speak for themselves.

“The fact that dublinbikes will now partner with one of the world’s best marketing companies, Coca-Cola, shows the upward trajectory that cycling is going to go on.

?

Minister Kelly added:

“The partnership between Dublin City Council, JCDecaux and Coca-Cola Ireland will no doubt serve the people of Dublin long into the future.”

Joanne Grant, managing director JCDecaux Ireland, said they were very pleased to have Coca-Cola Zero on board.

“Coca-Cola has a long track record in helping to promote and encourage activity in everyday life,

? said Ms Grant.

“We look forward to working with their world renowned marketing and communications skills to help grow and broaden the appeal of dublinbikes.

“Our scheme is already a huge success and JCDecaux looks forward to taking it to the next level.

“The combination of street furniture advertising and commercial partnership revenues enables us to operate such a successful scheme providing significant enhancement to the public transport system in Dublin.

?

Jon Woods, General Manager, Coca-Cola Great Britain & Ireland, said they were delighted to be partnering with such a successful scheme.

This partnership builds on our support for the roll out of the regional bike schemes in Galway, Limerick and Cork,

? he said.