Dublin City Council is moving to provide public bike bunkers, and the government’s changing rules to make it easier to install private ones in front gardens.
Two plans are progressing to provide people who don’t have space to store their bikes in their homes with other secure options.
Dublin City Council has issued a call-out to companies interested in installing and maintaining public bike bunkers that people can pay to park their bikes in.
Meanwhile, plans are afoot to make it easier for people to install secure, covered bike storage in their front gardens, without planning permission.
As national and local governments push people to travel more by foot, bike, or public transport, some potential cyclists have said that not having a place to store their bikes where they won’t get stolen is an obstacle.
“For densely populated areas, including areas with terraced housing, apartments etc with no private cycle storage, this can be a barrier to considering cycling as a transport option,” says Úna Morrison, spokesperson for the Dublin Cycling Campaign.
“Secure cycle storage is essential for people to feel comfortable about purchasing a bike and starting to cycle,” she says.
Dublin City Council piloted a public bike bunker in 2014–15, installed more towards the end of 2019 or early 2020 and in September 2021 said it planned to tender for 350 bike bunkers within the following six to eight weeks.
But it didn’t. Instead, in April 2023, senior engineer Patricia Reidy told councillors the scheme was being put under review.
Following the review, in September 2023, senior executive engineer Jennifer McGrath talked to councillors about a plan to install 150 bike bunkers at an estimated cost of €1.5 million over three years.
And now, on 12 July, the council published its call-out for companies interested in providing and maintaining bike bunkers.
“This is the first stage of this competitive procedure whereby any interested party may submit a response to this Questionnaire in order to be considered for inclusion on the tender list,” it says.
“Following evaluation, at least the top 5 scoring applicants will be invited to tender, should that number qualify,” it says. “Please note that this project is subject to funding.”
This “framework agreement” has an estimated value of €10 million over 10 years, the procurement documents say.
The bike bunkers should each be able to hold about six bikes, accessed through a single door.
“Dublin City Council is seeking a service to provide approximately 300 secure bicycle storage units to be installed and in service over the period of the Framework,” the document says.
That’d provide about 1,800 spaces for bikes. But the document also notes that “There are currently 3,654 spaces requested.”
Although it’s Dublin City Council leading this procurement process, Fingal County Council and South Dublin County Council are both part of it as well.
That means they’ll “be able to access the successful tenderer during the lifetime of the agreement if they so wish”, said a spokesperson for Fingal County Council.
“At this time Fingal County Council have no plans to extend our current Bike Bunker provision beyond our current offering,” she said. In January, Fingal announced the installation of two bike bunkers in Balbriggan.
As for South Dublin County Council, a spokesperson there said it “has no present offering or set proposals for Bike Bunkers and as such”.
“However, we will be at liberty to drawdown from the tender being led by our colleagues in Dublin City Council during the lifetime of the agreement, if / when we establish our needs,” she said.
While these public bike bunkers might be the best option for some people, others have space to install their own secure, covered bike storage in their yards.
However, Dublin City Council has taken planning enforcement actions against some residents who have done this.
In June 2023, Steven Matthews TD, chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, proposed a change to make it easier for residents.
He said he wanted the law to allow people to install covered bike storage in their front gardens, if it meets certain guidelines, without planning permission.
On Tuesday, Matthews said that’s still in the works – in conjunction with the planning and development bill now before the Seanad.
“The new planning regulations are being drafted to coincide with [the] new planning act,” the Wicklow Green Party TD said. “It is expected that the exemption I submitted will be included in the new regulations.”
Matthews said “the amendment required is to Schedule 2, Part 1 for Class 3 development”.
“No such structure shall be constructed, erected, or placed forward of the front wall of a house [apartment, duplex, other dwelling] except a structure solely for the storage of bicycles and personal powered transporters (defined in the Roads Act 2023) for personal use, measuring no more than [1.4]m in height and 4m2 in floor area, appropriately screened and finished in character with the dwelling and/or street.”
He said he’s submitted this wording “to get the process going” but is “open to amendments on dimensions if necessary”.
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