Working group set up to explore Kilkenny City bike scheme

Kilkenny could have its own bikeshare scheme similar to the very successful Dublin Bikes.
Bike share schemes have taken off around the world with many cities and smaller municipalities embracing them as a means of reducing car dependency and offering choice to commuters of a free service to help them move around more freely.
Cllr Malcolm Noonan, who sits on a working group convened by Kilkenny LEADER Partnership (KLP) to drive the project, said that the reality of a free bike share scheme for the City was moving ever closer and as the group explores what kind of scheme might work here.
“There are many examples of small schemes across the world and we are looking primarily at what they call ‘docked’ bike schemes.
“Dublin Bikes is a docked scheme where customers register and can access bikes from docked stations as opposed to free bike schemes where bikes are simply accessed via an app and a scan code and can be left back at any public bike rack’ said Cllr Noonan.
“Our working group believes that such a scheme could add to a suite of measures to reduce car dependency, tackle dangerous emissions, improve the viability of our town centre and make our streets safer for everyone,” he said.
“There’s nothing new or novel about them, they have been around since the 1960s and as we re-imagine our urban centres, we need to innovate and think differently as to how we keep our towns vibrant and buzzing,” added Cllr Noonan.
He said that Kilkenny City was perfectly laid out in many ways for cycling, it is mostly flat and the Council has based successive development plans on a compact or a ‘ten minute’ city model.
“The completion of a spine along the River Nore through the Brewery site will further add to the connectivity within the City’ said Cllr Noonan.
The working group comprises of Kilkenny County Council, KLP, Kilkenny Recreation and Sports Partnership and Cartoon Saloon.
The Oscar-nominated animation studio came on board as they were finding that most of their staff and the staff of Lighthouse studios, were cycling to work and that they would benefit from such a scheme as well as impressing the many visiting animators and project partners from all over the World who would be used to seeing such schemes in other countries.
Important
“The partnership with the Saloon is important; wouldn’t it be wonderful to brand our bikes with characters from Song of the Sea, Secret of Kells or the Breadwinner? As in many other European cities, bikes are distinguished by branding or a strong colour.
“Ours could be distinctly Kilkenny in colour and design. I think it would be fantastic to arrive at MacDonagh train station and pick up a bike to cycle into town or to be able to cycle on a city bike from Loughboy or Talbot’s Inch or Newpark into town to shop or do business. We are hopeful that this project will advance over the next year or so and we can secure funding to make it a reality for Kilkenny,” concluded Cllr Noonan.