Bike Bunkers are the grey mini-hangars you might have seen in inner suburban areas of Dublin. They’re part of a pilot scheme originally launched eight years ago. The idea was to follow our European neighbours in providing parking on-street for bikes that’s enclosed and secure. Street residents would pay a yearly subscription and be given access to the hangar to store their bike.

350 of the bunkers were to be installed - where residents requested them - in 2020. But nothing happened. Sadly we’ve heard that the scheme is ‘under review’ in Council and there’s a possibility it won’t go ahead at all.

This is unacceptable!

We’ve made our views known to the Council, but we need them to know that Dublin’s bike users won’t tolerate Bike Bunkers being cancelled.

Please help out!

Contact the Council via twitter, facebook, phone or email to send this simple message. And if you’ve another free minute, look up your local Councillor here and ping them a very quick email, text or call. Use the text below if that’d help (but do be polite and positive!)

Here’s a suggested text for your submission…

Dear City Council Active Travel Team,

I’m writing to you to express my concern and disappointment regarding the news that secure communal bike parking “Bike Bunkers” are now not being rolled out across the city.

Given the enormous need for secure bike parking in Dublin it is deeply disappointing that a scheme of 350 bike bunkers that had been announced for tender in both 2020 and 2021 is now at risk of not being delivered at all. Dublin City Council provides tens of thousands of (on-street) car parking spaces to residents, yet our members living in the city remain in desperate need of secure bike parking.

We feel that the proposed review should have come either after the larger pilot was implemented or been carried out immediately during and after the initial pilots in 2015 & 2019.

Bike bunkers would support the fulfilment of cycle parking, on-street parking and modal shift objectives of the Dublin City Development plan 2022-2028, and of the Dublin City Centre Public Realm Masterplan.

The bike bunker scheme was first piloted nearly 10 years ago in 2015. If the review finds that the bike bunkers are not suitable, alternative options should be delivered at scale in different areas across the city. Pilots must be larger and at community scale to ascertain appropriate information to refine and improve the project, before rolling out the scheme across the city.

Dubliners cannot afford to wait another 8 years before implementing secure communal bike parking.

Please send to: customerservices@dublincity.ie and copy Chief Executive Owen Keegan chiefexecutive@dublincity.ie