Post 27 - Dublin Bikes and Bike to Work scheme

Ireland like most European countries are trying to encourage people to exercise more and to avoid traffic jam in City Centre. For those reasons, the government has set up 2 scheme and both of them are pretty good and highly successful:

• Dublin Bikes (http://www.dublinbikes.ie/)

This is a great way to get from one place to another. The subscription cost only €20 a year and every first 30 minutes of your journey is free. There are lots of stations around Dublin and more bikes will be available very soon. 

One issue though for being a user myself is that sometimes there are no bikes available or that there are no space free to leave your bike. In both case you have to wait or go to the next station.

However this is overall a very successful project and the bikes are well looked after.

• Bike to work scheme (http://www.biketowork.ie/)

The bike to work scheme is a great scheme to help people to buy a brand new bike and safety equipments worth up to €1,000. You can repay monthly through your salary and save up to 52% in tax. I have used this scheme myself for a bike I rarely use to go to work but this is a great plan.