The Velibs are coming?

[alonso]

Does anyone else think these bikes are cool enought to forego EUR150 for?
Seems good value to me for an almost new bike (with lock lights and a basket thrown in)

I want my own dublinbike, beats the piece of crap I have which also cost EUR150 (without lights lock or basket or pannier)

Do they have a pnnier?

you don't forego 150 for this scheme

[ac1976]

you don't forego 150 for this scheme

Well I was exploring the idea of keeping one of the bikes forever Alonso
Seems good value for EUR150.

[alonso]

oh yeh sorry - well free lightt, free bell, y'know factor it all in like

I wonder will you be pursued though

[StephenC]

All the bikes are microchipped so they can be located.

[lostexpectation]

All the bikes are microchipped so they can be located.

really so they can trace your movements

[missarchi]

Not only that you think they can record voices and build up bicycle facial recognition. I think most the data will be used for research into marketing ect.
But the information would be great for transport planning but wait there's no bikes at college green...

[newgrange]

Wait until they can identify you and as you pass the beautiful JC Decaux erections (which soon enough will have TV screen style displays, as they have in other countries), they can deliver you targetted advertising. What joy.

[missarchi]

TV's is going a bit mad but I've seen it done... Was there no condition in the boards decision?
Sound will be next... We even have McDonald's in metro stations just wait for the vending machines and retail integration in about 10 years...

[Smithfield Resi]

Was there no condition in the boards decision?

The board rejected all those that were appealed, problem was that DCC/Decaux put them is a seperate planning applications, so cost a fortune to appeal all of them. There is no condition as to the nature of the display, so in theory they could have LED/LCD TV type displays fitted to them.

2 years + after the grant of permission there has STILL been no Stage 3 road safety audit done on the signage as was conditioned to be done.

iv) The proposed structure shall be the subject of a Stage 3 Road Safety Audit at the applicants expense. This will be done by an approved auditor through a public procurement procedure, which shall audit the entire permitted signage. Any failure shall be removed.

[GregF]

Note: the amount of cyclists being killed on Irish roads is very high. There was another victim just there last Tuesday on Wellington Quay. A lorry was involved as usual. RIP

[Paul Clerkin]

Dublin Bikes iphone app pulled after legal threats from J.C. Decaux
http://fusio.net/dublinbikesapp/

[ac1976]

Dublin Bikes iphone app pulled after legal threats from J.C. Decaux
http://fusio.net/dublinbikesapp/

Thata a bummer, its a great app
mine still works for now anyway

[Global Citizen]

Thata a bummer, its a great app
mine still works for now anyway

Too right its a bummer.
What was the reason for the legal threat ?

[missarchi]

maybe you can assess shortage of supply?
Any way bicycle tracking would also be cool on google maps maybe that's a project for the UCD people intercepting the free broadcast signal... and mapping bike usage over time

[lostexpectation]

we don't want tracking on bikes, the oyster card system in london is orwellian, check out eirtext app vs O2, for similar story re legal threat that could have been sorted by a phone call.

[hutton]

Once again the downsides of this deal only become apparent after the the fact.

Why is it that JC Decaux are now apparently trying to deter the beneficial aspect of a remarkably poor deal from functioning to its full potential?

Why is it JC Decaux are able to float kites such as recently touting the bikes themselves would be available to rent as advertising space?

Who has the right to potentially useful information from use of the bikes and the stations - seemingly - once again - not the city.

Where has it ever been explained the origins of the dodgy rezoning map, entitled "zones of advertising control", which was used by DCC officials at BP hearings - although no councillor had ever voted on the same?

Why did the city agree a deal where JC Decaux projected an income of €63m from the new advert units?

Moreover why did the city accept the €63m figure when the potential revenue from just one of the larger units is €3.9m?

Where is the Independent Road Safety Audit that was to be conducted on the new billboard units?

Why was there deliberate suppression of the contract until the Ombusdman forced it into the open?

Has there been any attempt to make accountable the city officials and certain councillors who got such a prize bum deal for the city?

What enforcement has there been of the removal of 100 existing billboards has there been, that was part of the deal?

What enforcement is there of JC Decaux's continued development and use of unauthorised structures - see the new trivision structure at the junction of Killeen and Nangor Roads, or at Newcomen Bridge in the North Strand for more.

Where is Minister for the Environment John Gormley in all of this - what if any action has he taken to get answers?

So many questions. So few answers.

Still its nice to the city council's commercial partner issue such heavy-handed legal threats to a non-commercial initiative that was only seeking to assist Dubliners get use of the scheme.

For the record while Dublin got a rotten deal from this - trying to allow 120 billboards for 450 bikes, whereas Paris got 13 bikes in exchange for each billboard allowed, if it hadn't been for this site and the scrutiny given to the matter, according to city planner Jim Keoghan the original intention was to allow 170 billboards. Ultimately Decaux have gotten away with only 70 approx. Boo-hoo for Decaux.




Free iPhone application for bike scheme withdrawn

CHARLIE TAYLOR

A FREE iPhone application for users of Dublin’s bicycle rental scheme has been withdrawn after the software firm which developed it was threatened with legal action by the advertising agency backing the new initiative.

The real-time application allows users of the scheme to find their nearest Dublinbikes station and see how many bicycles and spaces are available at it.

Fusio, the company behind the application, was sent a cease and desist letter from JC Decaux earlier this week in which it was told that legal action would be considered if it continued to offer the mobile application for download.

The application, which was only released at the end of August, has proven to be highly successful, with some 3,000 downloads over the past three weeks, making it one of the most popular Irish applications available at the iTunes AppStore.

More than 6,000 people have subscribed to the Dublinbikes scheme, which was introduced on September 15th. The initiative is being funded by JC Decaux in exchange for advertising space in the capital.

Fusio’s application uses data which is freely available on the Dublinbikes website. This is then plotted on to Google Maps. The application uses the iPhone’s built-in GPS to allow users to get up-to-the minute information on the availability of bikes. Additional data used in the application was provided by Dublin City Council.

Fusio insists it sought permission to use data from JC Decaux prior to releasing the application.

Diarmaid Mac Aonghusa, Fusio managing director, said the company had decided to produce the application solely as a development project to draw attention to its ability to develop similar applications for clients.

“We were offering the application for free and had received a number of phone calls from members of the public congratulating us on it, which is something that rarely happens in the IT world. So we’d obviously developed an application which was proving to be popular. However, when we were advised that legal action was possible, we felt we had no option to withdraw the application.”

Although iPhone users who have already downloaded the application will still be able to use it, it is no longer available for download at the AppStore and no updates will be provided in future.

A spokesperson for JC Decaux said the company had no comment to make regarding the cease and desist letter.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0923/1224255060614.html

[ac1976]

There is also a website doing the same thing as the app although not as useful as an iPhone app.

http://www.dublinbikes.mobi/

I guess they haven't received their Cease & Desist letter yet!

[StephenC]

Love the Bikes
Hate the Process

I would be very interested in enforcment action against those unauthorised signs. Is there a list of their locations for the average NIMBYist?

[newgrange]

For sure the scrolling ads on the construction at Newcomen Bridge should have been removed by JC Decaux.

Instead of doing so, they had the hard neck to apply for not one, but two of those hideous Metropoles, having been refused one on the other side of the bridge following an appeal to An Bord Pleanala.

DCC in an outstanding display of cretinism, even by their own high standards, opted to allow one of the Metropoles at the Newcomen Bridge site - a decision which I have appealed to APB (result due mid-October).

I shouldn't have to do this though.
I shouldn't have to root out 220 euro of my money and spend my time keeping these things out of my area. ABP gave many clear reasons why these things should be refused permission in the decisions on those Metropoles that were appealed, one of them located on Newcomen Bridge and then the munchkins in DCC go and try to allow one not thirty metres away???

[ac1976]

Good for you Pascal!
http://examiner.ie/business/donohoe-intervenes-in-iphone-dispute-101663.html

Donohoe intervenes in iPhone dispute

Thursday, September 24, 2009

PASCHAL DONOHOE, iPhone user and Seanad transport spokesman, has called on Dublin City Council to intervene in a dispute over an iPhone application that shows Dubliners where their nearest Dublin bike is located.

Senator Donohoe said that the removal of this application due to the threat of legal action "just doesn’t make sense".

[missarchi]

Stationstops app... New yorkshire

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/0925/1224255203440.html

[Smithfield Resi]

AN EXPERT on information technology law has said that the advertising agency JC Decaux would be unlikely to win a case against a web design firm over a free iPhone application it developed for the Dublinbikes scheme.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/0925/1224255203440.html

[wearnicehats]

All the bikes are microchipped so they can be located.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0929/breaking26.htm

[JJD]

Interestingly...

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0930/breaking45.htm

All's well that ends well!

[fergalr]

I can't explain right now how liberating these bikes are for pedestrians. They're just fantastic. Stephen's Green to Parnell Square North in ten minutes. O'Connell Street to Smithfield in four minutes.Can't be beaten. The quays are a no-go, though. Buses are incredibly dangerous to be around.