{"id":614705,"date":"2026-08-01T06:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T06:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/614705\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T06:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T06:17:15","slug":"e-scooter-ban-puts-promised-bike-and-electric-car-rental-hubs-on-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/614705\/","title":{"rendered":"E-scooter ban puts promised bike and electric car rental hubs on ice"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE GOVERNMENT HAS stalled its long-promised plans to roll out shared mobility hubs, which would include bike and electric car-sharing facilities, across the country because they included e-scooters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The decision to pause the promised green transport schemes for areas including Cork city and south county Dublin has been criticised by sustainable transport activists who said it is a \u201cstep backwards\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pilot schemes in five locations had been approved, but funding to all public e-scooter schemes has now been paused and is under review, the Department of Transport has confirmed.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the department said that in light of this development, it is now necessary to \u201creevaluate the pilot\u2019s business case\u201d.<\/p>\n

It said the National Transport Authority will engage with participating local authorities as the review progresses and when there is \u201cgreater clarity\u201d on the \u201cfuture direction\u201d of the pilot.<\/p>\n

The pilots were approved to begin in D\u00fan Laoghaire-Rathdown, Cork city, Carlow town, Dundalk and Sligo and would have included pay-as-you-go access to bikes, e-bikes, e-scooters, e-cargo bikes, and electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

The scheme, which is being funded by the Climate Action Fund, would have contributed towards reduced congestion, improved air quality and lower transport-related emissions.<\/p>\n

First proposed by former climate minister Eamon Ryan, the pilot hubs were\u00a0originally expected to begin operating in 2024.<\/a>\u00a0Ryan had dubbed them \u201cone of the most important projects\u201d to be rolled out that year.<\/p>\n

Following the general election in 2024 and the Greens\u2019 removal from government, the hubs remained a pledge in the Fianna F\u00e1il\/Fine Gael\/Regional Independents\u2019 programme for government, which was published in early 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It commits to: \u201cEstablish mobility hubs in each local authority area, offering integrated transport services like bike and scooter sharing, EV charging, car sharing, and carpooling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reacting to the Department\u2019s decision to review the rollout of the pilots, Green Party leader and TD Roderic O\u2019Gorman said it was being stalled on a \u201ctotally spurious basis\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet again, this government is trying to unpick and undermine any action to make it easier for people to cycle,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIf they have a genuine concern about e-scooters, then leave them out of the hubs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cBut don\u2019t cancel the benefits of shared bike schemes, shared cargo bikes, etc, that these hubs will promote.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision comes after the government announced a clampdown on e-scooters<\/a> earlier this week in response to a rise in accidents involving them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Data from Children\u2019s Health Ireland and the HSE indicated a concerning pattern of serious and life-changing injuries caused by e-scooters, with admissions for traumatic brain injuries from e-scooter accidents increased by 50% in the last 12 months.<\/p>\n

Reacting to the news that shared mobility hubs will be further delayed, Jason Cullen of the Dublin Commuters Coalition told The Journal:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see the bike share scheme being delayed because of government overreaction to the illegal uses of these e-scooters is just another in an ongoing list of frustrations and disappointments by this government when it comes to transport.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE GOVERNMENT HAS stalled its long-promised plans to roll out shared mobility hubs, which would include bike and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,442,24001,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,259333,1923,1924,7,8],"class_list":["post-614705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-climate-change","tag-department-of-transport","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-shared-mobility-hubs","tag-the-morning-lead","tag-tml","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}