Rental bikes used five times more in Athlone

The pay-per-use bicycles provided in Mullingar and Athlone are used five times more often in Athlone than in Mullingar.

“I suppose there’s no surprises there with the college and things like that.

“But they’re not used as much as we’d like them to be,” Ambrose Clarke, a senior engineer at Westmeath County Council’s Environment and Climate Action section, told councillors at their March meeting.

Mr Clarke said he is looking to see if usage of the bike rental scheme can be boosted.

“We’ve looked at lots of different things trying to make it more popular, but it’s costing a few bob and we will have to see where we go with that,” he said.

However, he stressed, the council was keen that it did offer the bike rentals as an option for people coming to town. “But we just have to make a decision in the future how we’re going to keep going with that,” he said.

The rental bikes are available at several locations in Mullingar.