Laois launches Ireland's first 'bike library' in Portlaoise park

The Bike Library features a secure, keyless bike hanger designed to store upcycled bicycles for cycle training by teachers and Green Schools Travel Officers working locally.

This weatherproof facility, located next to the learning area in People’s Park, ensures the bicycles are safely stored and readily available for training and educational purposes.

The bicycles in the library were generously donated by the public through a bike amnesty organised by Laois County Council’s Environment Section last August.

To bring ten of the bikes up to standard for the local Portlaoise school bike library, the Environment Section engaged Frontline Bikes, to refurbish and restore the bikes to a high standard.

Image: Laois County Council

The bike hanger storage unit was funded by the National Transport Authority (NTA) through the Active Travel Section. The Projects Office installed the concrete pad to which the bike storage unit is securely anchored.

The council say that the project was a cross-departmental effort within Laois County Council, with various teams working together to deliver community infrastructure.

The Bike Library was developed to support the Portlaoise Travel Cluster Project, a groundbreaking Irish initiative, marking the first time in Ireland that all schools within a single town have collaboratively focused on the Green-Schools Travel theme simultaneously. 

Just before Christmas, that project saw all ten Portlaoise schools hold a simultaneous Walk on Wednesday, aiming to cut out rush hour school traffic. See pictures here and in the current Leinster Express newspaper.

Sponsored by Laois County Council, it is delivering the Green-Schools Travel theme across the ten mainstream Portlaoise schools and aims to increase sustainable travel among students by promoting walking, cycling, scooting, and the use of public or shared transportation.