Lets be honest, most people complaining are also complaining about other active travel and environmental funding. But there are also questions that make sense to ask.Comment & Analysis: The cost of 127,385 for the Unverity Hospital Kerry bike hub, amounts to just 3,184 per space for a far more substantial structure than the Dail bike shelter which is wide open to the elements half the time and only secure because its in the grounds of Lenster House, and came with a staggering cost of cost 336,000, or 9,333 per space. A key question might be: What is the limit people think there should be on the cost of a bicycle parking unit?As covered last week, a multi-storey car park at Wexford General Hospital recently cost around 13 million, or 36,516 per space, for the 356 spaces in the car park. Again, I have to ask: Where is the outrage?You could say itll be paid for via parking charges, but theres a large overlap between the people calling a bicycle parking unit a scadle and those who think everybody should get free parking at hospitals whatever about the value for free parking for those who need it, a free-for-all would mean that that the people who need the spaces the most (regardless of income) would not get them.Meanwhile, space-efficient and high-quality bicycle parking, which is attractive to users, has the potential to get more staff out of cars and freeing up car parking space for the patients, staff and visitors who really need to drive.The Kerryman newspaper broke the story about the cost of the parking structure after lodging a Freedom of Information (FOI) request about the process. The glass and steel structure itself cost 49,990 with the steel bike racks for 40 bikes comming it at 7,800, and VAT on those combined came to 13,292. There were also ground works costing 39,363 this included the concrete base for the structure, demolition of existing paths around the structure and a replacement tarmacpath, which, according to some photos, looks large enough. Electrical work and CCTV also came to 16,940, including VAT.So, lets look at some of the comments about the bike shed:You go to Utrecht Citya fabulous city for cycling.. youll see what they have provided there.which doesnt seem to come to 127kUnlike some of the other comments here, this was not made by a random person or bot online. It was Independent Ireland TD Ken OFlynn on national radio, speaking on RTEs Drivetime. The Dutch city of Utrecht, in reality, spends tens of millions on bicycle parking structures for thousands of bicycles.The price of one unit that holds 12,500 bicycles in three levels under Utrechts elevated station square was 30 million. After its construction, Kees van Ommeren, a transport economist working with the Decisio, wrote that people thought the cost was crazy and it led to heated discussions. But he said the analysis pointed towards value for money. It worked one third of the public transport subsidies related to people travelling to the central train station by bus or tram, and even more so compared to car trips.He wrote: The negative impacts and externalities associated with car travel were in the order of tens of millions of euros every year, including effects like congestion, emissions, climate change, health, etc, even in the most optimistic scenarios. The message was very clear: investing this big amount of money on just a bike parking was very much worth it!But, even with that in mind, lets look at some of the other statements and questions on the Unverity Hospital Kerry bicycle hub:Building a house would be cheaperNo, it would not. And its telling that a lot of the people making such comments likely paid for their houses when houses cost a small fraction of what they do now.Even looking at the price of modular homes, it would have to be reasonably large to be equivalent to the structure which fits 40 bicycles with inverted-U racks and spaces between them. And when looking at modular homes, people often dont think of the cost of groundworks, utilities such as water and electricity, and any paths or driveways, etc. And thats before we talk about the cost of the land or any legal fees involved in building a house.How many hospital beds would that pay for ??????In a general hospital, zero hospital beds is the answer. The cost of running an in-patient hospital bed across acute hospitals is 878 per night in 2019. Inflation is likely to have pushed that well above 900 per night by now. Thats without looking at construction costs for building the space for that bed in the first place. But using 900 per night as a low estimate, a hospital bed likely costs well over 330,000 per year just to run.How many portable buildings could be bought and put beds in instead of trolley s or having to sit in A E for 14 hours inAnd even bigger, fatter zero. It would have been better spent on other staff facilities!The majority of the cost was paid for from national active travel funding via the National Transport Authority, and the remainder came from the HSEs Green Fund, which is ring-fenced for projects like this.Hard to justify that expenditureOn the face of it, yes, it is. But thats largely because most people have very little idea of the cost of structures, building work, and electrical work, etc this bicycle hub at Unverity Hospital Kerry fits 40 bicycles; its not a shed as most people would think.The Lenster House bicycle shed also not a shed and even ineffective at keeping anything dry when the rain is blowing in a prevailing direction was a total waste and outrageously expensive. People who go around calling everything a waste need to ask themselves, does that devalue actual scandals?Thats not to say it was the cheapest possible solution, or even that the kind of solution could not be built for cheaper. But the level of scandal vs what is possibly justified here is likely to be less than what will be spent inquiring into whether it was value for money. But why not go with the cheaper options?The costs of the cheaper units were just based on the structure cost, it would not have included works such as the concrete foundation and other ground work, or CCTV and other electrical work, etc. As far as has been reported, the alternatives would have been open to the elements and more open to bicycle theft. Leaving bicycles non-secure especially electric bicycles or any bicycles for lower-paid staff is not a great way to encourage people with long shifts at a hospital to take up cycling.One option, which was secure, was made of timber, came with a lower build cost, but a far higher maintenance cost and more importantly, we are not good at maintenance.But come on, youre not really saying it was value for money?Still asking that question means youre making a value judgment about bicycle parking. Over time, the health benefits of cycling are likely large enough to pay for it once again: Where is your outrage over the cost of car parking to taxpayers? The OPW is spending 1.2m a year to rent parking spots for public servants in different State bodies thats a recurring cost.It does not matter how much it costs, house people firstGiven that transport is needed for housing, how much of the transport funding do you want reallocated to housing? Given that the lack of transport infrastructure is already an issue with housing delivery, do you really want to make it worse? For some context, all of the active travel budget for 2026 including footpaths and cycle routes, and greenways, etc amounts to 3% of the total housing budget for this year.You could nearly do up a derelict house for thatEstimates from the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, available on their website, show that this is also unlikely when all costs are accounted for. The Government is also offering people 70,000 each to renovate derelict houses, and there are thousands of energy improvement grants, so, its not like theres no action being taken in that area. Overall, including property which was just vacant, over 200 million has been paid out in vacant and derelict grants (the fund is combined).Put in an FOI for the details of the contract or is that a classified state secret?As mentioned above, this is news because the Kerryman newspaper used an FOI to get the details stop getting your news from Facebook video clips and always-outraged populists.I could have made it for 2,000 including vat where the 125,000 go?????2,000 wouldnt have paid for the concrete base, and, according to the Kerryman, just in terms of structure alone, without all the other costs (see above), even a cheaper, non-secure shelter would have cost over 2,900 for 40 bike spaces.It will come in very handy to the staff who live 20-30-40 and 50 miles awayJust because some staff live miles away does not mean there is not a benefit to providing alternatives to staff living closer, which frees up parking spaces for staff living miles away.Is it even used?An article in the Daily Mail, which lambasts the spending, shows photos of around 12 or so of the 40 spaces being used. Clearly, usage may vary at different times, just like car parks can be less busy at times. So a wider survey would be needed to check on its usage. Will usage increase? Even at around 12 spaces used, its a start for somewhere like Co Kerry, where cycling would not exactly be known as the main form of transport.This structure is also built to last more than a few years. Similar units in Dublin are packed, often after years of promotions encouraging people to cycle.They take the busAs above, the bus costs more to subsidise. Most people think funding public transport is a good idea. Why not fund the cheaper options too?What did they do years ago, only put a plastic bag over the saddle and put a lock on it, oh the waste the wasteThose were the days when bicycle theft was not a problem, and spending 500 on a bicycle for commuting was outrageous. And, yeah, and most people who say these kinds of things including the above-mentioned TD dont go for the cheapest car possible today. Strange that, isnt it? Its like making things attractive helps attract people to things. In the same vein, why is it so hard to imagine that giving people somewhere thats weather-proofed and secure, and also a bit nice-looking, with lighting at the front of the hospital entrance, might actually be helpful in getting more people cycling compared to a half-exposed shelter in a dark, dingy corner of a car park? Why isnt anyone saying who supplied the pink porch. If we are told that we can then follow the money trailIf you cannot figure that out when the supplier name has already been reported on, do you think you might be missing more context too?