More Tips Living in Dublin (Part 2)

It has been nearly 4 years I've lived in Dublin (time flies!). So, it's impossible if I didn't have more tips living here, at least to make your life a bit easier. Before reading this post, I suggest you to read the first part here as I begin this post with an update before writing new ones. Happy reading! :)





Update

• The price for bus rambler tickets had been increased. For students, the 30-day ticket now costs €96 (from €75). It's still worth it though as they increased the bus fair too. 

More Tips

pic-1. Leap Card

1. There is a new card to pay for public transport fares, called Leap card (picture 1). It can be used for any public transportation: bus, luas/tram, and train/dart. The way it works is that you need to top up the card (minimum €5) and then simply tap the card on the card scanner everytime you get on the bus, luas, or train. For buses, just tap once when you get on; and tap twice for luas and trains, when you get on and off. Using Leap card is cheaper than paying with cash, not much but certainly simpler. You don't need to look for some money in your purse (coins for buses) before getting tickets, which sometimes takes a while.


2. Student travel cards can be used as Leap card now (picture 2). Please read the tips part 1 to know what student travel card is.

   

   pic-2. Student Travel Card

3. Dublin bus company has set up electronic real timetables at most of the bus stops. Before that, we used to check the schedules when buses left their starting terminals and predicted the time they reached the bus stop where you're waiting. Now no more trying to predict, which was inaccurate most of the time (traffics are often unpredictable!). The real timetables are also available online on their website. They have the mobile version (app and SMS) as well. All you have to do is simply enter the bus stop number you'd like to start your journey from (picture 3), or you can enter the route, address, or even search by stops near you (picture 4).
   

   

   

   pic-3. Bus Stop Number

   pic-4. Dublin Bus App

4. What about taxis? Have you ever been in the situation where you waited for a taxi passing on the road, and none showed up or all full? Now there is an app called Hailo where you can order a taxi and it will come to wherever you are (well, not wherever) or to a certain address you want. The app gets the information of your location and it's used by the taxi driver to pick you up. Handy!


5. For cyclists, even though there are cycle lanes here, at many spots they are overlapping with bus lanes, especially at the bus stops. So at such spots, when you cycle and feel like there's a bus coming from behind you, go to the center of the lane (but be careful!) so that the bus won't pass you and then end up leaving a very narrow space for you to cycle, which is sometimes very dangerous. Some bus drivers a few times passed me at high speed and only left me with a tiny little space, only for me, my bike, and a ridiculously small space for air in between, really.

Those are the 5 tips I could think of at the moment. If I have more to share, I'll post them here (as Part 3 perhaps).

Posted in: stories from Dublin,tips