City
BIXI bike-sharing officially launches in Toronto
Toronto's BIXI bike share program kicked off today at Yonge and Gould with a group of prominent members of the cycling community, city councillors, and sponsors TELUS and Desjardins rolling into the launch on their shiny new steeds. The program will provide Torontonians with year-round access to 1,000 bikes located at 80 stations in the downtown core.
The Public Bike System Company (PBSC) is the organization behind BIXI, the first large-scale bike sharing system in North America. Users borrow a bike from a BIXI station and return the bike to any station in the network. PBSC's bike sharing system has already been implemented in various cities, including Montreal, Washington, and London.
Memberships cost $40 for one month and $95 for a year, enabling users to loan any bike in the network using a BIXI-key. Otherwise, non-members can purchase a 24-hour pass for $5 and a 72-hour pass for $12. A 30-minute trip is allotted per rental, with additional fees incurred past that time. More information can be found on the BIXI Toronto website. Two smartphone apps, Spotcycle and Bixou, are also available for keeping track of station locations.
"BIXI is an important part of the city's efforts to encourage cycling," said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong (Ward 34 Don Valley East). "We are confident that this public-private partnership will dramatically increase bicycle trips in the downtown core."
"Support for healthier cities is part of our DNA at TELUS," said Anne-Marie LaBerge (pictured), vice-president of consumer marketing communications at TELUS. "Initiatives like BIXI allow all of us to help safeguard the environment while staying active in our day to day lives--and beating the traffic!"
According to LaBerge, TELUS will also be donating $1 for every year membership purchased to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
"For Desjardins, this is more than a mere sponsorship opportunity," said Tom Little, managing director of investment banking with Desjardins Securities. "We strongly believe in sustainable development and contributing to the wellbeing of our neighbours and communities."
The City of Toronto guaranteed $4.8 million for the project's startup capital, according to Gian-Carlo Crivello, director of business development for the PBSC. Currently, the program has 1,000 registered members, but reaching 7,000 to 8,000 users this year is the goal.
- For more photos of the BIXI Toronto fleet, check out this slideshow.
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Nothing smells more like wasted money than idling gridlocked cars. Bixi provides another alternative for downtowners and GO/TTC riders.
Will be interesting to see if downtown condo dwellers or GO/TTC riders will be the larger user group...
i was too busy being a fucking fat dick head.
Bikes: 1,000
Stations: 80
Montreal Population aprrox 3.8M
Bikes: 5,000
Stations: 400
Montreal -FTW
" If severe weather endangers user safety, BIXI will close temporarily and no bikes can be rented. "
"please limit maximum load to 120 kg (265 lb) for the bike and 8 kg (18 lb) for the carrying rack."
"You must return your bike within the maximum 24-hour usage period. If not, the bike will be presumed stolen, and a penalty of $1,000 might be charged to your credit card."
You can also use a bike again by waiting two minutes after you return one.
It's intended to be used like a taxi, not like a car rental. Grab a bike, cycle to your destination, return it there. Five minutes later, you can get a new one for your return trip (or to head to your next destination) and the 30 minute timer starts again. You get as many of these short trips as you want in a 24-hour period for just $5.
I used it in Montreal last weekend, and it works really well.
I am so excited to see Bixi in Toronto! I’ve used the system in Montreal a bunch of times, and it’s so convenient. At first I thought it was a stupid idea, because I didn’t understand the payment system. But after figuring out how it works (that you pay a small one-time fee of $5, and then you are not charged anymore-no matter how many more times you use it-as long as you bring the bike back within 30 minutes) it made much more sense.
Even though I have a bike, I think I’ll be using Bixi regularly, for those times when I don’t feel like biking somewhere, but I want to bike home (or vice versa, i.e. after a late night of drinking/dancing, or if it’s been raining).
If you have no idea how this works, then please don't comment.
The city has only provided assurances on the $4.8M loan. It has forked out zero money for this (other than a few staff hours). This is fully funded from private businesses and through user fees.
It IS profitable for the Montreal Parking Authority, which conceived of and runs Bixi all over the world. Too bad this great idea never came to Toronto first.
The system is perfect for Torontonians who want to run errands, visit friends, go to work, get a bite to eat, get some exercise etc etc without worrying about having their bike stolen, waiting for a delayed bus, streetcar or subway, spending money on gas, spending a lot on a cab etc etc. And because the time limit is essentially 30 minutes, you are almost guaranteed that a bike will always be available for you.
If you don't like it, then don't use it. What's there to hate?
Personally, I don't give a sh$t about BIXI, however, I do worry about the nature of people who feel entitled and don't want to commit to anything. It's all part of the 'me-me-me' culture that is so pervasive today. If you want a bike, then buy one and use it. If you want to a car, then buy one, don't waste your money on those time share rentals. It's all about immediate gratification and 'choices,' isn't it?
Will this appeal to tourists? What tourist in their right mind would want to navigate our gawdawful streets on a bicycle? The Martin-Goodman trail, perhaps, but Bloor St. or Dundas? With all the traffic and nutty drivers?
The bicycle lobby just doesn't get it: a bunch of people with too much time on their hands, without any real jobs (what time was the kick-off?), forcing their version of socialism down everyone else's throats, pulling BS statistics out of their asses to support their cause (my favorite: a bicycle on the road means one less car - hiliarious, like these free-loaders would drive to work. Heck, they won't even pay for a MetroPass!) and generally coming up with one brainiac idea after another to really screw up traffic and transportation for the real folks of this city.
Well, anyway, in a couple years when this Bixi thing blows over, perhaps the city can get back to the real problems it is facing.
What????? Polarizing concepts, socialists, entitlement. Did you lose your train of thought after the first paragraph.
It's a business venture that has met with success in other large cities, not a socialist revolution. Take a pill.
basically you've solved it:
bicycles are socialism
cars are capitalism
cyclists are socialists
drivers are capitalists
My research would suggest the contrary. Other than gas to power your car (which is unfortunate), do you pay user-fees for each use of the car? (No....there are socialized payments for up-keep and expansion from the general tax coffers...yes there are some payments for your registration, but most of this goes to administration!). Sounds like socialism to me! You don't even bear the cost of the fuel to human health or the environment.
Well...just so happens that cycling doesn't require a fuel (unless you count the food you need to power it yourself...yes include that!), and BIXI DOES use user-fees for each use of the bike? Sounds like capitalism to me!!
Equating all the other cities into Canadian Dollars:
Toronto = 40 month/95 year
Montreal = 28 month/73 year
London = 70.65 year
Washington = 23.75 month/71.25 year
Minneapolis = 28.50 month/38 year
Melbourne = 51.50 year
Even within Canada: a yearly subscription is 20% more expensive in Toronto than Montreal. The monthly one is 40% more expensive in Toronto than Montreal!
Perhaps if Toronto had walked the walk and been more progressive in the first place it would have had Bixi earlier and a crack at some lower rates. Now, with the system well established in cities Toronto normally looks down upon (DC, Minneapolis) we have to put up with paying retail instead of early-insider.
Yeah, totally. What's with people not buying their own taxis and subway trains too? And when you go on vacation somewhere, buy a car! Plus you forgot to mention people who don't own property because they might change job locations, as you are fond of pointing out.
<i>Will this appeal to tourists? What tourist in their right mind would want to navigate our gawdawful streets on a bicycle? The Martin-Goodman trail, perhaps, but Bloor St. or Dundas? With all the traffic and nutty drivers?</i>
Right, because those are the only choices. They couldn't possibly ride on Harbord, St George or any of the minor streets. And a cycling map of the city - who ever heard of such a thing?
And of course most users wouldn't be tourists, oh no.
<i>The bicycle lobby just doesn't get it: a bunch of people with too much time on their hands, without any real jobs</i>
Yeah, like a conservative city councillor.
<i>(what time was the kick-off?)</i>
Seriously, what's with all the daytime product launches?
<i>forcing their version of socialism down everyone else's throats</i>
I guess I missed the part about it being mandatory. And the part about users having to pay for it is totally not capitalist.
<i>pulling BS statistics out of their asses to support their cause (my favorite: a bicycle on the road means one less car - hiliarious, like these free-loaders would drive to work</i>
That's funny, I must have totally imagined the car I left at home this morning when I left for work.
<i>Heck, they won't even pay for a MetroPass!)</i>
Well, everyone knows transit is just a freeloading time-share way of being a parasite on transit infrastructure, so that makes sense.
You are intelligent, no doubt about that. However, you also seem plain ignorant. A contrarian at heart, you argue certain issues with no foundation in reality, just a blind will to disagree. You appear to be the type of person who will buy fruit from the supermarket with coupons and then try to return it for full price when they grow old.
Why do you really care that a public-private partnership is try to promote a healthy, cheap, sustainable form of transportation?
You are right about one thing, some stuff is about instant gratification, such as telling you off in this post. Yes, that was satisfying.
Toronto doesn't walk the walk and it's not very progressive as you can tell from so many of these comments. That's why we pay a bit more for membership. But it's still cheaper than a month of Metropass for the entire year, so stop being a hater and either get on board or shut up!
I truly hope Bixi succeeds, soon matches the number of bikes and stations in Montreal, and far surpasses what US cities can offer. Charts like this don't lie (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/64/Revised_petrol_use_urban_density.JPG), and Toronto should try to make the most of its unique ability to combine the best of US and Euro cities. Bixi is a real shot at that, if they price it right and create separated bike lanes.
Also, you never took into account that a year's worth of Bixi in Toronto is actually more months than a year's worth of Bixi in Montreal. The value is there if you compare it apples to apples - $78 for 8 months is $9.75 a month; $95 for 12 months is $7.92 a month.
Also, Bixi doesn't create bike lanes. Don't blame them for the city's infrastructure!
- Toronto's Bixi is not a "rip-off". $78 for 8 months in Montreal is $9.75 a month; while $95 for 12 months in Toronto is $7.92 a month.
- Montreal's Bixi also started with a smaller area and then expanded during that same summer. There wasn't a lightning strike and suddenly there was Bixi everywhere. They had problems with bikes and stations that couldn't hold up to the vandalism, etc. They're also run by Stationnement de Montréal.
- Bixi doesn't create bike lanes. They're a bike share company, not the City of Toronto.
- Last but not least, I have no idea where the NYC defense comes in because they're not planning to launch anything until 2012.
I really want to love this service, but my gut feeling told me it cost too much. Clearly, comparing it to other installations, it does cost too much.
If government funding is the issue, I wish they'd be forthcoming about it so I can add another paragraph to my lefty-pinko letter to the mayor.
Minneapolis too.
RE: "Clearly, comparing it to other installations, it does cost too much."
Unless another service launches in Toronto, there's no direct comparison. Toronto is not Minneapolis which isn't Montreal which isn't London which isn't Washington DC which isn't Melbourne.
Can someone who has used the service tell me this though, how diligent are they in shuffling the bikes around so A) you don't arrive at a station that's full and have nowhere to but the bike, or B) not have any bikes available at all?
And on a bike, they're probably about 15 minutes apart. How much do you get paid per hour? I make about $30/h, so the 30 minutes I saved would pay $15, subtract $5 for BIXI, and I make a $10 profit.
Good Capitalist economics for you.
And gadfly... my god man, please, tell me what you think about Santa Claus, that obese, alcoholic socialist sponging off our health care system.
If you arrive at a station that's full, you can use your ticket to get 15 minutes extra time to drop off at another nearby station (or wait for someone to come by and take a bike).
Anne-Marie, ff your bosses had just forked over sponsorship dollars for a baby-mincing factory, you'd say baby mincemeat was in your DNA.
"Initiatives like BIXI allow all of us to help safeguard the environment while—"
Turning a profit? Raising brand awareness? Beating Fido to the punch?
Marketing: the art of removing the literal meaning from words and replacing it with fuzzy warm feelings that serve the bottom line.
For anyone outside the downtown core, it's pointless.
Toronto is about great neighbourhoods like the beaches, the Danforth, Little Italy, Ronscesvales, etc...
So you if you want to burn less emissions, just live downtown because it's such a pleasant place to spend a day (sarcasm).
So the start-up network is smaller than in any city BIXI has launched in yet.
The Montreal BIXI network has expanded three times already. Just use it and you will have your Roncy BIXI stations.
Idiots.
Ben, thanks for your concern, but do not worry about my life. If I appear to be one-issue oriented, it's because in my opinion (and that is all it is, an opinion) the biggest challenge confronting Toronto is transportation. I don't have the time or interest to post remarks in every single thread, so I will save the 'gee, shucks' posts about the pretty photos, etc. on blogto to those with more time on their hands.
You may love all things bicycle and think they are the transit of the future, but I do not. Having bicycled to work for a few months, from Atlantic/King to College/Bay back in the early '80s, all I can say from my experience as a kid was that anyone who willingly does this is an idiot. Worse, because they cause traffic to squeeze around them (or the city gives over desperately needed lane space to a bicycle lane), they are actually CAUSING more congestion. Any idiot can see that. Where these BS stats come from, claiming that a bicycle on the road takes a car off the road is just plain silly. Not even worthy of Monty Pythonesque satire.
Ever since my first full time job as an auto parts driver back in 1980, I have watched this city traffic get worse and worse. One hare-brained idea after another has been tried, but the elephant in the room has always been the total lack of planning in this city prior to about 1940 that is haunting us now.
BIXI can rot for all I care. Like those silly rickshaws that crop up downtown in the summer, Bixi will just be one more nail in the coffin of life in the city.
I can tell from most of the comments on blogto that the posters are either younger than their shoe size, have never ventured beyond St. Clair in their lives, or clearly have not lived in the city for more than a decade or so. I guess we should forgive them for their ignorance, for they know not what they type.
What a load. If anything's going to kill life in this city it's Rob Ford and his ilk giving priority to cars and out-of-town drivers over people and residents. Look at the city south of the rail line and you'll see the lifeless existence of a car-focused city.
That said, I don't see what use any Toronto resident would have for Bixi. Buy a bike of your own and you can ride it whenever you want without worrying about being charged or having to return it by a set time.
Uh, what? Congestion's there when there are no bikes or bike lanes around; it's the bikes that squeeze around the immobile cars.
Stop simpering and harden up. You're in gridlock, it's your own fault.
Those with their hands in the sand who keep hoping the automobile will go away should ask theirself why Toronto has worse traffic than L.A., which is more than double the size of us. That should be a cause for concern, not rubbing one's hands together and greedily eyeing the next street to f$ck up with another bicycle lane..............
Trucks and cars carry the wealth of this Province through its biggest city, not bicycles. Another ugly fact.
On the other hand some streets with bike lanes work in that they keep cyclists and drivers out of each other's way, but I guess there will never be enough lanes to satisfy some drivers.
The way cars change lanes is, I would guess, something that drivers should take responsibility. I have never seen a bus 'dart' anywhere - they're too slow and predictable for that, although I suppose if you don't yield for them as you're legally required to they can have a certain 'whoa, he came out of nowhere' quality to them. Construction cones are a problem for everyone.
<i>Those with their hands in the sand who keep hoping the automobile will go away should ask theirself</i> [sic] <i>why Toronto has worse traffic than L.A.<;/i>
Can you provide a citation for that? Could it be because average commuting distances are different in both cities and that traffic into Toronto is focused on entering a smaller area?
<i>Trucks and cars carry the wealth of this Province through its biggest city, not bicycles. Another ugly fact</i>
Yeah, so let's get rid of those goddamn freeloading pedestrians walking everywhere on their precious sidewalks, impeding the flow of traffic at every corner, shall we? Because it's all about the monetary value, isn't it? Nothing else.
Like many cyclists, I do have the option to drive; in fact, I own two cars, one of which loaned to a church project. So yes, when we choose to cycle we do often take a car off the road. We also take tonnes of carbon dioxide and fly ash out of the air.
Gotta say though, the pricing is a bit confusing. I thought it was a flat $5 for 24 hours, kicking in after the first 30 minutes. When I realized I was charged a lot more, I thought it was just me who's not that smart... but I just heard someone on CBC Radio describe the pricing the same way!
How is the city going to encourage cycling if cops are handing out such frivolous tickets to cyclists?
Any advice on how to fight it?
why advertise $5 for 24hrs if that is a total lie ???
i dont remember seeing any fine print at the station i rented the bikes from
it clearly says $5 for 24hrs, now they charged me over 40 dollars for renting 2 bikes.. apparently now that i looked online, I was supposed to return the bike to a station every 30 minutes???
That's ridiculous -- NEVER using it again, and I've warned everyone I know of the same thing..!
If you want a bike to rent and use all day without locking it up, you can rent them for about $50 from a few places in Toronto.
The fine print is there. If you didn't read it, then it's your own fault. I read it.
Melbourn, Aus cost $2.50/Day or $8.00/Wk - 1/2 HOUR Free
London, England cost £1 day- or £5.00/Wk - 1/2 HOUR Free
Bangkok, Thai -cost free - but sometimes they ask for 100 baht/ day from tourist
Vienna, Austria cost 0 day- - FIRST 1 HOUR Free
Way to expensive for me in TORONTO. I take my own bike, with additional $5 for TTC to come downtown, it does not make sense to me. This will not stop to many people to leave the car home.