The City of Montreal pleasantly shipped over Bixi, their public bike system, the other weekend for Vancouverites to demo and view. And demo and view it I did!
I don’t want to spend too much time on the Montreal system, because it’s not at all set in stone that, if we were to get a public bike system, we’d be using Bixi. That said, Bixi is a terrific evolution of the public bike concept. It uses non-fixed stations – that is to say, the bike stations do not require installation in the sidewalk. They are completely mobile. The City can put one anywhere. They’re powered by two solar panels, send off Wi-Fi signals, and can be easily expanded to hold as many bikes as are required for that specific station. This method is much cheaper than the Vélib system in Paris, which required substantial construction to change the existing sidewalk infrastructure.
The Bixi bikes were modern, sleek, extremely comfortable, and feature three simple gears. Bixi uses either a smart card monthly pass, or can be unlocked via a pay-as-you-go ticketing system.
Basically, for those who don’t know, here’s the concept of a public bike system:
Bikes are available every 300 m or so around the city. The first half hour is free, encouraging people to use the bikes for short trips as part of a multi-modal transport choice. Prices increase dramatically over the hours to discourage long trips. Bikes can be returned to any station that has an empty spot. Et voilà !
While its usage across the region is questionable at this point, having a public bike system in Downtown Vancouver would be transformational. As it is, car usage is declining, and transit, cycling, and walking are growing in heaps and bounds. The downtown peninsula is the perfect distance for cycling trips, and the topography is manageable (although not perfect).
The only thorn in the side of this plan is infrastructure. If a swath of bikes were to suddenly appear downtown, the few existing bike lanes would not be able to handle the traffic. Either car lanes would have to be reallocated or parking removed to provide more space for all the cyclists that would use such a system.
In any case, the concept receives unbridled support from me. I sure hope that if TransLink doesn’t want to pursue such a system, that the City of Vancouver will, and in turn showcase what a true 21st century transport revolution looks like.
I think the biggest road block is the mandatory helmet law. I can’t think of a single bike sharing program that exists in an area that requires helmet use. Do you think the province should scrap the helmet law? Or how can this be overcome?
I found a good summary of the helmet problem on the Bike-Sharing Blog.
Thanks for including this post about BIXI. I am currently in Montreal and have just spent the day using BIXI to shop and meet up with a friend.
The system is well used, and my hosts, who live in the Plateau say it has changed their summer routines both for work and other daily transport needs.
Better education for cyclists is required before a system like this can ever be put in place.
The City of Vancouver has an initiative called “Greenest City” which proposed recommendations that support bikesharing: http://vancouver.ca/greenestcity/PDF/greenestcity-quickstart.pdf
Under Mobility for the quickguide. Other info here: http://vancouver.ca/greenestcity/index.htm
I’m not sold yet. Melbourne’s system (the only one with a helmet law) is performing dismally, with only about 70 rentals per day in a 600 bike system. Apparently that works out to less than 1% usage. The problem is helmet laws. Like Vancouver, the helmet laws in Melbourne are not city bylaws, but provincial laws which are far harder to remove.
Additionally, even a very popular and often touted system like Montreal’s Bixi is losing something like 5 million a year, not to mention the HUGE upfront costs. That money would be far better spent on bike lanes and a couple of cops to investigate theft. Let the wealthy people downtown buy bikes. Why should the rest of the city pay?