Toronto City Council passes Bixi Toronto Public Bike Program

BikingToronto is happy to tell you that Toronto City Council has passed the BIXI Toronto program motion: 33 for and 8 against.

The program is now scheduled to start in 2011 with 1,000 bikes, and will be run by the same people who run BIXI in Montreal.

I listened to the proceedings online (I would’ve watched, but was busy with other work) and tweeted about what was happening @bikingtoronto, and here are the tweets for you… most recent first:

Toronto City Council passes BIXI Toronto program motion: 33 for and 8 against. #bikeTO #TOcouncil about 2 hours ago via Power Twitter

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@Dawsonase I think you mean @bikingtoronto, not biketo. about 2 hours ago via Power Twitter in reply to Dawsonase

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Councillors worried about BIXI money forgetting 1 HUGE fact – doesn’t cost us a penny. Trying to skew facts is bad form. #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 2 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Councillor Holyday: BIXI is great, but we can’t afford it. (note to Holyday – city isn’t paying for anything!!!) #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 2 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Mayor Miller on BIXI Toronto motion – “this is great, let’s make it unanimous!” #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 2 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Councillor Carrol is yelling at Councillor Feldman about BIXI. It’s fun when Council gets interesting. #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 2 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Councillor Heaps (chair of cycling committee) supporting BIXI well. Anyone who suspected otherwise is, well, idiotic. #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 2 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Councillor Heaps reminds Feldman that transportation staff has been talking to TPA for a long time #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 3 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Councillor Heaps reminds everyone that milestones have to be met to make sure BIXI is successful. #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 3 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Councillor Feldman wants everything deferred until Parking Authority approached again. TPA already said no. #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 3 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Councillor Feldman wants the Parking Authority to have another chance (they already declined) to run Public Bike System #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 3 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Councillor Perks: Bixi Toronto costs us nothing, we share in profit, not liable for losses, and own it all at the end. #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 3 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Councillor Perks reinforces the point that BIXI Toronto profits shared by city, financial losses not borne by city. #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 3 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Councillor De Baermaker asking questions that reinforce the positives of BIXI Toronto. Great job Glenn! #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 3 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Councillor De Baermaker makes a great point – City makes loan guarantees to a lot of organizations – never had a default #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 3 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Councillor Ootes being a little persnickity about projected BIXI costs. Yeah, I said persnickity. #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 3 hours ago via Power Twitter

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BIXI Toronto to seek Bikestation sponsors. Won’t interfere with street furniture contract with Astral #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 3 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Councillor Ootes re-asking questions others have asked about BIXI. Listen better Case. #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 3 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Councillour Rae now worried that the TO parking authority will lose revenue due to some bikestations in parking lots #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 3 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Councillor Rae thinks that BIXI Toronto bike stations will be “clutter” on the streets #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 3 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Councillor Holyday is worried about a few parking spots going missing to hold 1,000 bikes #TOcouncil #bikeTO about 3 hours ago via Power Twitter

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Listening to BIXI Toronto City Council discussion. Councillors asking questions obviously don’t read supporting docs about issues? #BikeTO about 4 hours ago via Power Twitter

Ginger Shewell

1000 bikes is NOT enough to make this really work. Why so little?
http://bikingtoronto.com/members/joetravers/ Joe T.

The original proposal was to start in 2010 with 3,000 bikes, but it’s been delayed and reduced to minimize any possible risk to the city (eg. make it more politically viable) even though the city won’t be at risk:

- city is purely guaranteeing the 4.8 M loan
- any profits from program (forecast around the 5 year mark) are shared by the city
- financial losses of program covered by Public Bike System company, not city
- city has 12+ other loan guarantee arrangements currently, never has one of these cost the city money.
- largest current loan guarantee is 32M with the Lakeshore Lions.

Let’s hope that BIXI Toronto is even more successful than anyone thinks and it is expanded quickly.
http://bikingtoronto.com/members/lock/ lock

“The original proposal was to start in 2010 with 3,000 bikes, but it’s been delayed and reduced to minimize any possible risk to the city…”
Typical… this was a mistake Paris recognized after their bike share program first launched… too few bikes at first.
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zits

YOUTUBE THE BIXI VIDEO! Amazing song from mtl…
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http://www.rentthings.ca Sara

As a Founder and CEO of Rentthings.ca The first canadian peer-to-peer Green Community Rental Marketplace I agree and support this idea ( it was already implemented in several countrie as France and England)
I guess the prices because Toronto is an expensive city if you compare it to others cities.
But they should implement a good system that it wouldnt bother the traffic.
Its good to share but what about sharing the revenue? lol
Thanks
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