More information on BIXI in Toronto

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Posted by theurbancountry 3 years ago. There are 4 posts. The latest reply is from joe.

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theurbancountry
Member
Posted 3 years ago #

Walrus Magazine's recent article on BIXI in Toronto left me with more questions about how it would be done here. So I got in touch with City Hall to find out more. Here are a couple lines from my article with some information I was able to squeeze out:

BIXI is ready for Toronto, is Toronto ready for BIXI?

After a successful launch in Montreal last May, BIXI has served more than 1 million users – an amazing accomplishment for its first year.

The system is however shutting down now as Montreal prepares for the ensuing winter. On November 1st, BIXI started taking down the less frequently used stations and BIXI rentals will no longer be available after November 30th – making its triumphant return in May 2010.

But fear not Torontonians - I have been told the BIXI system in Toronto will have no such restrictions! The city plans to keep Toronto’s BIXI system open all-year-round! A detail that has previously not been released and I had to pry out of City Hall.

...

Next I wanted to find out what the impact would be on car lanes and parking. As you may know, Montreal turned dozens of parking spaces into BIXI stations – a point of contention amongst Montreal drivers.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the city doesn’t want to head down the path of taking parking space away from drivers. “On-street parking is not a priority”, Wheldrake said.

It makes sense that the city is trying to avoid possible confrontation with certain media outlets in our city that are opposed to cycling culture because they see it as a threat to driving in the city. I however, see cycling as a benefit to drivers because it can help reduce congestion by getting people out of their cars.

Sean admitted that it will be a challenge to find space for the BIXI stations, but he is optimistic that this can be addressed given the easy mobility of the solar-powered BIXI stations that require no excavation.

Full Article Here

Is anyone else getting excited about the BIXI program?? Even though I already own 3 bikes, I could still see BIXI being more convenient on certain occasions than bringing my own bike.

James
joe
Admin
Posted 3 years ago #

Great post, James. Hope you don't mind I added "in Toronto" to the thread title, and I linked to the forum thread of the Walrus article. :)

I am very psyched about BixiTO (or whatever they call it)... I think I'll see a lot of co-workers using it. I'm thinking of a few friends that take the GO train in from the 'burbs and then either walk or TTC it from Union. They do want to bike from Union to work, but are worried about security (even with the new BikeStation at Union) and leaving their bike in the city all the time, where they won't be able to use it on weekends.

Bixi, I think, is right up their alley. :)
theurbancountry
Member
Posted 3 years ago #

Thanks Joe. I totally agree that this will be great for GO commuters. I have co-workers who would love to use this service for the very reasons you mention.

There is going to be incredible demand for these bikes at Union Station each morning. Sean was chuckling at the thought of where all the bikes are going to go - they will need a good chunk of land to store them. I could see them putting at least 25% of the entire fleet at (or near) Union Station.
joe
Admin
Posted 3 years ago #

Hopefully they'll put a ton there (right along Front St.... where it's supposed to be made much more pedestrian friendly) and as the program expands, more and more will be at Union.