Cool thread Cirrus, glad you enjoyed Montréal.
A few more BIXI details:
-BIXI is billed as the first '4th generation' bikeshare due to mobile docking stations, RFID tracking, touchscreen kiosks, intergration with other transport modes etc.
-There were 2 problems encountered early on. The first was an overly complicated user interface with dozens of pages of instructions on the kiosk screens. The second was the docking anchor. It was discovered that a firm yank was all that was needed to liberate a bike. Both problems were corrected by mid-summer.
-The launch was so successful that Phase 2, which was originally planned for 2010, was implemented in July - only 3 months after the April inauguration.
-Credit cards are only used for the 5$ daily rentals. If you become a member, you receive an electronic key which you insert each time you use a bike.
-If you see that you are going to exceed the 30 minute free period, merely stop by the nearest dock to reset the clock.
-Boston, Minneapolis, London and Melbourne have purchased the system and are set to launch this year. Ottawa/Gatineau has a small, 50 bike demonstration setup. (I'm worried about Melbourne as they have a mandatory helmet law. Mandatory helmets and bikeshare don't work well together.)
-The web site and facebook group are good forums for discussion and the BIXI people really do listen. There are also iphone apps that will give you realtime info on number of available bikes, nearest stations etc. (as does the web site)
-The system operates from the beginning of April until November. At the beginning of November, stations are removed starting with the least used, most distant first. All are gone by the beginning of December. There is a winter network of bike lanes that are cleared of snow but it's doubtful that BIXI could operate year-round as most of the stations are located on street and would make snow clearance a nightmare.
-If you subscribe to an annual STM transit pass (unlimited bus/metro 70$ month), you can opt for a 50% BIXI membership (39$) as well as Communauto car share membership for an added 5$ month. You never have to reload your transit smart card as it is done automatically every month. You also have acces to a bike or a car whenever needed. Cost for all 3 is 78.25$ month or 939.00$ annually. Works for me!
I'm really looking forward to April. The network will be extended this year to include boroughs to the north, west and southwest of downtown/Mount Royal that were excluded last year. I can easily envision a doubling to 10,000 bikes, 7-800 stations. Interesting to note that many of the boroughs that were lukewarm to the idea last spring changed their tune by mid-summer after the immediate success of the system. Thousands of calls from constituents to bourough offices demanding "Where are our BIXI stations?" didn't hurt either!
Here's the user web site:
http://montreal.bixi.com/home
and the Public Bike System corporate web site:
http://www.bixisystem.com/home
Cheers!
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