Vancouver needs a bike sharing program like Montreal

[kylemacmac]

Full disclosure: I live in Montreal, but I'm from Vancouver. I love riding bikes. Montreal just opened Bixi. I love it. I'm a complete unabashed fan of Bixi. (http://www.bixi.com/home), Bixi is a bike sharing deal run by the city. It's only been going a week or two so far and hasn't nearly come close to it's full capacity / breadth of service, but is already amazing. I am really impressed by it so far. Anyhow, I can predict this type of bike sharing system would be a colossal success in parts of Vancouver:

Downtown
West End
Kits
Strathcona
DTES
Grandview slope
UBC
south Granville
Mount Pleasant
Commerical

Really, a bike sharing system could probably work in Vancouver in a rough donut around downtown: (anywhere north of King Ed and west of Commercial)(+UBC?)

Anyhow, check out the stations already in service and see for yourself: http://www.bixi.com/the-stations The city of Montreal has kind of created the most advanced bike sharing system in the world. This is made in Canada technology. http://www.bixisystem.com/home The city is keen to export the technology.

This should be in Vancouver!

[sacrifice333]

Here's a cool one that's sprouting up across the US.

http://bcycle.com/

[jlousa]

Vancouver has been working on this for almost 2yrs now, I'm sure there's a bit of work left to do but I imagine we'll have something similar.

[kylemacmac]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Vancouver has been working on this for almost 2yrs now, I'm sure there's a bit of work left to do but I imagine we'll have something similar.

Got any more details? I know B.E.S.T. had a bike share thing for the fireworks last year, but nobody used them, etc. It'd be sweet to see a full integrated system rolled out, and it could run 12 months a year in Vancouver as well, as opposed to the 7 - 8 months a year planned for Montreal.

[agrant]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Vancouver has been working on this for almost 2yrs now, I'm sure there's a bit of work left to do but I imagine we'll have something similar.

They certainly don't need to work too hard on the technological side of it, as there are already systems out there they can follow.

[racc]

Originally Posted by kylemacmac

Got any more details? I know B.E.S.T. had a bike share thing for the fireworks last year, but nobody used them, etc.

It was bicycle valet parking for peoples bikes, it was not bike sharing.

[SpongeG]

they tried something a few years ago didn't they?

I know vancity did a borrow a bike thing downtown and surprise surprise none of the bikes returned or got used as intended - i think it was only 3 days and all bikes were never seen again

the idea was u see one of the bikes u were free to use it and leave it for someone else and so on

and than there was another project and it too failed a couple years ago - all bikes ended up missing

[agrant]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

they tried something a few years ago didn't they?

I know vancity did a borrow a bike thing downtown and surprise surprise none of the bikes returned or got used as intended - i think it was only 3 days and all bikes were never seen again

the idea was u see one of the bikes u were free to use it and leave it for someone else and so on
and than there was another project and it too failed a couple years ago - all bikes ended up missing

That sounded like the most stupid idea ever when I first heard about it. There's even a system for using shopping carts these days. I guess it was beyond their expertise. I can't think of any other reason why they decided to use the honour system or whatever it was called.

[crazyjoeda]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

they tried something a few years ago didn't they?

I know vancity did a borrow a bike thing downtown and surprise surprise none of the bikes returned or got used as intended - i think it was only 3 days and all bikes were never seen again

the idea was u see one of the bikes u were free to use it and leave it for someone else and so on

and than there was another project and it too failed a couple years ago - all bikes ended up missing

That sound very different to what we are talking about here. This is a business that rents out bikes using credit cards. Your not going to just take off with the bike if they charge you like $500 bucks. Personally I think it makes more sense just to own a bike. I love riding my bike and its awesome that Translink put bike racks on all their buses.

[jlousa]

Velib works on credit cards as well but they are experiencing extremely high theft levels. There's some discussion on how bad it actually is but either way the whole project might be in trouble. The problem is even with credit cards it's easy to steal the bikes as any thief with a stolen credit card could go and grab 4 bikes quite easily before the card is even reported stolen. The fact there is no person to person contact makes it very inviting. I understand Bixi has some sort of GPS and autobrake system to counter those issues, but I imagine it's just a matter of time before they find a way around them. Those features apparently drive up the costs and each bixi bike costs $2000 each.

I don't know how they could overcome the theft issue, perhaps make the bikes crappier (heavy steel not aluminum) so there's a minimal resale value might be a solution.
I'd love to see a system here as well although I agree the best solution is just to have your own bike. This system would still be great for casual riders and tourists though. We'll have to wait a bit longer to see what the city comes up with.

[SpongeG]

tourists and casual riders can already rent from one of the shops on denman - there a few bike rental places around

[kylemacmac]

Sure, owning your own bike is great, just like owning your own car is great. But still, many people opt for services like ZipCar because of the flexibility of the service and the fact that they don't want to maintain a car. Same with bikes. Toting your bike on public transit all over the city can be quite tedious, and the transit system couldn't handle dozens of people taking their bikes at the same time. Imagine taking the Skytrain downtown without your bike, then getting out of the station, using a bike to get around, without having to worry about leaving your bike locked up outside if you want to go to some restaurants or bars that night. A bike sharing system, if done right, adds another layer to the transportation cocktail and helps people move about, in a very scalable fashion. Bike sharing programs like Bixi in Montreal or Velib in Paris really don't compete with personal bike ownership or tourist bike rentals, it's more like a user-powered single person public transit option.

[Lee_Haber8]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Velib works on credit cards as well but they are experiencing extremely high theft levels. There's some discussion on how bad it actually is but either way the whole project might be in trouble. The problem is even with credit cards it's easy to steal the bikes as any thief with a stolen credit card could go and grab 4 bikes quite easily before the card is even reported stolen. The fact there is no person to person contact makes it very inviting. I understand Bixi has some sort of GPS and autobrake system to counter those issues, but I imagine it's just a matter of time before they find a way around them. Those features apparently drive up the costs and each bixi bike costs $2000 each.

I don't know how they could overcome the theft issue, perhaps make the bikes crappier (heavy steel not aluminum) so there's a minimal resale value might be a solution.
I'd love to see a system here as well although I agree the best solution is just to have your own bike. This system would still be great for casual riders and tourists though. We'll have to wait a bit longer to see what the city comes up with.

The Velib theft from problem from what I've heard, has been exaggerated. Many of those bikes were stolen as a result of a faulty locking mechanism. Even if the locking system works propertly, the locking system can be sawn off, which is impossible with Bixi. Also you can only rent one bike per credit card with Bixi.

[SpongeG]

speaking of bikes - my friend's boyfriend had just bought a bike and used it to go to emily carr for school - well he used it once - the first day and on that first day it was stolen!

kinda makes one weary to even get a bike

[sacrifice333]

People don't spend enough on locks.

A $50 lock is not going to keep a $1000 bike safe. Period.

[racc]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Velib works on credit cards as well but they are experiencing extremely high theft levels. There's some discussion on how bad it actually is but either way the whole project might be in trouble.

The Paris system is not really in trouble. The operator JC Decaux was likely just complaining to try to get a better deal with the city due ad revenues falling during the recession.

[flight_from_kamakura]

it's kind of early to make any judgments about the bixi program in montreal - it's only been in place for a couple weeks. in the fall, there'll be some good statistics about theft rates, damage, costs, popularity, etc.

in the interim, those of us who're lucky enough to have spent some time in montreal recently (in and out for the last while., i'm out of here again in 3 days, and won't be back until september... sigh...) have had a firsthand view of the relative successes of bixi. in three short weeks, it has already become ingrained in the popular consciousness, in the same way velib was back when it began. impressive, especially considering that it's designed almost singularly for tourists.

[Pinion]

nm wrong thread

[sacrifice333]

Do we have a dedicated thread to discuss the upcoming Vancouver version of Bixi?

Article in today's Globe on the upcoming London version.

Originally Posted by GlobeandMail.com

It took a man born in New York, a few lessons from Montreal and 6,000 bicycles built in Quebec to help rescue London from its reputation as one of Europe’s nastiest cities for cycling.

When London’s bike-hire scheme launches at the end of this month, its architects will have learned from the growing pains of other cities’ rental programs – how not to have all your bikes left at the bottom of hills, for example, a problem that plagues Paris.

But London’s scheme owes its main debt to the Bixi bike-rental model in Montreal. And it has other roots in Canada: All 6,000 of London’s bikes will be built at Devinci Cycles in Bagotville, Que., which also made the bikes for Montreal.

...Article Continues at Link...

Great that they went with Devinci for the bicycle contract!