public bikes

After a long debate at city council (see a photo of councillors looking at the blue Bixi bike), Bixi public bikes are getting so close to being a reality that I can almost feel myself riding around on these elegant, cruising, commuter machines. The final vote at Council was 33-8 as councillors approved the plan provide a loan guarantee of $4.8 million to Bixi so that they can borrow money and roll out 1000 bikes at 80 stations, spaced 300 metres apart across the core. It's anticipated to be popular enough that the bikes will need to be expanded quickly.

Under the deal, Bixi will need to raise $600,000 in sponsorships and 1000 annual, paying memberships by November 30, 2010. (I will be helping to promote membership in Bixi so we can achieve that target. I'd buy all 1000 memberships myself if I could, but I don't have $78,000 sitting around.)

If all goes to plan the target launch date is May 1, 2011. From the Star:

Membership fees haven’t been finalized but are expected to be $78 a year, $28 a month, or $5 a day, allowing members to take a bike out whenever they want, up to 30 minutes at a time, for no extra charge.

The program, called Bixi (bicycle-taxi), was popular when it rolled out in Montreal last year with 3,000 bikes and 300 stations. It’s expected to be a hit here as well. The Canadian-made bikes are described as rugged and lightweight, with a rack that can handle a briefcase or a case of beer.

Is Councillor Adrian Heaps going to try sabotage Bixi Toronto at City Council next week? Given his recent performance at the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee meeting, I'm a bit concerned. Does he want a public bike program that could be flourishing by next year, or does he want to delay it a few years just so his favourite company, Astral Media, can run it? And does Astral Media even want it?

If you go to the bike union website you can use their friendly green button to contact Adrian Heaps (on the right side) to ask him these important questions before next week.

A bit of history: Transportation Services and City Manager staff have been negotiating with Bixi for many months now. They finally came to a deal for 1000 bikes in 2011 (a realistic compromise that the city could safely support). At the last public works meeting Heaps made a motion to go back to square one, drop the deal with Bixi and try to negotiate with Astral Media a second time, even though it was dropped at least a year ago. As Chair of the Cycling Advisory Committee, you'd think that Heaps would have more sense to just let his own agenda die and support Bixi.

Why is Heaps stuck on having Astral provide this service? Does he still not know that Astral will not provide a public bike program for free? Jonathan Goldsbie confirmed back in 2008 that Astral would likely only want the program if the whole streets furniture for advertising contract was re-opened and renegotiated. Who knows how long that would take - years?

Goldsbie said:

The Public Bike proposal passed the first hurdle by getting unanimous support from all councillors on the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee. I gave a deputation to the committee on behalf of the Community Bicycle Network (which ran the popular Bikeshare, Toronto's original public bike program) in support of the Bixi Toronto proposal.

Bixi Toronto will, if it passes City Council next month, install 1000 bikes and 80 stations by May 2011. The whole system will likely operate closely to Montreal's version where users get a yearly, monthly or daily membership and then get a half hour of free riding after which hourly charges incur.

Councillor Adrian Heaps (who isn't on the committee) seemed to be still stuck on the idea that Astral Media would take on the whole project and was willing to risk a 2011 launch by proposing some amendments that would have forced staff to negotiate with Astral. His idea was that Astral would pay to increase the starting number of bikes to 3000 (presumably in exchange for more advertising on the streets). To paraphrase Councillor and Budget Chief Shelley Carroll, as nice as it would have been to start with 3000 instead of 1000, the proposal would have sent staff back to square one, renegotiating everything.

Who knows why the Chair of the Cycling Committee seems to be so out of the loop that at this late stage he's trying derail all the negotiating work the staff has done this last year. Methinks he's bitter about not getting the credit.

For the rest of us, this is a very good deal. It was said best by Councillor De Bearemaker:

"We are getting millions in new public infrastructure at no cost to the taxpayer. Not a bad deal at all," said Glenn De Bearemaeker, chair of the public works and infrastructure committee. "The only folks who may be upset about this is the taxi industry."

... and apparently Adrian Heaps.

The public bike program will be up for approval at the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee on Tuesday, April 20th and to City Council on May 11-12 (somewhere on the agenda to be determined).

The bike union and myself are asking you to take action so the public bike program wins support to launch next year and joins the ranks of cities like Montreal, Paris, Boston, London and even Minneapolis.

Back in February the public bikesharing program was practically dead. A good letter campaign in February got a positive response from Mayor Miller, effectively bringing it back to life. The new version is a smaller version of 1000 bikes and is delayed to next year, but at least it will happen. And it would be super if everyone would send another letter or email to councillors on the public works committee.

Email your support by Monday April 19th at Noon for the Public Bike Share staff report and proposal that is being presented on April 20th at the PWIC meeting to the PWIC Clerk, your Councillor, and Mayor Miller.

Subject: Item PW32.8 - Proposed Public Bicycle Program, Staff Report (you can change the subject just make sure to include the item number)
TO: PWIC Clerk - "Candy Davidovits" cdavidov@toronto.ca, “Mayor David Miller” mayor_miller@toronto.ca, and your local Councillor.
Check here to find your Councillor’s contact info: http://app.toronto.ca/wards/jsp/wards.jsp
CC: Toronto Cyclists Union info@bikeunion.to

Please support the proposed Public Bike System. It is coming at next to no cost to the City. The payback is big as it will encourage more people to bike, get healthy and reduce the impact on the environment. Going by bike is cheap, efficient and enjoyable.

Public bikes allow more people to choose cycling as a healthy option. help catalyze the long awaited bike infrastructure we've been requesting, and dramatically improve our city,

Please help to make this a legacy for future generations.

You can read more about it in the staff report.

Please make your emails unique and personal!

The Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation (TCAT), The Clean Air Partnership & The Community Bicycle Network are proud to present:

Bikes as a public good:
What is the future of public bikes in Toronto?

There's a funny story behind this. Back in February, I was approached by the ad company JCDecaux with an offer of money if we (CBN) hosted a bikesharing forum. I accepted with eyes open - I knew that JCDecaux was just looking for angles to convince the City of Toronto to buy into their bikesharing system (a la Velib fame). But I figured that couldn't be such a bad thing and even better at least it would offer some kind of public forum where people could debate what kind of bikesharing we want in this city. The funny part is that JCDecaux gave up and took back their offer, but we (CBN and TCAT) are still going ahead with the forum, but with a Transport Canada grant.

Vélib’, the very successful public bike program of Paris is in the news again, given their first second year anniversary. They've survived another year and they've added a lot more bikes onto the street despite some of the unexpected issues with bike theft and damage. The New York Times in A New Fashion Catches On in Paris: Cheap Bicycle Rentals explains how the Vélib’ is becoming a cultural and fashion icon for Paris. Plus Streetfilms has produced a film on Vélib’, updating us on its 1400 stations, 20,000 bikes, and 3 million subscribers. Video below, followed by the New York Times article.

It looks like Philadelphia is seriously considering a public bikesharing program. The article interviews the major advocate of Bikeshare Philadelphia, Russell Meddin, who I happened to talk on the phone with after their successful 2007 public forum. He was very enthusiastic and helpful about providing advice in case we'd like to put on our own T.O. public bike sharing forum (which may just happen!)

But there doesn't seem to be consensus among officials that public bikes will work in Philly. The main thing is having a business plan and as of yet there is no program that is completely self-financed. They are all subsidized by advertizing revenue or directly by governments. But is that so wrong? Our highways are subsidized, our public transit is subsidized. Public bikes move people more cheaply than those alternatives.

A number of cities are experimenting with "public bikes" or "bike sharing". In Toronto we had our own experiment with CBN's Bikeshare. Last fall, Toronto's city council directed the Chief Planner to investigating a public bike scheme and to look into starting up a pilot project for staff.

Bikesharing started around 30 years ago, in Amsterdam by the Provo anarchist group with a free white bike scheme. Last year it hit big time with the launch of Vélib in Paris (short for Vélo Liberté or bike freedom). Now a number of cities are starting up their own and the place to read all about the different projects is on the Bike-sharing Blog.