Public bike program not abandoned: Mayor Miller

I got an email from the Mayor this morning (as did James at Urban Country). Mayor Miller isn't abandoning public bikes and is directing staff to look for other funding options. He mentions Bikeshare, which was run by the Community Bicycle Network and had a hard time getting enough funding from the city to sustain itself too:

Thank you for your email letter.

We appreciate you taking the time to write.

Until 2006 Toronto was home to the innovative and award-winning Bikeshare community bicycle-lending program. Following its collapse the City began developing a business case for a public bike program.

The City considered launching such a program using the Vienna business model (which is also used in Lyons and Paris) where it is provided free to the City and affordable to users because it is supported by revenue from billboards on the bike stations. After much deliberation it was decided not to increase the number of billboards on the street and launched a competitive process to find a company to provide a non-ad-supported version.

A public tender was issued and City Council gave staff authority to negotiate with BIXI, which is owned by the Montreal municipal parking authority, to develop a detailed business plan for launching and operating a Toronto public bicycle system at no cost to the City. Unfortunately, the outcome of these negotiations did not guarantee that there was no risk of costs being incurred.

A public bike program in Toronto is not being abandoned. It remains an integral part of our sustainable transportation plan. The Mayor has instructed City Staff to review the viability of this type of program with other funding options.

I hope the Mayor pushes staff a bit to look outside the box. It's going to save us money soon enough in health care costs, road maintenance, insurance.

The Star also reports that talks have stalled but that the City is still optimistic.

“I’m optimistic there will be a public bike-share program in the foreseeable future,” he said.

A report on the idea to the city’s works committee was scrubbed from the March 2 agenda, raising concerns the deal was dead. It’s not, Welsh said, but he couldn’t guarantee a Montreal-style bike rental system would be available in downtown Toronto by the summer as originally planned.

With an election looming, cycling activists fear that if current negotiations fail with Bixi, Montreal’s public bike system company, a new council might not pursue the idea.

“Now is the window to get it done,” said Yvonne Bambrick, executive director of the Toronto Cyclists Union.

“Having a public bike share program will change the face of Toronto for the better. I’ve seen how it’s been taken up in Montreal and in France. There’s some major benefits all around and I really wanted to see those benefits play out on the streets of Toronto,” she said.

Bixi has signed on to begin new bike-share systems in Minneapolis and Melbourne, Australia, this year, but Toronto still doesn’t have a deal.

The snag is over who pays for the program’s start-up cost of $10 million to $11 million. In some cities, the municipality pays for the bikes and stations, and sometimes advertising can cover the costs.

herb : 15 years 6 months ago
Tags: bikesharing, city hall, public bike

Not a penny for bikesharing?

Looks like our post yesterday wrangled up some official statements and a hit in mainstream media. Gary Welsh, manager of Transportation Services told the National Post, "At this point in time we can’t seem to operate a public bike system at no cost to the city, which is contrary to what council proposed."

Mr. Welsh assures us that negotiations continue:

“This doesn’t mean the program is being abandoned, we’re still looking at the viability of the program and how we can enable it in the future,” Mr. Welsh said.

“I think it would be beneficial to the city. It’s needed by residents of Toronto and we’re just trying to develop a system that we know will work and something that will not be a significant cost to the city.”

The official line is being awefully vague: just what is going to cost more? Through the grapevine I've heard that, in fact, the staff were able to negotiate a "No Cost" deal with Bixi (but we'll take all the benefits, thank you very much), but that it required a loan guarantee, which the City Manager's office quickly squelched.

Aren't the staff supposed to produce a report for City Council? City Council and the general public should hear in more detail about what happened and this shouldn't just die and disappear within the city bureaucracy.

Why are there expectations that Toronto should put absolutely no investment into a program that could yield so many benefits? Bikesharing is a powerful tool for getting more people on bikes: Paris' Velib has encouraged many more to buy bikes and start riding regularly. Cycling yields health benefits, it's good for the environment and it even reduced traffic congestion and reduces our transportation costs (the confused yelping of right-wing commentators to the contrary).

A loan would pay for the initial start-up infrastructure that would be paid for through user fees. Bixi designed a system that would be financially self-sufficient, which is more than what car drivers or TTC riders can say, both of which require lots of subsidies.

Bixi will be financially self-sustaining after only three years. Our highway system: never.

By the end of its first season, almost 11,000 Montrealers had become Bixi regulars, and the system had more than 110,000 day trippers. Best of all, the non-profit company expects to be financially self-sustaining after its third year. Ottawa-Gatineau and Toronto are considering adopting Bixi, and cities around the world are taking notice: Public Bike has won contracts to bring the system to London and Boston in 2010. A deal with Minneapolis is also in the works. Revenue from these exports will recoup some of program's $23-million investment, and any surplus will be spent on improving Montreal's system.

City Councillors are taking the official line coming from the City Manager's office: the city were unable to negotiate a No Cost deal. Let's demand something better from our councillors: Get this report to a vote!

herb : 15 years 6 months ago
Tags: bikesharing, city hall

Toronto's Bixi may be in jeopardy

Bixi, Montreal's successful bikesharing system, is catching on like wildfire and will be expanding to Minneapolis, Melbourne, Boston and even London, UK, this year. But Toronto seems unconvinced, and it appears as if city bureaucrats are close to derailing it.

City Manager bureaucrats seem not to understand the point of bikesharing and, from what I've heard from sources, that they don't see how it would work. An acquaintance has heard from City Manager number crunchers that they don't see Bixi as viable and thought it was waste of money (I'm paraphrasing here). The City Manager's office at City Hall is key to organizing city services and has the ear of council. According to the website, it "guides the Corporation of the City of Toronto and advises Council in the management of all its fiscal, organizational and service challenges. The City Manager is accountable to Council for the policy direction and program delivery of divisions."

This same acquaintance, who is also an avid cyclist, attempted to show how, in fact, Bixi has worked elsewhere and thought it would work here. My other source shows that this attempt may not have been all that successful. The City Manager's office might not be getting behind bikesharing. If they manage to derail it this year, it may take some time for the bureaucracy to get around to doing it again.

So, how is it that so many cities around the world can operate bikesharing programs, but Toronto bureaucrats can't understand if it would work or not? Toronto city leaders are asleep at the wheel, opines Joe Berridge at the Toronto Star. "Paris introduced the Velolibre [sic] free bicycle system, now being copied in some form in almost every big city. But not Toronto."

City staff have kept tight lips on the details so I'm not really sure why Bixi is in jeopardy. In theory the deal was supposed to be at no cost to the city.

It would have been nice if they could have involved the community a lot more in the planning. In the days of CBN's Bikeshare there's was broad support by businesses and organizations, both small and large. Perhaps they could have avoided some of this pain. It's not too late.

Send letters in support of Bixi

I Bike T.O. and The Urban Country encourage you to send letters to your councillors and city staff to encourage them to keep going with Bixi. Here is a draft letter:

Dear Mayor Miller,

It has come to my attention that the City of Toronto is considering putting a halt on its deal with the Public Bike System Company (BIXI) to bring a public bicycle sharing program to Toronto later this year.

This would be an extremely disappointing and unfortunate outcome. Traffic congestion, pollution and obesity are major issues that we need to deal with right now as the City of Toronto’s population is expected to increase by 500,000 people by 2031.

Bicycle sharing is important in our city to provide a alternative means of transportation for short trips while helping people stay healthy. A bike sharing system would complement public transit very well and I had every intention on using this system on a regular basis.

Please do everything in your power to ensure the city makes the right choice for its citizens and proceeds with signing a deal to bring BIXI to Toronto in 2010.

Sincerely

Please send it to the list below plus your local councillor (get the email from this list).

City Hall Contacts:

herb : 15 years 6 months ago
Tags: bikesharing, city hall