Whoaccio
Senior Member
Couldn't really find a thread which fit the general topic of bike infrastructure, so here it is.
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/482631
Seems like a good enough idea, and a 2009 start is practically light speed for Toronto projects.
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/482631
Theresa Boyle
Staff Reporter
Toronto is getting the wheels in motion to roll out a high-tech rent-a-bike program next year, not unlike a wildly successful one in Paris, says the head of the city's cycling committee.
"It will be announced sometime in the late fall and launched in the summer of 2009," Councillor Adrian Heaps said.
Heaps said Toronto plans to emulate the best aspects of programs in other jurisdictions and would include automated stations, with swipe-card access, with a subscription that would give access to a uniform style of bicycle "that is tried and proven around the world."
"It can be a one-speed or three-speed bicycle with a kind of mousetrap rack on the back where you can put books or a briefcase," he added.
But other details are up in the air, he said.
"We need to determine where the best locations (for hubs) are. How many bicycles could work? Do we do it in the downtown core? Do we do it (where there are) subways and intermodal transportation hubs?" Heaps asked.
Such programs are gaining in popularity around the world with the rise of gas prices and environmental consciousness. Launched just a year ago, Paris's Velib program already has more than 211,000 subscribers who have taken 31 million trips. Denver, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., are kicking off similar programs this summer. Montreal is starting a trial program next month with full service due to be offered next spring.
Portland, Seattle, Chicago and San Francisco are looking at launching similar programs, while Copenhagen, Lyon and Barcelona already have such bike-sharing programs in place.
The Paris program has about 20,000 bikes and 1,400 self-serve rental kiosks. It's known as Velib, a hybrid of the French words vélo (bike) and liberté (free).
While the program is not exactly free, the fee is nominal. For $29 euros (about $45) a year, cyclists can swipe their credit card at a kiosk, unlock a bike, ride it across town and drop it off at another kiosk. The first 30 minutes are free with fees starting at 1 euro (about $1.60) for each additional half hour.
The bikes have a distinct appearance making them hard to steal. A penalty fee is applied for lost or damaged bikes. Nevertheless, about 3,000 Velib bikes have been swiped.
Bikes in the Washington program are equipped with radio frequency devices to help track them and thwart thieves.
Heaps said a bike-share program would be a "huge" draw to visitors in Toronto.
"There's a great demand already. Our office gets all kinds of phone calls from hotels asking where to get bicycles," he remarked.
Tourism Toronto would market the initiative to potential visitors, said senior vice-president Joel Peters.
"We welcome and support the tourism-related businesses and initiatives that cater to visitors in the city. ... When a new service such as the Velib cycling program develops in Toronto we encourage them to become part of our industry association so we can promote this new service as a part of the visitor experience in Toronto," he said.
Heaps said the new program will be self-financing. It could be supported by "advertising possibilities in a very modest form," he said.
Toronto's Community Bicycle Network ran a Bikeshare program with its distinct yellow bikes from 2001 until last year, but it died because of lack of funding.
Network chair Herb van den Dool said his research has shown him that all bike-sharing programs around the world are subsidized with public funds. He said Toronto failed "where other bike-sharing programs succeed" because of a lack of public funding. "Whereas all the other programs got subsidized by municipal governments in one way or another," he said.
The Community Bicycle Network has been investigating the possibility of reviving its Bikeshare program by putting advertising on the bikes and hubs. Meantime, van den Dool said the organization is renting out old Bikeshare bikes "as cheap as possible" at $10 per day ($15 on the first day).
The Community Bicycle Network and Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation are holding a public forum on bike sharing on Sept. 18 at 7:30 p.m. at Innis Town Hall.
Seems like a good enough idea, and a 2009 start is practically light speed for Toronto projects.