[WislaHD]

The problem as you go farther north is hills. Casual riders avoid them, and serious riders are probably going to use their own bike on them. If nobody uses a bike share station, it's a waste of the capital resources. If people are only biking in one direction, it's a waste of operating resources. For bike share stations to be worth installing, they need to be both a departure point and a destination for a decent number of users.

There are stations up on St Clair, but not all over. They're by the roads that aren't particularly steep. I don't think anyone would ever use Bike Share to ride up Poplar Plains, for example.

East-West travel on St. Clair and on Eglinton (post construction + Connects) should be viable though.

Personally, I am often caught in the situation where I am on St. Clair and wish I had a bike to get home to Eglinton.

 

[LNahid2000]

The problem as you go farther north is hills. Casual riders avoid them, and serious riders are probably going to use their own bike on them. If nobody uses a bike share station, it's a waste of the capital resources. If people are only biking in one direction, it's a waste of operating resources. For bike share stations to be worth installing, they need to be both a departure point and a destination for a decent number of users.

There are stations up on St Clair, but not all over. They're by the roads that aren't particularly steep. I don't think anyone would ever use Bike Share to ride up Poplar Plains, for example.

The hills are pretty damn easy with the Bixi bikes having such low gears. I have my own bike, but use Bike Share quite often because of convenience. There are many times that I wished I could get to Yonge/Eglinton on bike share.

 

[Admiral Beez]

The problem as you go farther north is hills. Casual riders avoid them, and serious riders are probably going to use their own bike on them. If nobody uses a bike share station, it's a waste of the capital resources. If people are only biking in one direction, it's a waste of operating resources. For bike share stations to be worth installing, they need to be both a departure point and a destination for a decent number of users.

There are stations up on St Clair, but not all over. They're by the roads that aren't particularly steep. I don't think anyone would ever use Bike Share to ride up Poplar Plains, for example.

I saw one station on the bike path in Etobicoke, in the middle of nowhere, not close to transit or parking or any means to get there other than walking. I assumed it’s for resetting your 30 mins

 

[TransitBart]

I will say, I'm happy to see the expansion to the edge of High Park. MGT expansion is nice too. I'm also happy that they're getting closer to St. Clair. That opens up the network a little more northward, about as far north as would make sense. As it stands today, you can just about make it to the centre of the network from any of the edges of the network in about the half-hour window, which is a good metric, in my mind. And as long as there's enough waystations along the MGT, you're still into the downtown core with one re-docking at most.

I was getting a little worried we wouldn't see much expansion at all this year, after last year's big expansion. I'm just glad to see there will be more bikes in the network, as pockets of the network can get pretty sparse randomly through the week.

Sorry of this has been covered before. Bikes are rebalanced, right? Stations nearest me on Danforth like Donlands Station are always mostly empty.

Also, say you want a bike and the station is empty? How can the system record that demand so that the re-balancing anticipates that demand for the future? Little ‘big data’.

 

[jje1000]

Could be interesting if in the future, a bikeshare app incentizes users parking in empty bike stands in exchange for some credit. Could also be an interesting thing for BIAs to use as a method of promotion as well.

It would definitely need 1.) more stands; and 2.) a system to keep track of the number of bikes at a stand- either via sensors in the bikes or in the stands.

 

[TransitBart]

This is the Guangzhou China version of bike share. Taken two nights ago.

 

[WislaHD]

Personally, I am often caught in the situation where I am on St. Clair and wish I had a bike to get home to Eglinton.

Case in point, today.

I had to head over to Summerhill and the subway was shut down between Davisville and Lawrence.

 

[Avenue]

Case in point, today.

I had to head over to Summerhill and the subway was shut down between Davisville and Lawrence.

Yeah but how many other people in this position in North Toronto are there? That's what I meant when I said ridership. Is there really a big enough mass? One could argue U of T or Dundas Square needs even more stations... but Deer Park? I don't know.

 

[vic]

Could be interesting if in the future, a bikeshare app incentizes users parking in empty bike stands in exchange for some credit. Could also be an interesting thing for BIAs to use as a method of promotion as well.

It would definitely need 1.) more stands; and 2.) a system to keep track of the number of bikes at a stand- either via sensors in the bikes or in the stands.

I thought Sobi in Hamilton did some thing similar to encourage people to bring back bikes that were not locked to racks, or outside of the service area. But now I can't find hat info on their site.

 

[WislaHD]

Yeah but how many other people in this position in North Toronto are there? That's what I meant when I said ridership. Is there really a big enough mass? One could argue U of T or Dundas Square needs even more stations... but Deer Park? I don't know.

Sometimes it is not about ridership but about coverage.

 

[Avenue]

Sometimes it is not about ridership but about coverage.

What are we covering if no riders?

 

[Megaton327]

What are we covering if no riders?

How will there be riders in an area with no coverage?

 

[amnesiajune]

How will there be riders in an area with no coverage?

I'm not sure what your point is here. The issue is whether people would use bike share stations if they were added further north. Every new station has a capital cost, and the capital cost isn't justified if there aren't enough people using it. There are also operating costs, which aren't justified if lots of people want to bike from a station but very few bike to it, since someone needs to be paid to haul bikes back to that station (and it's even worse in the opposite case, since someone needs to take the excess bikes from one station and disperse them to several different ones).

There's certainly been actual research on this done by TPA, who see more value in expanding east & west than in expanding north.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Was just looking at the system map https://bikesharetoronto.com/system-map/

Why are there no stations on Queen east of Jones, and nothing south of the Danforth east of there. Is it so inconceivable that someone might want to pick up a bike at Woodbine or Glen Manor and Queen? Meanwhile there's a station in the middle of nowhere at Lakeshore Windermere.

The Queen East question is more selfish on my part, as I often go to family at Queen and Vic Park and then get a car ride home. It would be nice to cycle there and ditch the bike.

 

[mdrejhon]

Was just looking at the system map https://bikesharetoronto.com/system-map/

Why are there no stations on Queen east of Jones, and nothing south of the Danforth east of there. Is it so inconceivable that someone might want to pick up a bike at Woodbine or Glen Manor and Queen? Meanwhile there's a station in the middle of nowhere at Lakeshore Windermere.

The Queen East question is more selfish on my part, as I often go to family at Queen and Vic Park and then get a car ride home. It would be nice to cycle there and ditch the bike.

Their next expansion is towards the Beaches, so you may get your wish.