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I was fortunate this morning, there was an electric bike at my nearest station.

It's so fun! And effortless! These need to become a greater share of the system ASAP.
 
I think in a city with a fair amount of topology going south to north or E-W up and down, ebikes will be pretty transformative in user adoption. I'm curious what the economics for bike share are. My guess is that e-bikes are somewhat daunting for private ownership due to fear of theft (some are pushing $5k vs $1k or so for a decent commuter bike, less if used), but the capital cost and operational cost for Bike Share may not be as big of a difference. I guess one way to think about it is that a bus that carries up to 60 people can cost the better part of a million dollars. Maybe buying 60 ebikes for bike share (they are not high performance ebikes, but I would still guess they are around $5k each) is not so unreasonable, especially if it gets traction with users. And it could be a good complement for first/last mile.

I kind of wonder if Bike Share should be moved to the TTC management to better integrate with the transit network. I just fear that they'd want to kill it instead of seeing it as synergistic with their service.
 
BikeShare should invest massively into e-bikes. It has potential to be transformative for transit in this city.
 
afransen said:
I kind of wonder if Bike Share should be moved to the TTC management to better integrate with the transit network. I just fear that they'd want to kill it instead of seeing it as synergistic with their service.
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No thanks, the TTC should keep their inept management away from Bike Share.

They would screw it up massively.
 
afransen said:
I think in a city with a fair amount of topology going south to north or E-W up and down, ebikes will be pretty transformative in user adoption.
Click to expand...
Yes, I was certainly someone who benefited from someone else overnight taking an e-bike back home to Midtown for the uphill journey. Perhaps I will continue to luck out in the future under similar circumstances.

I do not need an e-bike for downhill however, and I feel like it is unlikely I will find an e-bike for the return journey due to their current scarcity in the system. For reference, I checked and within 15 minutes of my trip end (to a more central area of the city), the e-bike had already been taken out by someone else.

If they become a greater share of the bikes available though, that might change my trip patterns. I would likely forego TTC on the return journey uphill.
 
Johnny Au said:
It would be great if there were a Bikeshare station at Marlee and the Beltline.
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There's quite a few holes in the general midtown area that need filling for coverage purposes. It doesn't seem likely that they will be doing that this season though. :/
 
New Stations for Friday Sept 18th:

Danforth/Dewhurst (1 block west of Donlands)
Bloor/Brock
1 Market Street (St. Lawrence Market)
 
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New Bikeshare Station this morning...................

at Hotel X. (Lake Shore/Ontario Pl. Blvd) * seems to be the second one at this location.
 
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