There are lots of things to like about Montreal – the nightlife, restaurants, cafes, parks, shopping, et al – but the thing that has really impressed me over the past week has been a system called Bixi that lets people use bicycles when needed.
There are stations scattered throughout downtown Montreal where you can pick up a bicycle, travel to where you want to go, and then park it at another station. The system, which can be accessed and monitored online (that’s the technology angle here!) can tell where you pick and drop off a bicycle, along with how many kilometers it’s been used. Since Bixi’s launch a few months ago, more than 1,000,000 kilometers have been racked up. Now, that’s impressive!
It was thought that Bixi would be particularly popular with tourists looking an easy and eco-friendly way to get around the city but, surprisingly, Bixi has also been enthusiastically embraced by Montrealers who view as a convenient way to commute.
Of course, this shouldn’t be a huge surprise given how Montreal is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in North America. As someone who commutes via bicycle in Toronto, the focus on promoting bicycles is just another thing to like about Montreal. Along with Bixi, Montreal has aggressively expanded the number of bicycles paths.
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Just noticed a Bixi rack in Ottawa on the Byward Market too.
Dommage that the bixi project is an astrosurfing product. Montreal is a city where everyone can easily have a bike. But in bixi there is a lot of money involved and providers are happy. Two recomended readings:
http://www.nayezpaspeur.ca/blog/2009/05/cest-quoi...
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/opinions/chroniqueurs/p...
Worth checking out Paul d Maio's take on his Metrobike site, on how the launch went in May a big steps to put around 3000 bikes out on day one for a product's first serious 'contract'.
Indications are that Bixibike has merged heir bid (a producvt but no UK track record, with Serco – big on resources and track record with TfL but no product, as one of the 2 remaining bids for London version of Ve'Lib. thsi faces an equally challenging politically set timetable to be installed by May 2010 in time for the local elections. A major amount of preparation is already rolling with electricity supplies going in in advance of final detail, accepting that some sites may not get used, but the electricity company could not otherwise be certain to meet the required schedule.
Bixi was I think about a week late in launching as Paul had wanted to go there but was booked to be in Europe immediately after the original date.
Any data on susbscriber numbers, users per bike users per bike per day etc.
Barcelona looks to be the benchmark in this respect – around 210,000 susbscribers (and not offered to non-residents yet) and climbing from 6000 to 10,000 bikes, to get back to a better level of service at 20 subscribers per bike – any higher and you get bike famine conditions more frequently, and a settled 15 uses per bike per day
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[...] recently read about a couple of interesting bike-related innovations. The first, via Mark Evans, is Bixi Bicycles. They’re a Montreal-based commuting bike rental service, kind of ZipCar for [...]