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General cycling issues (Is Toronto bike friendly?)

Filip said:
That's essentially exactly it. I did not renew my subscription past the first year because in its current form, BIXI is useless for me.

Sure it provided the occasional kicks, but not enough to keep me paying $100 a year. Now if they expanded, especially along the Martin Goodman Trail and into Humber Bay Shores (I see too many BIXI bikes there even though it's way out of the service area); then I would reconsider my membership.
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As a start, BIXI should have (at a minimum) a BIXI rack located at each of the Subway stations or major transfer points (IE. Humber Loop).
 
And yet our coke-snorting mayor
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No hard evidence of that. In any event - "Toronto absolutely will not"? Hasn't he learned that his will doesn't equate to the will of the council?

AoD
 
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AlvinofDiaspar said:
No hard evidence of that.
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Sure there is ... if he thinks that $2-million of taxpayer money for his football team is fine, but refused to consider funding for a well-used service like Bixi, that many other cities are funding, the guy is clearly on something. :)
 
There are plenty of things you can bring up if you absolutely need to start questioning his character. Resorting to libel is unnecessary.

That said, every time you resort to effective name-calling, you distract from actual criticism of his policy.
 
Where is the outrage about the reported BIXI shortfall, surely it can't be true? Shouldn't all the cyclenauts in our fair City be storming the ramparts at City Hall demanding transparency and more money?

Speaking of money, I haven't noticed any concern about staffing costs at the projected City Hall parking garage Spa for cyclists, only initial costs in the 1.2 million dollar range. A 24/7/365 operation would need 6 people per day, 1 male and 1 female for each 8 hour shift plus week end staff and a supervisor or 3 at a likely loaded cost of at least $450,000 per year.
 
And yet all that is orders of magnitude less than how much we subsidise drivers.

Promoting cycling (and BIXI) is one of the most fiscally responsible things for the government to do. The money that people spend in cars, gas, and insurance, pretty much leaves the city entirely.

By allowing adults to move more efficiently and without the need of a car a larger chunk of that money stays within the local economy. It's also much cheaper to subsidise a BIXI-like system than most mass transit systems taking an equivalent amount of people.

The garage at City Hall will likely pay for itself - just like the ones in corporate towers do. It's not free.
 
spider said:
Speaking of money, I haven't noticed any concern about staffing costs at the projected City Hall parking garage Spa for cyclists, only initial costs in the 1.2 million dollar range.
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That's the cost of building it, right?

spider said:
A 24/7/365 operation would need 6 people per day, 1 male and 1 female for each 8 hour shift plus week end staff and a supervisor or 3 at a likely loaded cost of at least $450,000 per year.
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If the city were to run it as it does its existing bike stations, they'd be hiring students/interns to staff it about 4 hours a day. Assuming access to the showers is automated (in that access to existing bike stations is secured by passcard access), there wouldn't really need to be a requirement for a male and a female staffer, nor even for a supervisor at all.

Spinning it as being a spa is not unlike Doug Ford's initial claim, when the idea of a facility with showers was raised in 2011, that cyclists would be demanding exercise machines next, and it would really be a gym (because cycling's not enough exercise in itself?). The slippery slope is one of his favourite logical fallacies.
 
RC8 said:
And yet all that is orders of magnitude less than how much we subsidise drivers.

Promoting cycling (and BIXI) is one of the most fiscally responsible things for the government to do. The money that people spend in cars, gas, and insurance, pretty much leaves the city entirely.
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While this is true, if BIXI receives additional funds you can count on a reduction in funds for other bicycle related initiatives like dedicated lanes; at least until a different mayor is elected but our previous mayors didn't make much headway in increasing the cycling infrastructure budget.
 
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RC8 said:
And yet all that is orders of magnitude less than how much we subsidise drivers.

Promoting cycling (and BIXI) is one of the most fiscally responsible things for the government to do. The money that people spend in cars, gas, and insurance, pretty much leaves the city entirely.

By allowing adults to move more efficiently and without the need of a car a larger chunk of that money stays within the local economy. It's also much cheaper to subsidise a BIXI-like system than most mass transit systems taking an equivalent amount of people.

The garage at City Hall will likely pay for itself - just like the ones in corporate towers do. It's not free.
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Spider also assumes that this bicycle centre at NPS need be staffed 24 hours a day by a male and a female bathroom attendant. To me, there should be at most, one administrative employee Monday-Friday , plus check-ins by maintenance/janitorial and security personnel already assigned to NPS/City Hall. Apart from security and cleaning, it should pretty much run itself, as it would be secure, paid access.
 
Rob Ford is right to have concern over BIXI. This program is an excellent idea but it has been a disaster financially for Montrealers.

This program is so expensive to run that economists have came to the conclusion that it would have been cheaper for the city to buy every Montrealer a good bike than having that program.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Highs+lows+during+years+Bixi/8102221/story.html

2007

October: The city of Montreal asks Stationnement de Montréal, the private company that runs the city’s parking operations, to set up a bike-sharing service. “No disbursements are expected for the city,” the executive committee says.

2008

August: The Bixi name is born, combining bike and taxi. Forty prototypes hit the road in a pilot project.

2009

May: Bixi launches in Montreal. The first major bike-sharing system in North America, it features 3,000 bikes and 300 stations. Membership is $78 per year. It’s wildly popular, with 10,000 members and more than one million trips in the first year.

2010

April: Bixi launches second season in Montreal, with a much bigger footprint — 5,000 bikes and 400 stations.

April: The Gazette raises questions about how Bixi was set up, noting profit-sharing with the city of Montreal, the city’s cut of international sales and the duration of the business arrangement have yet to be worked out.

July: London, England, launches Barclays Cycle Hire, based on Bixi. That system now features more than 8,000 bikes and is expected to reach 11,000 in 2014.

August: Montreal’s auditor-general says he will investigate Bixi’s finances, concerned Bixi’s debt will affect the city’s bottom line. Bixi is also causing cash flow problems at Stationnement de Montréal (SDM). Because of its loan to Bixi, SDM will have to delay the money it remits to the city based on revenue from parking meters and lots.

September: McGill researchers suggest Bixi’s environmental benefits have been “grossly exaggerated,” with 86 per cent of trips replacing walking or rides on personal bikes or transit, eight per cent replacing taxi trips and two per cent replacing car trips.

December: Montreal agrees to put up as much as $104 million (the total later jumps to $108 million) on the line for Bixi, by guaranteeing its loan and credit lines. The loan amounts to $37 million. Under the restructuring plan, Bixi’s chairman, president and board members are to be appointed on the recommendation of Montreal’s executive committee, which would also approve Bixi’s budget and three-year business plan. The opposition Vision Montreal says the city is taking a “considerable financial risk.”

2011

April: Bixi launches its third season in Montreal, angering some users by introducing ads on part of rear tires and on bike baskets. There are 5,050 bikes and 405 stations.

May: Bixi lays off nine of its 70 employees due to financial constraints.

May: Toronto launches a Bixi system with 1,000 bikes

May: Michael Applebaum, city executive committee chair at the time, says Bixi is out of operating cash and on the brink of collapse, to the point where the city has prepared plans to pull Bixi bikes off the road. If the city does not step in, Applebaum says, Bixi’s board will resign en masse, plunging the company into bankruptcy.

June: Montreal’s auditor-general releases a scathing report on Bixi in which he points to administrative problems, an illegal organizational structure, inadequate planning and an absence of oversight and accountability. The auditor notes Montreal had no right to set up an international business and launched bike-sharing blindly, with little or no advance planning. Quebec orders Montreal to sell off Bixi’s international operations, noting the city has overstepped its powers. This complicates things for Bixi because the global arm is supposed to bankroll Montreal operations.

July: Boston launches a 600-bike Bixi-based system. It’s now up to 1,000 bikes.

November: Bixi says it won’t be able to pay off its loan to the city by 2014 as originally planned.

2012

April: Bixi launches its fourth Montreal season, with 5,120 bikes at 411 stations. The cost of an annual membership rises for the first time to $80.50, up from $78.

May: Bixi becomes embroiled in a legal dispute with 8D Technologies, the Montreal firm that provided the software for all Bixi stations. 8D sues Bixi for $26 million, and Bixi sues 8D for $2.5 million. The dispute arises after 8D refuses to sell Bixi all the rights to the software. Bixi hires a company to build software to replace 8D’s in future systems Bixi will sell. But the new software is plagued with bugs. The testing ground — a system in Chattanooga, Tenn. — is delayed.

July: New York City’s Bixi-based bike-share system is delayed due to software glitches.

November: Bixi shuts down in Montreal without providing the usual end-of-season rundown on operations, or making executives available to the news media.

2013

March: Pittsburgh becomes the latest city to adopt Bixi, announcing it will have 500 bikes on the road in 2014. Bixi is expected to announce the buyer of its international operations and plans for its 2013 Montreal season.

April: Bixi’s fifth Montreal season to start April 15.

May: New York City’s bike-sharing is scheduled to start. It is to have 5,500 bikes at about 300 stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, with plans to eventually reach 10,000 bikes.
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Here's what the new level crossing looks like on the Finch Hydro Corridor Bike Path at the GO Transit Newmarket Subdivision.

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Cyclists are forced to do a very challenging slalom before crossing the tracks, even though there is tons of visibility, there are crossing lights and bells, and trains are required to sound their horns at the crossing.
I suspect the bars are far more dangerous than the danger they are mitigating. And even if it isn't the case, I'd rather some idiot jumping the lights get hit by a train than have a law-abiding cyclist crash while trying to go through the gates.
 
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