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Toronto Bike Share

A bit of shift by TTC at their meeting today ... they've rejected it, but left the door open if the city doesn't have another alternative:

BP9a6AfCcAAUOKs.jpg
 
rbt said:
I'm very disappointed with their evaluation of it. There was no consideration to changing Bixi's business model to better fit in with what TTC currently does; just complaints that they do not currently align.
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It's true that bicycle share works well with transit, but I don't think the TTC would be the transit company to take Bixi. They would be competing directly with themselves for those short trips which are the most profitable with the flat fare system.

TTC buses are most heavily used within 3km of the subway station. This is their peak point and any trips you can divert off a bus (fairly expensive) onto another mode for busy routes is going to have significant financial benefits.

For example, if you diverted 100 trips/hour off peak-hour buses on Finch West and Finch East within 3km of Finch station, that is 4 fewer buses that are needed during rush hour.

[...]

Rather than a blanket of Bixi stations, set it up as an alternative to the short-trips on busy bus routes where TTC currently struggles to add capacity. Accept transfers and charge a standard fare.
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Bicycle share is not competitive for the home-to-transit trip, since people have bikes at home anyway, and homes are highly dispersed in the suburbs. It would be a great challenge to achieve a decent density of stations, and even then few people would use it.

The reason people don't ride to the subway isn't that they don't have bikes, it's that there is no safe and convenient way of riding there or parking. I look forward to seeing how the new Finch West station performs, given its location on the Finch Hydro Corridor bicycle path, and its bicycle parking garage.

I think it makes most sense to restrict Bixi to downtown (and possibly other areas with concentrated destinations). The most potential I see is for people coming into the city on trains (GO, VIA, UP Express).

I therefore think that Bixi is taken over by an agency, it should be Metrolinx. Fare-integrating with such a fast and convenient last-kilometre mode of transportation would make their services far more attractive by reducing total trip times for train users.

In the Netherlands, the national railway system Nederlandse Spoorwegen operates a bicycle-share system called OV-Fiets ("public transit bicycle"), which is great for people arriving into cities without their own personal bicycle. The Wikipedia article says that there are only 6000 bicycles accross the country, yet there are a million trips a year. It seems that train stations are a highly effective place of storing public bicycles given the number of people arriving there and needing to travel a short additional distance.

A resulting necessary investment would be bicycle routes to and from Union Station and a massive expansion of Bixi capacity at the station. A bidirectional cycle track up the east side of York Street would be a great start.
 
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rbt said:
I'm very disappointed with their evaluation of it. There was no consideration to changing Bixi's business model to better fit in with what TTC currently does; just complaints that they do not currently align.

Change Bixi to charge a standard TTC fare (tokens, Metropass, cash, Presto), and allow transfers to other TTC vehicles. There is no revenue lost but expenses should have been reduced. It only takes 1 person and 1 vehicle to redistribute the bikes and the capital for a single subway station (say 24 bike locations) is about 1.2Million.
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That's quite a change.

I was under the impression most Bixi trips are by subscribers and under 30mins, so free. Why would they want to pay subway fare for what they get for free? My experience in London was that very few of the riders on their bixi system transferred to or from the tube.

More over, even if you spammed Bixi stations all over Finch or whatever given arterial, would people use it? It's not like suburban households lack bikes, and once you own a bicycle the direct marginal costs are zero so playing with Bixi's fare structure wouldn't really change anything.

Not disputing the logic that diverting people off of crowded TTC routes can have savings and that kind of behaviour should be encouraged, but the system you're describing is quite odd and would largely abandon bixi's current market. And, like reaperexpress said, what regular commuter would take Bixi from their home?
 
diminutive said:
That's quite a change.

I was under the impression most Bixi trips are by subscribers and under 30mins, so free. Why would they want to pay subway fare for what they get for free? My experience in London was that very few of the riders on their bixi system transferred to or from the tube.
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They don't want it to change; they're heavily subsidized at the moment which is why TTC doesn't want it. Today Bixi takes fares away from TTC and requires a hefty per-trip subsidy to do that.

Hence, my disappointment that TTC didn't propose an alternative business model which does work for them and may have preserved some of what Bixi is today.

That doesn't mean council has to follow through with it; but I would have liked to have known what the alternative is to shutting Bixi down which is the most likely outcome at this time.
 
To add on to my idea of having a Metrolinx takeover:

They could then also have networks around some of the other GO Stations which have nearby destinations (rather than just residential areas) such as Hamilton, Kitchener, Guelph, Oakville, Port Credit and Barrie Allandale.

Bixi trips could be 50 cents per ride when used as extensions of Presto-based transit trips, akin to the "ride to GO" price offered by many suburban transit agencies. For trips not connecting to transit, they could retain the existing fare structure ($5/day for unlimited 30min rides, etc).

Presto could also do the same thing it does now with GO trips, such that it caps the price at the value of a pass. For example, it would only let you spend the cost of an annual Bixi membership in a year, after which it's free.
 
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rbt said:
They don't want it to change; they're heavily subsidized at the moment which is why TTC doesn't want it. Today Bixi takes fares away from TTC and requires a hefty per-trip subsidy to do that.

Hence, my disappointment that TTC didn't propose an alternative business model which does work for them and may have preserved some of what Bixi is today.

That doesn't mean council has to follow through with it; but I would have liked to have known what the alternative is to shutting Bixi down which is the most likely outcome at this time.
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Even if Bixi should be reconfigured to support TTC services, that doesn't mean TTC should be running Bixi. I would expect a TTC takeover to lead to higher costs and worse customer service than Bixi currently provides. Wouldn't you? And Bixi's losses would get buried in the TTC budget, so we'd never know if we're getting value for money.

Better to tender Bixi for a new private operator, and require service reconfiguration to better serve TTC stations as part of the deal.
 
Looks like BIXI will finally see an expansion after Kristyn Wong-Tam contributed $1 million from section 37 funds in her ward to BIXI expansion across the city. Since section 37 funds need to be used in the areas where they are collected, she will have BIXI stations in her ward relocated to other parts of the city, and have BIXI reinstall new stations in her ward.

The $1 million should allow for 20 more stations, to add to the 80 that currently exist in the city.

Kudos to KWT for making this happen and finding a way to work around the rules!

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_ha...1_million_to_toronto_bikeshare_expansion.html
 
Tuscani01 said:
Looks like BIXI will finally see an expansion after Kristyn Wong-Tam contributed $1 million from section 37 funds in her ward to BIXI expansion across the city. Since section 37 funds need to be used in the areas where they are collected, she will have BIXI stations in her ward relocated to other parts of the city, and have BIXI reinstall new stations in her ward.

The $1 million should allow for 20 more stations, to add to the 80 that currently exist in the city.

Kudos to KWT for making this happen and finding a way to work around the rules!

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_ha...1_million_to_toronto_bikeshare_expansion.html
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I'd like to see half of those stations added to the existing service area: even where I work, University and Dundas area, there should be one or two more to deal with demand (inability to end trip due to full stations in the morning and empty stations in the afternoons). The rest should fill in the gaps on the edge of the system and perhaps start to go right to and a few blocks west of Bathurst (on King, College, Dundas and Harbord): I'm still upset about the removal of the station at Bathurst/Lennox - the next closest Bixi stations are several blocks away.
 
ShonTron said:
I'd like to see half of those stations added to the existing service area: even where I work, University and Dundas area, there should be one or two more to deal with demand (inability to end trip due to full stations in the morning and empty stations in the afternoons). The rest should fill in the gaps on the edge of the system and perhaps start to go right to and a few blocks west of Bathurst (on King, College, Dundas and Harbord): I'm still upset about the removal of the station at Bathurst/Lennox - the next closest Bixi stations are several blocks away.
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I disagree. I am quite happy with the removal of the station at Bathurst/Lennox, as it brought a station close enough to me at Queen/Dufferin, that Bixi has now become useful to me. It's several blocks away still, but way better than my previous option. Share a little, sheesh!
 
From Today's Montreal Gazette:

MONTREAL - Montreal's city council scrambled Monday to assure the populace that Bixi is not going bankrupt after the city's auditor general expressed serious doubts about its ability to continue operations.

The city's executive committee member responsible for transport said the city's popular bike-sharing system is a victim of its own success, with rapid international expansion putting it into debt while it awaits payments from cities including Chicago, New York and Aspen, Colo.

"Bixi is not going bankrupt," said Réal Ménard, although he characterized its financial situation as fragile. "It is just having a liquidity problem."

The city of Montreal is in talks with provincial investment body Investissement Québec to arrange a loan to solve the bike authority's liquidity problems, Ménard said. Ménard would not reveal the amount of the loan sought, other than to say it was in the millions, but less than $10 million.

Montreal is still responsible for $31 million remaining on $37 million in loans it took out to invest in the system. This year it invested another $2.4 million to expand the network in Montreal.

In a letter presented to councillors at Monday's city council meeting, auditor general Jacques Bergeron said he was unable to submit the financial report created by an independent auditor for the period ending Dec. 31, 2012, of the Public Bike System Co. (PBSC) which runs Montreal's Bixi operations, and of Bixi Toronto.

"I discovered enough convincing evidence to cast serious doubts on the capacity of PBSC and Bixi Toronto to continue their operations," Jacques Bergeron wrote in the letter dated Sept. 11. "Because of this, I informed PBSC and Bixi Toronto of my evaluation of the situation. At this moment, I am still waiting for an action plan from their management and other information that will confirm or deny the capacity of PBSC and Bixi Toronto to meet their obligations for the next dozen months."

"In these circumstances . . . it is impossible to put forward an opinion or the report of the independent auditor."

The problem, Ménard said, is that Bixi is spreading into four cities in 2013 and 2014, and is responsible for the costs of producing the bikes in China, sending them to their destination cities and setting them up, incurring debt for the company until the cities pay their bills.

"There are 38,000 bikes around the world in 15 cities and two universities," Ménard said. "We have four cities to supply in 2013 and 2014 and there are at least eight cities interested.

"So there is no intention on the island of Montreal to put an end to Bixi. It is a source of pride and our calling card to the world. We are waiting for international clients to pay us and when they do Bixi will become financially viable again."

Bixi will have a record year in 2013 with $50 million in revenues, Ménard said. But Montreal sells the systems to other cities which operate them and collects the revenue. Montreal is looking to sell its global pision, but the sale is currently on ice, Ménard said. Launched in 2009, Bixi is now in its fifth season in Montreal and has expanded worldwide to such cities as New York, Boston and Melbourne, Australia.

Projet Montréal leader Richard Bergeron requested the auditor general be asked to give a clearer picture of the bike company's financial situation Tuesday before city council, saying his letter warned of the "near bankruptcy" of a city service that could leave taxpayers on the hook for $31 million. Interim Mayor Laurent Blanchard denied the request.

"We were waiting for the report on the 2012 financial situation of Bixi and instead we get this letter," Bergeron said. "It is very troubling. . . .

"It's so long that I heard (former mayor) Gérald Tremblay telling me that Bixi, it's just a matter of weeks that it will be so profitable it will bring money like water. . . . We have done the sales internationally, we are still in debt, and today we still have no financial report. It is very troubling."
 
Media Advisory

December 3, 2013

Announcement on future of bike share program in Toronto

Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong (Ward 34 Don Valley East), Chair of the City of Toronto's Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, will be joined by officials from the Transportation Division and the Toronto Parking Authority to make an announcement about the future of the bike share program in Toronto.

Date: Wednesday, December 4
Time: 12:30 p.m.
Location: Members Lounge, Council Chamber, Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen St. W.
 
And here is the statement. Yea!

December 4, 2013

The City of Toronto places bike share program on financially sustainable course

Toronto's bike share program will continue to operate after an agreement was reached between the City and PBSC, the company that administers the BIXI Toronto service.

"We are pleased to announce that the City of Toronto will be keeping the bike share program operating for our customers," said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, chair of the City's Public works and Infrastructure Committee. "In less than three years, the bike share program has proven to very successful and has become an important part of Toronto's transportation system with more than 4,400 paid subscribers and more than 1.8 million trips taken during this time. The City's actions will preserve bike share for Toronto, place the system on firm financial footing and provide it with a solid business plan under the management of the Toronto Parking Authority (TPA)."

As part of the agreement, BIXI Toronto will continue to operate the system until the spring of 2014 when it will be assumed by the TPA. The TPA is seeking a qualified private company to operate the system and both the City and the TPA are also working to find a title sponsor for the program.

Funding to permit this deal was made possible by a $5-million payment from Bell Media. The funding permits the City to secure all of the bike share assets, cover transition costs, and create a reserve account to help place the system on financially sound footing.

As a result, Bell Media's obligations to provide 20 automated public toilets under its current street furniture partnership with the City will now be reduced to nine, of which two have already been installed.

The City plans to expand the number of bike share stations from 80 to 102 in 2014 with funding provided by the City's Pan/Parapan Am Host City Showcase program. The TPA will work with the new private operator to develop a financially sustainable plan for any future expansion after 2014.
 
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