Toronto Bike Share

[DSC]

I heard early April for the locations. I'm excited for this but they REALLY need to quickly expand the borders East and West. A Bixi zone that went all the way from The Beaches to High Park would be amazing.

Agreed, at present the eastern boundary is apparently Jarvis which excludes the Distillery District - just the kind of place people will want to go to!

As Hank says, it will be interesting to see the reaction to loss of parking spaces to accomodate the Bixi stations - The Mayor's hysteria about the "War on the Car" will doubtless be starting again!

 

[SlickFranky]

They also missed out on the whole CityPlace area...seems like a no-brainer to include that.

 

[gweed123]

I think their methodology at this point is to start with a relatively small area, and then once it takes hold, make it bigger. If you make the initial area too large, capital costs go up, and the amount of users may not make the program sustainable. Once the interest is proven to be there with a relatively small area, then they can gradually expand it to new areas.

The flip side is however, if the area is too small that it's not useful to anyone, the program may fail on those grounds. It's a very fine balance in the beginning. I'd rather see a smaller-scale program succeed and then expand, then a larger-scale program not draw the necessary ridership and then fail.

 

[DSC]

I think their methodology at this point is to start with a relatively small area, and then once it takes hold, make it bigger. If you make the initial area too large, capital costs go up, and the amount of users may not make the program sustainable. Once the interest is proven to be there with a relatively small area, then they can gradually expand it to new areas.

The flip side is however, if the area is too small that it's not useful to anyone, the program may fail on those grounds. It's a very fine balance in the beginning. I'd rather see a smaller-scale program succeed and then expand, then a larger-scale program not draw the necessary ridership and then fail.

I agree with you BUT still think a Bixi-Park at the Distillery - just east of the proposed area - and in City Place - just west of it - would be good, and heavily used.

 

[SlickFranky]

I agree with you BUT still think a Bixi-Park at the Distillery - just east of the proposed area - and in City Place - just west of it - would be good, and heavily used.

Exactly...you have to keep the area small, but that's no excuse for adhering to arbitrary borders and excluding major consumer bases and destinations. Hopefully their phase-one map is just a rough outline and these spots are in fact included.

 

[gweed123]

I agree with you BUT still think a Bixi-Park at the Distillery - just east of the proposed area - and in City Place - just west of it - would be good, and heavily used.

Agreed. I'm not saying I agree 100% with their borders, I'm just saying why I think they chose them. Hopefully once the West Don Lands developed is nearly finished, they'll expand to there as well.

 

[M II A II R II K]

Bloor Street Bike Study PDF: http://www.cleanairpartnership.org/pdf/bike-lanes-parking.pdf




The Toronto Bike Plan’s Bikeway Network calls for almost 500 km of bike lanes to be installed by 2011. City Council has now moved this target completion date to 2012, but even meeting that goal will require a monumental shift in City priorities in order to approve and install the needed bicycle infrastructure to create a real network throughout Toronto. Since the approval of the Bike Plan in 2001, City planners and engineers have faced hurdle after hurdle securing political approval to install bike lanes across the city. City champions have tried to accelerate the Bike Plan’s implementation by increasing capital budgets and streamlining the approval process. But even in the 2008 construction season, City staff were unable to consistently count on all the necessary approvals at City Council.

Almost every new bike lane in the older city – where streets are narrower than in suburban areas – has involved the removal of at least some on‐street parking. The removal of on‐street parking capacity is a big concern for some business owners who believe that the majority of their customers arrive by car. They are concerned that if there isn’t sufficient parking very close at hand, it will deter some customers from visiting the business. In most instances, there is very little evidence to support or negate this concern.

For quite some time cycling advocates – and some City staff – have been looking at how to make a major east‐west bikeway in Toronto. Some propose that the most attractive option is the Bloor‐Danforth corridor, stretching almost 20 kilometres across the city. The City did not include this route in its 2001 Bikeway Network plan, though earlier city reports did recommend a Bloor bike lane.

 

[sixrings]

I know its MID town... BUt Eglinton has 5 lanes from Oakwood to Don Mills.. Once the LRT is in there wont be a need to facilitate busses. Take away a lane and make a BIKE lane and you still can keep the Parking spots...

 

[kEiThZ]

I really wish Bixi had common membership and rates across cities in Canada. Would just make it simpler to use and more user-friendly across cities. And far more likely to be used by tourists. Kinda like zipcar for example.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Good news for Bixi: Gasoline going over 132¢ a litre on Friday.

 

[DSC]

I really wish Bixi had common membership and rates across cities in Canada. Would just make it simpler to use and more user-friendly across cities. And far more likely to be used by tourists. Kinda like zipcar for example.

Bixi's rates are different so I doubt you will see a common membership. (Montreal is $78 and here it's $95)

 

[Platform 27]

Good news for Bixi: Gasoline going over 132¢ a litre on Friday.

Seriously, man, you're beginning to make me suspect that you aren't a real person but actually a few lines of programming code that periodically generates peak-oil-related comments on random threads.

We get it. You've read Hubbert. It has deeply shaped your understanding of transportation policy. But we don't need five consecutive posts on five separate threads in the course of a few minutes, each threadjacking cursorily-related topics with "gas going over 132¢ a litre".

 

[sixrings]

Actually being sceptical of Tolls coming in under Rob Ford the only thing I can see detering automobile transit is Gas prices.. AS a result I appreciate W.K. Lis updates since I rarely fill up and often forget about how high Gas has come...

I wish we would have voted in Sarah Thomson or at least put tolls entering and exiting the 416.....

As much as I love cars I am happy for Bikes in this city. I have visited Amsterdam and its amazing the bikes in this city Obviously people from scarborough arent going to bike all the way downtown but it is possible to see people from EGlinton south Keele east Pape West and the Lake North to all adopt the bike as a actual mode of transportation.... In canada bikes are for Kids, Health Nuts, and recreation.... This should change in our future... At least during summer.

 

[kEiThZ]

Bixi's rates are different so I doubt you will see a common membership. (Montreal is $78 and here it's $95)

I realize that. Like I said, I wish they would just charge a common membership fee and let you use that membership anywhere. Bixi is also being tried out in Ottawa for example. But I believe that'll be part of the Montreal operation, not a stand alone.

 

[lafard]

We get it. You've read Hubbert. It has deeply shaped your understanding of transportation policy. But we don't need five consecutive posts on five separate threads in the course of a few minutes, each threadjacking cursorily-related topics with "gas going over 132¢ a litre".

I doubt Bixi is really displacing a lot of car trips anyways... its target is short, local, errand type trips in the core, which are rarely done by cars downtown anyways. The target demographic of Bixi is not driving for errands already. It will displace primarily walking and transit trips, and will probably induce new trips.