News   Apr 19, 2024
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Toronto Bike Share

April saw a ridership of 145,156, up 67% over last April. Mind you, this was a much warmer April than last April.. Lets see how the May numbers fare given this month seems like its going to be much colder than last May.

Where are you seeing the ridership stats?
 
New infill station at
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King St W / York St

It appears they already had one here (I see 2 marked on their map), so i assume this is just needed capacity growth.
 
I had a vacation to Lousville and a business trip to San Jose.

Both of them had Bird scooters and Lime scooters.
So I signed up to try them.

I'm convinced -- scootershare is not a handwave-dismiss.
It is better than I expected. Just $1 plus 15 cents a minute at 25 kilometers per hour on multiuse trails on scooters that weigh only 20 pounds. In San Jose, they speed-limited them to 12mph in the urban setting, but the wide streets/multiuse trails of Louisville waterfront meant I could use the full speed settings.

I'm 45 years old.
I had NEVER ridden a scooter before and they are a really fantastic way to get around.
These were easy.

I'll definitely be using them if they come to Toronto or Hamilton or both.

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Bring them on! (ETA ~2020).

In some cities, it was allowed only on streets, but in others, they are permitted on multiuse trails and/or wide sidewalks. Scooter rules are very city dependant.

Say what you will of the scooters scourge (you will be uncerermoniously dismissed by me), but they are a fantastic addition multimodal..... Bikeshare, Uber, Scooters!!!!

For a Toronto deployment -- perhaps a bigger quantity (per square kilometer) than Loisville scooter density, but smaller quantity than San Jose scooter density -- that would be just about right for most Canadian cities. I think Hamilton will be a better first-city deployment, as there's more room for accomodating them there. But Toronto presents an urban density/safety challenge, but New York City is going to integrate scootershare too -- and it seems inevitable that Toronto will have to confront the boom, at least trial-permitting them where bicycles are (cycle lanes, etc).

I am 45 years old...
I never ridden scooters until May 2019 (kick scooter or electric scooters)....
I was uncertain how worthwhile/silly they were...

But they've WON me over in 100% spades. Bring them on, bring them to Canada (for spring/summer/fall) !!!
 
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Maybe we can create bidirectional bike lanes on both sides of a given street. One side can be for cycles; the other can be for scooters and ebikes.
 
Maybe we can create bidirectional bike lanes on both sides of a given street. One side can be for cycles; the other can be for scooters and ebikes.
I used to agree with you until I tried them....

Considering how a speed-throttled electric kick-scooter lighter than your school backpack is intentionally configured to the speed of an average bicycle, while presenting less risk of injury to cyclists and pedestrians -- I think this modal separation is silly. Allow them everywhere bicycles are -- that's it. Regulate their weight and speed though for modal compatibility.

I could accelerate and decelerate as quickly as a bicycle -- keeping my place in a crowded bike lane without frustrating cyclists. They didn't care or mind I was on an electric scooter -- I was actually more nimble in getting out of other cyclists way, so I'm sure they prefer I be on a scooter than on my own bike. Despite my scooter inexperience, it was pretty impressive how easy to learn how to use these.

Most people who try the scooters now quickly figure out that it's silly to separate these speed-limited 20-to-25-pound scooters. I totally could carry them up the stairs, one-handed!

Regulate them by speed, bulk, and weight. A 12mph scooter is less likely to injure a pedestrian than a pedal bicycle. You are not going to win an argument persuading me otherwise -- I used to agree with you, but like the original "Sherborne cycle lane is wasteful taxpayer money" deniers who have won over in supporting cycle infrastructure -- I am now 100% wholeheartedly in allowing speed-throttled sub-25-pound electric scooters anywhere bicycles are allowed, including offstreet multiuse trails as well as bicycle lanes. It has now become a losing battle in many cities to try and argue otherwise, though some cities have weird rules ("allowed on sidewalks, not allowed on roads") while others go the other way ("allowed on roads, and onstreet cycle lane, not allowed on multiuse/sidewalks"), so it's a big mishmash of legislation that is sometimes enforced in some cities, not enforced in others. In this wild wild west, sensibility rules -- and sensibility dictates "allow anywhere where bikes are, as long as they are within the legally allowed speed/weight class".

This would be, obviously, an exception to the non-motorized multiuse trail rule, though. Opinions will differ and not everyone will agree, but that's now my new stance, having tried these scooters in a city that permitted them on multiuse trails (included as one of the special motorization exception along with speed-limited pedal-assist-only bike-looking pedelecs as well as electric wheelchairs). My (new) opinion only.
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Nontheless, it's a good question for Toronto City Council to eventually confront, for bylaw standardization. A scooterban will go down worse than a Uberban from me now -- now that I have tried them -- so some way of allowing is needed.

These scooters are powered by lightweight lithium batteries, and the scooter is lighter than a university backpack -- literally 20 or 25 pounds(ish).

Interesting side note: They cleverly use the gig economy ("bird chargers", lime juicers"). Despite the slim lithium batteries embedded in the scooter frames, the scooters hold a full day's or two charge of average usage (about ten different 15-minute tripfuls), and are collected offpeak (9pm) by crowdsourced gig economy who are paid per scooter to recharge them and put them back before next day's peak period; preventing interfering with peak period traffic. The municipal government regulations help steer how a city deploys these scooters in the least disruptive way

Suppose it is time to start creating a new thread about scootershare, even TransitApp now lists "Scooter+Subway" multimodal trips in some cities now when it's faster than walking/bikeshare (i.e. nearest scooter is closer to you, etc).
 
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Interesting, I discovered (little known stealth change) -- Uber now operates Hamilton Bike Share. (proof).

Not long ago, Uber purchased JUMP/Social Bicycles (maker of the SoBi bikes in Hamilton).

Then, in another move, recently the operating structure changed of SoBi Hamilton, where JUMP now operates SoBi Hamilton, with the blessing of a closed session of Hamilton City Council (gee). And guess, who's the parent? Uber. So Uber is now operating/captializing SoBi Hamilton. I hear an expansion is planned. I have mixed feelings about Uber, but it is what it is -- and if our fleet grows/renews, then I can live with it. Will go great with Keddy Access Trail (construction on Claremont confirmed to begin summer 2019) and the upcoming Cannon Bike Lane concrete curbs (now under construction, the 4-month closure has begun).

In separate knowledge, Uber also is developing an electric scooter, so I wonder if they'll arrive in Hamilton before Toronto.

Both San Joes and Louisville had two competing electric scooter companies so I registered for both networks. It was surprisingly fast to register for both, I just scanned my credit card with my smartphone camera (one time) with the LIme app, and done -- registered in like 3 minutes. Thereafter, I simply scan QR code on the scooter to unlock the scooters -- the experience is faster than unlocking a Toronto Bike Share via Transit App or using the SoBi Hamilton keypad. I think both SoBi and Toronto Bike Share should put QR codes on all bikeshare bikes now, for faster unlocking that doesn't involve needing to see cracked screens and broken keypads. It'd just be a simply backup method of unlocking bikes -- surprisingly fast. Modern QR code scanners are so fast/reliable even with partial shadows at nighttime with AI-based QR scanner programming.

Interestingly, Lime Scooters have already come to Hamilton City Hall for an apparently-planned 2020 arrival in Hamilton. Lime Scooters was giving Hamilton city councillors a chance to try them, and it appears we're going to be confronting the scooter boom scourge possibly before Toronto.

I talked to Hamilton city councillor JP Danko, and he's a fan of these electric scooters too. So we'll be welcoming them in 2020 here in Hamilton, apparently. We might even have competition between JUMP and Lime by 2021.

As members of both Toronto/Hamilton bike share systems and use both regularly -- analyzing the city for scooter ease -- I admit that my home city (Hamilton) has more room for scooters than Toronto does, so we might be a good trial area first before Toronto. But there's tons of room in them for Toronto largely, too -- just a bit tricky in the Front-Spadina-Bloor-Sherborne congestion-hairpull region.

In some cities, the same org does both the bikeshare/scootershare (not common). Toronto Bike Share could theoretically be the organization that adopts electric scooters, or partners with one of the scooter vendors, to integrate bikeshare+scootershare.

Nontheeless, it's an unexpected new mode in today's multimodal Bikshare/Uber society.
 
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I agree about the scooters! My partner and I used them for the first time in Mexico City over Xmas and I fell in love with them. So much so that I now want to buy one for myself. It won’t have the same flexibility to just drop it anywhere, but riding them to get around was just so awesome.
 
After a long break without new stations.............we have one at the eastern end of East York.

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Dentonia Park

This is just west of Victoria Park Avenue, very close to the subway station, but uphill from there.
 
They need to install just over 2 per day, every day to get them all done by the end of July.

2 per work day will see them finish at the end of August.

Every year is the same w/them, I really don't get it.

The bikes/stations were approved for purchase last fall.

If you want to post substantial ridership gains you need the bikes/stations installed as early in the season as possible.

You'd think they'd be out there aggressively from the last week of April trying to get them all in by Canada Day.......but nope.
 
Finally, maybe, the log jam has come loose.

Several (7) new stations in the last 72 hours. Almost entirely infill.

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215 Queens Quay E
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King + Jordan
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75 Isabella St
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York + Harbor
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2 Queen St East
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204 King St E
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Martin Goodman Trail + Remembrance
 
A station at Woodbine Beach would be awesome!

There are 2 nearby stations now, one by Kew Beach/Kenilworth and another at Coxwell and Lake Shore.

But there is certainly room/demand for more!

Is there a roll-out plan available somewhere for Bikeshare?

Not any of which I am aware.

This year's expansion is supposed to focus on The Junction/High Park, Midtown, and East York, as well as the entire Gerrard East corridor.
 

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