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| BIXI bikes in Montreal |
I first told you about this public bike sharing system - already wildly popular in Montreal, London, Washington DC, Minneapolis, and Melbourne (and coming to Canada's Capital Region this year) - back in September, when BIXI needed 1,000 people to sign up for 12-month memberships by the end of November 2010 in order to ensure the system would be installed this year.
Well, the target was met and exceeded before that deadline, and then we heard nothing from the bike sharing folks over the winter until they recently announced that all is well, and the launch date is May 3rd. There will be 1,000 bikes available to be picked up at 80 BIXI stations. A whopping 1,500 docking points will be spread around Toronto's downtown core, making virtually any short ride in the area (Spadina Ave to Jarvis St, from Bloor St down to the lake) very convenient.
Once the network is set up, I'll be taking some pictures and posting them here. Meanwhile, if you'd like more information, check out my blog post, the main BIXI website, Toronto's BIXI site, and the press release.
Photo credit.
So cool, go BIXI! Perhaps it will spread to some other Canadian cities as well!
ReplyDeleteI think I'll be taking one of those BIXI's for a spin! Thanks for keeping us in the loop on this Andrea :)
ReplyDeleteYes, Sherry, I expect that it will spread, and I'll try to keep you in the loop about that! When visiting other cities I'd love to cycle and walk everywhere instead of having to rent a car or figure out the local transit system.
ReplyDeleteThat is such a cool idea. (Well, except for the fact that I haven't really biked for years and almost ran down a stroller with a baby inside it the last time I tried. Time to get back on!) I'm surprised it's already in a couple of US cities. I didn't think we were that enlightened.
ReplyDeleteThe US may not be environmentally "enlightened" as a whole country, but then again neither is Canada. You have to look for specific initiatives, region by region. No one city can do it all, but most are working on at least a few things. That being said, even though BIXI is coming to Toronto, there are big gaps in terms of cycling infrastructure in the city. Well, we have to start somewhere.
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