Will Toronto follow in Montreal’s footsteps and adopt the BIXI?
BIXI, the public bike sharing system that launched in Montreal in spring of 2009, will place thousands of bikes are parked at docking stations in the downtown core. Anyone can pay a fee – daily, monthly, or yearly – to use them whenever they’d like.
But a few goals have to be met before anything can be finalized.
One critical one: in order for BIXI to call Toronto its newest home, the system must gain 1,000 yearly subscribers by November 30.
According to the BIXI Toronto Facebook page, there were just over 750 subscribers as of late Monday.
The campaign to rally up members started on July 28. So that’s about 250 subscribers a month. With only one month left, the campaign has to keep up this steady pace if BIXI is going to get its scheduled launch here in May 2011.
So, the race is on.
A yearly membership to the program will cost you $95. That is a little more than the $78 that our friends in Montreal pay per year, but the Toronto system will be available year-round, while Montreal’s BIXI serviceperiod is only from May to November.
If this campaign does succeed, though, there will also be the option of a monthly subscription for $40, or you could choose to pay per day, with a 24-hour fee of $5.
BIXI would bring 1,000 bikes at 80 different solar-powered docking stations throughout the downtown core.
The service area will be small, planning on south of Bloor, between Spadina and Jarvis, with docking stations being approximately 300 metres apart. If BIXI does as well here as it as has been doing in Montreal, though, we can expect that service area to expand over time.
In it’s first full year in Montreal, the system expanded from 3,000 bikes and 300 docking stations, to 5,000 bikes and 400 docking stations, with 20,000 subscribers by the time its second year started up in May 2010.
Those who are hesitant to drop the money on the system before they see it in action can head out to one of the scheduled demonstrations that BIXI has been holding throughout the city to promote the program. At these demos, you can test out the bikes, the docking stations and ask the BIXI team any questions that you might have.
Here’s a list of some upcoming demonstrations:
- Tuesday, Oct. 5th: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. – Next to 92 Front St. E.
- Wednesday, Oct. 6th: 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. – Next to 100 Queen St.W. & 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. – Next to 57 Adelaide St. E.
- Thursday, Oct. 7th: 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. – next to 900 Bay St. & 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. to Next to 1566 Queen St. W.
- Friday, Oct 8th: 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. – Next to 100 St. George St.
Or you can check out BIXI Toronto’s website for more information and to subscribe.
Read more about BIXI here.
