I had been waiting for it for a long time: bike sharing in Toronto. Bixi was originally launched in Montreal in the May of 2009, and has been a huge success. Since then, bike sharing has become the trend around the world with other programs in Ottawa, London, Melbourne, Washington, Minneapolis and Washington. Now, that’s really huge!
Toronto’s bike sharing program was launched in May 2011 and currently has 1,000 bikes and 80 stations (according to information from their telephone answering service). In other words, it is not nearly as large as Montreal’s with 5,050 bikes and 405 stations. Nevertheless, the demand for bike sharing in Toronto has been strong and I hope to see Bixi expand their network by adding more bikes and more importantly, more stations.
At this stage, Toronto’s stations are based around the Downtown core with stations as far south as the waterfront on Queens Quay, as west as Spadina, as north as Bloor and as east as Jarvis. For me, the concentration of stations around the downtown core is not an issue for me as I never have a need to go outside this square, however the lack of empty docks at each station around the Financial District has been a daily frustration of mine.
Each morning, I need to bike to the Yonge/King area and luckily enough there is a station at Yonge/Melinda (one street south of King), but I can never dock here. So then I bike to Yonge/Temperance, which is full. Then I bike to Bay/King, full as well! Then I end up having to bike all the way to King/University to which always happens to be my saviour but is still a 10 minute walk from my intended docking location. Let’s not forget the time it has taken me to bike to all the other stations. This is not at all convenient. For a daily commute of about a 25 minute walk, has now become a 30 minute bike ride + 10 minute walk. Does this make sense? Not at all.
Not only that, my key no longer works at my preferred pick up station (Queens Quay and Spadina) to which I have tried three separate mornings to pick up a Bixi bike. Because of the waste in time and the fear of being late to work once again, I end up having to take the TTC which leaves me more annoyed.
Other Bixi cons is that the stations aren’t in the most convenient locations, are sometimes hard to find, sometimes don’t work (the dock or the machine is broken), the bell doesn’t work half the time nor is very loud, it is limited to just 3 speeds, and I have to change my seat height each and everytime I want to pick up a new bike. The front rack also isn’t the greatest as you can’t fit a lot of things there not due to it’s size, but due to the way it is designed. I can pretty much just fit my handbag but if I ever want to pick up groceries from the market – I can forget it. One time, I was biking along Queen West – my handbag actually slipped off the bike and onto the road at which point I screamed because I thought I would lose all my things! It was scary!
Other than the above, the Bixi bike is quite a decent bike. It’s a heavy one, but very comfortable. The height of the seat it a tad too high for me, so this is the only uncomfortable thing – which I suppose is probably the most important. It doesn’t feel safe for me not to be able to reach the ground.
But even though it only has 3 speeds – it probably is all you need for a downtown bike. But if you were ever find yourself going south (past King) there is enough incline for the bike to go at a speed where the speeds aren’t fast enough for the chain and there is no control in the peddles. This makes me feel uncomfortable because the speed isn’t that fast, and it’s silly to break the whole way down just so I can have control in the peddles. It’s just a very strange feeling for not even going that fast.
But nevertheless – Bixi has been fun. The ride home is lovely and I like that I can pick up a bike anywhere, anytime I want to. I can walk to work and then bike home. Or I can bike to work and then go out for drinks and not have to worry about leaving my bike parked at work. Also, I can bike to work work or at Chinatown and not have to worry about it getting stolen! This is probably the best benefit!
One of the biggest cons is that the price you pay ($5 for 24 hours, $12 for 27 hours, $40 for 30 days and $95 for one year) only includes 30 minutes a trip. That means if you wish to bike for one hour, you will have to pay extra. I once went for 90 minutes and I had to pay an extra $6.22 for the extra 60 minutes. Do this often enough, and it can turn into a pricy ride! What a rip!
Overall, there are a lot of downsides to the Bixi bike. But there are sure a lot of upsides. If you’re on the fence about it – for $5 it’s worth the try. I have the $95/year subscription and so far my experience has been half good and half bad – but for the benefit of the environment, it is definitely a whole better value if you keep that in mind.
