Montreal City Weblog

Kate 13:52 on 2019-01-23 Permalink Reply  

• Kevin 17:06 on 2019-01-23 Permalink

  I eagerly await the first person to ride a Bixi downtown from Ile Bizard.

• Ephraim 19:47 on 2019-01-23 Permalink

  Am I the only person who wants to see if this is actually at least breaking even and makes sense to run, especially in some of the furthest boroughs?

• dhomas 20:29 on 2019-01-23 Permalink

  It’s public transit. Is it supposed to break even?

• Ephraim 20:39 on 2019-01-23 Permalink

  @dhomas – Yes. The city of Montreal agreed to pay up to $2.9 million per year for 5 years to keep it running as public transit, but that’s IT, nothing more. It’s supposed to self sustain itself.

• LJ 20:40 on 2019-01-23 Permalink

  Ile Bizard to downtown is roughly 30 km. I often bike downtown and back from a different part of the West Island, a 70 km round trip. Sometimes I enjoy the ride down but not so much the ride back; after working a full day I am tired. If I could just bike one way I would probably bike down even more often.

• Kate 21:35 on 2019-01-23 Permalink

  Ephraim, the STM is not supposed to be profitable, so why should Bixi be?

• Ephraim 21:56 on 2019-01-23 Permalink

  @Kate – Even the buses have a budget and a maximum loss. In the case of Bixi, it gets a subsidy of $2.9 million per year… after that, it needs to break even or profit. The same is true of the buses, they don’t have a blank cheque…. this is the subsidy, this is the budget, work within it. But besides that, the city promised that this would be self sustaining. But besides that, who are we subsidizing with Bixi? Is the demographic the same as those taking the bus or are we just taking money away from the buses? I really don’t know, these are honest questions that we need to get answered. Government’s job is to take from the rich and help those at the bottom, so… is Bixi the right answer? And is Bixi out in Pierrefond the answer? I don’t know, there isn’t enough transparency to see this. And of course, the fact that you can replace Bixi with your own bike and maintenance begs the question of… is this the best solution for those with limited funds anyway.

• Kate 22:16 on 2019-01-23 Permalink

  Is the demographic the same as those taking the bus or are we just taking money away from the buses?

  It obviously can’t be the identical demographic, because even to use a super-stable Bixi bike you have to be able-bodied, so there must be a persistent cohort of public transit riders who never cycle – older people, people across all age groups unable or unwilling to cycle, anyone toting babies or small kids, anyone commuting far enough to make a heavy Bixi bike an unattractive option.

  I don’t see a problem with putting Bixi in the burbs because most people aren’t going to Bixi downtown, they’ll Bixi somewhere relatively close, and that’s got to be good. Anything that gets cars off the road for local trips in city or suburbs has to be a good thing.

  I don’t know how the cost of Bixi compares to the cost of keeping a bike, even a beater, functional and on the road. Also, don’t underestimate the charm of not being tied to the bike. When I cycled there was always the worry about locking the bike outside, maybe getting it stolen or damaged. One of the reasons I lost the habit of cycling was a long period working for someone who adamantly refused to let me bring my bike inside. With Bixi you just slot the bike in and forget it, and if something breaks or goes flat, that’s not your concern. Those things are powerful incentives.

• Blork 22:28 on 2019-01-23 Permalink

  @LJ, I would not want to bike a 30km ride on a Bixi. Regarding your situation, can you leave your bike at work overnight? If so, why not bike to work then bus/train home, next day bus/train to work and bike home (wash, rinse, repeat). That way you’re biking every day but not the full 70km.

• LJ 22:50 on 2019-01-23 Permalink

  I have done that a couple of times, but do not have a safe parking spot and also miss having my bike at home. Are Bixis that bad? I have never even tried one. Maybe for outer areas they should have bikes more suited to longer rides, because I would guess that most people out here would have their own bikes for shorter rides.

• qatzelok 23:04 on 2019-01-23 Permalink

  From Ile Bizard, the most logical places to Bixi to are either Ste-Dorothee train station, or the new REM station. Taking a Bixi from a train station after work can be very relaxing.

• Blork 23:19 on 2019-01-23 Permalink

  If you’re lucky enough to get a Bixi that’s right off the factory floor or the repair shop they’re nice, but they’re heavy and not designed for long hauls. Many of them rattle a lot and they amount of adjustment you can do is minimal.

• Max 23:22 on 2019-01-23 Permalink

  Little known Bixi fact: There was a small test network setup in Dorval last summer. 3 stations if I’m not mistaken. One on Cardinal outside the ped tunnel under the train tracks, one near the passenger terminal and one somewhere out where they handle cargo on Stuart-Graham.

  https://www.facebook.com/admtl/posts/jusquau-8-octobre-prochain-une-liaison-bixi-montréal-est-à-lessai-entre-laéropor/2120036588009096/

  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every REM station came with Bixis and bike paths off the bat?

• Faiz Imam 03:12 on 2019-01-24 Permalink

  I do know they are collaborating with vélo Québec and bixi already. I had a discussion with a Vélo Québec guy about it, he seemed pretty happy about the plans. Priority bike storage and bike path links.

  But bixi only makes sense as part of a larger network. One off stations cut off from others don’t help the system much.

  But yeah, they (and all metro stations and bus terminals) definitely need to be on the leading edge of bixi expansion

• Ephraim 14:24 on 2019-01-24 Permalink

  @Kate – The question is more of the efficiency of money. The point of subsidizing buses (and study after study has shown that subsidizing public transport (ie buses and metro) is one of the most effective subsidies there is. But I question who we are subsidizing with Bixi because to me it seems more of a middle-class subsidy, rather than anything else. It’s a nice “have” but is it really a necessity? Or is this simply a way to outsource dealing with bicycle theft (rather than actually doing something about bicycle theft.) Would Bixi survive at $10 more per year so that we weren’t subsidizing it? And like all things, are we looking at that expansion and asking if it pays for itself, is it an efficient use of public funds?

  I’m not saying it is, or it isn’t, I’m simply saying that we should be logical, this is really public funds. It should be used efficiently. Politicians should need to answer for it’s use and answer the questions. This is how this city’s budget went out of wack, people stopped asking questions about why costs were skyrocketing and why the city wasn’t becoming more efficient at what it does because of scale. Or if you want me to put it another way… in the end, it’s your money, would you want to pay an extra $5 to $10 a year to subsidize bikes in Pierrefonds, if it’s just a rabbit hole? All I’m saying is… ask the questions NOW, before they roll it out.

• Joey 15:04 on 2019-01-24 Permalink

  @Ephraim the point of Bixi isn’t to replace personal bike ownership/use. It’s to enable short-term trips, typically one-way, that might otherwise be done on foot, by bus/metro or by car. If you’re going to insist on an accounting framework to measure the value of Bixi (hardly a comprehensive lens, but whatever) how will you account for the fact that Bixi acts as a huge pressure vent on our overcrowded bus and metro system. The orange line is beyond capacity during rush hour. The bus and road network is stretched to the max. Bixi is a very valuable (and presumably very inexpensive) addition to a maxed-out transit system.

• dwgs 15:28 on 2019-01-24 Permalink

  If they are going to continue to increase the number of Bixis then there should be a commensurate increase in bike infrastructure (dedicated lanes and parking). The de Maisonneuve bike path downtown is practically unrideable at rush hours.

• Ephraim 15:55 on 2019-01-24 Permalink

  @Joey – We are talking about Pointe-Claire, Pierrefond, RDP, Cartierville… Do you really think that BIXI is a pressure vent out there? And I’m sorry, money is a consideration to everything. There are plenty of costs to consider… like a truck and driver to move BIXIs around, so how many more might you need to move them around. If the service is already breaking even and carry it’s costs, it’s one thing. If the service isn’t, it’s entirely another.

• js 17:08 on 2019-01-24 Permalink

  Bixis are less than ideal for longer rides. Nobody is going to commute downtown from the West Island on one, especially if they live north of the 40 because there’s no decent way to go about it during rush hour.

  What would make sense is installing plenty of Bixi stands in the various industrial parks that only have a single, very crowded, rush hour bus to ferry workers to & from the nearest metro.

• Blork 17:20 on 2019-01-24 Permalink

  …or commuter train station.

• Ephraim 18:40 on 2019-01-24 Permalink

  @js – And how is that efficient for a bicycle that is supposed to be used by 6 or more people per day? It’s a SHARED bicycle system. The point of the system is for the bicycle to be used repeatedly. Not driven to a factory and left for the day until they finish their shift? SO basically it’s useful twice a day?