Ville-Marie to put up 100 e-vehicle spots
Ville-Marie is going to set aside a hundred spots for anchoring Jump bikes and electric scooters around the borough.
Ville-Marie is going to set aside a hundred spots for anchoring Jump bikes and electric scooters around the borough.
Ian 22:37 on 2019-07-02 Permalink
I wonder how thick that brown en envelope was.
Faiz Imam 02:49 on 2019-07-03 Permalink
I get the cynicism, especially with the current focus on Uber’s Jump, but this is awesome news that’s actually a long time coming.
We’ve been asking the question for years now, what is the future of urban mobility?
Obviously its not cars, and clearly improved transit is key, but the success of bixi and the recent rise of battery powered vehicles shows us there is a huge potential of real progress… if they are properly managed.
Right now not only do private rentals get stored all over the place, but the powered ones need to be picked up and taken to private residences or businesses to be recharged. It’s a very messy system.
The goal here is to have designated areas so that these vehicles can both be charged up and stored responsibly. If it works it will mean these ebikes/escooters will be much cheaper to operate as well as fit in much better in the urban environment.
Also, given that we are also talking about massively expanding the EV charging stations, this fits in well with those plans.
Kate 07:16 on 2019-07-03 Permalink
Faiz Imam, you’re an incurable optimist. These “solutions” are only a toy because they’re useless in wintertime. I’m also not thrilled by the fact that the success of human-powered Bixis is going to be overtaken by battery-powered toys of one sort or another. OK some people aren’t able to cycle, and we live in a town with hills, I get it, but not everyone using those things is going to be a disabled person riding up Côte-des-Neiges.
Chris 08:54 on 2019-07-03 Permalink
I’m with Faiz here. As much as I hate Uber the company, we need more bikes and scooters to replace cars. Cars use more space, pollute more, make more noise, etc. By every measure they are worse.
If cars were a brand new ‘disruption’, people would be pissed off seeing them just stored all over the place on every street.
Kate, that they don’t work as well in winter makes them a partial solution, not no solution at all. Also, human-powered bikes were overtaken by automobiles a century ago, why lament it for bixi specifically now? Decades of evidence shows people would rather not be human powered. It’s not like bixi use is going to grow so much as to displace cars. Besides, the bixi “solution” is just a toy, since it’s useless in wintertime, no? 🙂
The amount of materials and energy required to manufacture, operate, and maintain an automobile vs a bike/scooter makes the latter a much better environmental choice. As long as it’s a replacement and not a supplement. As such, another part of this is that we should take away car parking and car lanes and reallocate that public space to these other better forms of transport.
Ian 09:12 on 2019-07-03 Permalink
@Christopher to a hammer everything looks like a nail
@faiz giving away public land for private profit is always a bad idea. Let’s also not forget that Uber’s disruptiveness includes union busting, tax evasion, and substandard wages… and yes, bribery.
Blork 10:26 on 2019-07-03 Permalink
Two comments:
Kate said “I’m also not thrilled by the fact that the success of human-powered Bixis is going to be overtaken by battery-powered toys of one sort or another. OK some people aren’t able to cycle…” The thing is, aside from various types of mobility scooter, pretty much all of the other new toys showing up are the antithesis of mobility aids. Those hoverboards and electrick kick scooters and one-wheel skateboards (etc.) require the user to be very fit and very mobile. Just about anyone can ride a bike; it’s the most user-friendly of the small vehicles except for those specifically designed for people with mobility issues.
Chris said: “human-powered bikes were overtaken by automobiles a century ago…” Um… not really. Bicycles were not a serious form of transportation a century ago. For one thing, the roads were rough and muddy and full of horse shit. Also, bicycle designs back then were awkward and only really for upper-class sporty men.
Faiz Imam 13:08 on 2019-07-03 Permalink
So what is your alternative here kate? banning all electric vehicles?
Because if we are not responsibly managing them, then that is the only alternative. Clearly the status quo is not tenable. These vehicles need spaces to be stored and charged if they are to coexist.
electric scooters and bikes are some of the most quickly growing forms of mobility in the world. They have gone from a quirky novelty to “the next big thing” in only a few years. And this is not just the case in tropical cities. Its just as true in nordic europe for example. Key to success in winter is comprehensive snow removal of bike paths. if they are clear, all sorts of people will use them.
And making room for them does not mean any less room for regular bikes. They are enormously complementary. Work making room for one only helps the other, and both play a huge role in showing a way of moving that does not rely on driving.
Blork. I agree some of the vehicles out there are toys that are more for fun than for mobility, but we see from other cities that those ones don’t last. The modes that sustain for years are the ones that people find real utility in. I’m still on the fence about these scooters being more than a fad, but ebikes are a serious tool that has been shows to get people biking in all sorts of cities. The hoverboards and unicycles are a joke, and zero mobility companies has considered renting them in any serious way.
Ian. good point about Uber, but from what I understand this is not space for Uber alone, this is space that all evehicles will be sharing. For me its essential that open standards and a a fair playing field be a part of this process. Uber is only mentioned because Jump got here first.
Kevin 13:36 on 2019-07-03 Permalink
If I didn’t already have a motorcycle licence, I would likely pick up an e bike of some kind as my next bicycle.
A friend of mine who alternates between a bike and scooter and the metro to commute is planning that for when his scooter dies.
Blork 13:55 on 2019-07-03 Permalink
For anyone interested in e-bikes, there’s a local company making pretty good ones at reasonable prices. If I were to replace my e-bike I’d probably go with theirs (YUL Bike… Google it.) They have a new model called the Phantom which is one of the lightest e-bikes on the market at 15.7 kg (it’s very similar to my Propella e-bike.) For anyone who has to haul their bike up a flight or two of stairs every day, that’s a key feature — most ebikes weigh around 30kg.
This isn’t a paid endorsement. I haven’t seen many reviews and I haven’t tried them, but based on specs and design philosophy they seem really good, and given that most brand-name e-bikes are in the $3000-3500 range, they’re a bargain.
Faiz Imam 19:58 on 2019-07-04 Permalink
oof, still too rich for my blood. My plan is to buy one of those conversion kits off of ebay. You can get all the mechanical parts for around $300, then spend another $200-$400 on a battery pack. Seems like it gets you a pretty decent experience, since I already have a pretty decent bike to start with.
Michael Black 20:12 on 2019-07-04 Permalink
When wevwere in Denmark in 1965 for six months, npmemory says tiny gas motors weren’t uncommon. Couodn’t do.much other than help a bit on steep hills.
Seemed common, an artifact of fewer cars. They had to live wuth bucyckes, through the war and afterwards, sk tgey nade do.
Now those motors would be dlectric.
I read Kate’s post as nit being against seriius use, but against things left here and tgere that probably are being tried for novelty.
Michael