Winter Bixi bikes start Thursday
Bixi bikes equipped with studded tires and anti-slip pedals are being made available as of Thursday and will be present all winter for the first time as an experiment.
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Kate
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Meezly 10:00 on 2023-11-16 Permalink
I noticed the studs when I rode a Bixi on Tuesday – a great initiative and hope it’ll be a success.
Joey 10:27 on 2023-11-16 Permalink
This is a great and somewhat overdue initiative, but there’s a bit of a critical planning mistake – seasonal memberships expired at midnight last night, meaning the only way you can use a winter Bixi is by paying $1.25 for a one-way pass (plus $0.15/minute) or a monthly membership ($20 for 30 days). Given that this is a pilot focused on uncovering demand, revealing user habits, etc., creating a minor but annoying barrier to entry that will only generate extremely modest revenue is a mistake. Bixi should have just extended seasonal memberships until next spring, or to at least Dec. 31 to encourage users to try out the winter cycling offering.
At the very least, given the great weather Bixi ought to have extended the season by a few days anyway…
DeWolf 10:42 on 2023-11-16 Permalink
I agree with Joey, if it’s a pilot project it feels like a bit of a risk to pay $20 for something you might not end up using.
Also worth noting that for the first time, classic and electric Bixis will remain available in the winter zone for some days to come. I hope next year the regular season can be extended to December 1 because even in late November, it’s rare that we have many days that would require the fully winterized Bixis.
As Meezly noted the winter Bixis have been around for at least a week, they’ve slowly been adding them to the system. I tried one out last Thursday when we had that wet, heavy and very slippery snow. The studded tires were great! Smooth sailing through the snow whereas the regular Bixis slid around quite a bit.
Meezly 10:50 on 2023-11-16 Permalink
I completely forgot that annual memberships ended last night. Totally agree that Bixi should have given subscribers a free trial for a pilot project. Even an extension until Dec 15 would’ve been great.
Kate 13:32 on 2023-11-16 Permalink
I agree – if they want to coax people to try out the winter bikes, they should have extended the membership.