Bixi to be available all year
Bixi is calling its experiment with winter cycling a success, and is going to make its bikes available all year.
They’re also opening their regular season earlier than usual this year.
And there will be more bike paths too.
Ephraim 11:55 on 2024-04-03 Permalink
Predictable. Can an independent audit verify profitability, ensuring this isn’t just about winter jobs for Bixi? Or am I just being predictably a cynic of all self-serving proclamations? (Like not trusting anything that the OIB says, the Chambre de Commerce says or Tourisme Montreal says?)
Nicholas 12:36 on 2024-04-03 Permalink
A review is good, but there are a lot of efficiencies to an all year system. You don’t have to switch out the stations, you don’t have to hire people for 8 months (which is not a great job, so you have to pay people a bit more to take it), and the money you make is mostly free. Changing the bikes is annoying (honestly I think it’s unnecessary), but other than that I assume the costs scale well with revenues. And it provides a service that is nice, becomes an all year replacement for owning a bike, really really helps the orange crush from Berri to Laurier, backup when the metro goes down, etc. Unless it was a complete disaster in the pilot, even if it lost money I can see it moving towards profitability once they figure out best practices.
Kate 14:09 on 2024-04-03 Permalink
Bixi is part of public transit here. It’s not meant to be a profit-making enterprise.
nau 14:24 on 2024-04-03 Permalink
No mention of whether they’re going to extend it south of the Lachine Canal. I wonder if Parks Canada’s refusal to clear that path will continue to block that.
dhomas 15:12 on 2024-04-03 Permalink
Gah!!! Why does everything have to be directly profitable? Garbage pickup isn’t profitable, but we still do it. Sewage treatment makes no moeny, nor does road maintenance.
Public transit helps make a city more liveable. When a city is more liveable, more people want to live in it, which makes the city thrive and become more… profitable.
Ephraim 15:23 on 2024-04-03 Permalink
@Kate – Bixi treads (snicker) a fine line between serving the public good and being financially sustainable. As a not-for-profit, ideally it wouldn’t run deficits. Losses from winter months need to be balanced by revenue from other seasons, which might involve raising prices. Legally, Bixi is not supposed to directly compete with commercial daily bike rentals. Winter deficits they can’t afford threaten the entire system. There’s also the general principle that governments shouldn’t unfairly compete with profitable businesses. A Bixi that turns a profit wouldn’t need public funding, but deficits put it at risk of closure. Profits are reinvested to improve Bixi, but winter deficits could shrink these crucial funds. It’s a delicate balancing act: providing an affordable service while ensuring Bixi remains viable in the long term. But basically there should be an independent audit, even if it’s the city auditor general. The people running Bixi aren’t impartial and saying that it’s a success is in their interest… not the city or the citizens.
Ephraim 15:26 on 2024-04-03 Permalink
@dhomas – We pay for all those services with our property taxes. Bixi is supposed to be self-sustaining. Or do you want to pay even more property tax? I don’t know about you, but mine is damn high. Even if you rent, you are essentially paying property taxes.
Nicholas 19:31 on 2024-04-03 Permalink
@Ephraim, Bixi gets a subsidy from the city every year, and I don’t think it has ever made a profit (since being forced to sell the part of it that made bikes and sold them to other cities). I don’t think it should need to, but I agree that if it’s too much of a deficit you’ll see lots of pressure, and cuts or less expansion (look at the STM).
It’s important to be clear-eyed that all these public services are subject to the political process and budget constraints. We can argue that they should all be paid for, but there’s never enough money for everything we want to fund, and if enough people vote for people who don’t want to fund them (or raise taxes to do so), they will get cut. The bigger the deficit for Bixi, the more enticing it is to cut it, or raise prices. In lean times we see reduction in park maintenance, road and sidewalk repair, even weekly garbage going to every other week in some cities (which honestly isn’t that bad if food waste is weekly). If we can insulate Bixi by keeping the deficit low or non-existent, we can be sure it’ll keep expanding, rather than start contracting, and that fares stay low.
Kate 20:24 on 2024-04-03 Permalink
Nicholas, you’re right about one thing. Transit is facing deep cuts here, but it’s a political choice. In their hearts, many neoliberals feel that those who take public transit are losers, disposable people – and the CAQ also knows that a lot of transit passengers aren’t even voters.
Chris 22:21 on 2024-04-03 Permalink
>Bixi is supposed to be self-sustaining.
Says you. I say otherwise. Are the roads, sidewalks, buses, and trains self-sustaining? No. Same idea.
Bryan 22:44 on 2024-04-03 Permalink
@Ephraim I know your question was directed at dhomas, but I would gladly pay more property tax to ensure that Bixi was supported as an integral part of our public transit system.
Ephraim 15:29 on 2024-04-04 Permalink
@Chris – That was how it was originally presented and part of it, the not competing with bicycle rentals was part of the original contract that the city signed.
@Bryan – And I would like to see more parking meters and requirements for parking permits on streets to pay for streets. And a toll on bridges and highways as well as on parking spaces to offset more of the cost of roadways. Manhattan just announced the first congestion charge in North America. (Well, Mexico city does it differently, which has caused more people to own more cars because it’s odd/even and people get an extra car…. talk about your silliness.)
Buses are one of the few things that we know where subsidies actually benefit the poor more so than any other group. In fact, it’s likely the best subsidy that any city can provide. The upper middle class and the rich don’t generally get into a city bus.
Tim 15:53 on 2024-04-04 Permalink
@ephraim: have you looked at their financials (https://s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/cdn.bixi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Etats-financiers-BIXI-2022-abreges.pdf)? On page 11, there is a high level breakdown. Bixi received just over $4M from the city, but turned a profit of $2.7M. They also got $16M in revenu directly from users. I was very critical of Bixi years ago when the city bought it (lack of yearly financials, giving bonuses when it was totally bankrupt). The city seems to have done a great job growing the service.