Just four weeks after its inauguration in Montréal, the BIXI bike-sharing system began a 4 month trail of 50 bikes in 4 stations in Ottawa, Canada’s capital city on June 8, 2009. Canada News reports, that the program — which allows residents, workers and visitors in the National Capital Region to travel in a greener way — is also part of a feasibility study for a permanent bike share program which would bring 300 to 500 shared bikes to the region next year. At CDN$3.00 for a daily pass, BIXI Ottawa-Gatineau is a bargain compared to Montréal’s BIXI CDN$5.00 daily pass.
Even at CDN$5.00, 22,000 of the 75,000 trips on BIXI has been by casual or non subscriber riders since the start on May 12th. There are now almost 4000 yearly subscribers. With around 4500 daily trips in the system, it has a healthy 3.45 usages per bike per day!
Canadians on the west coast are also getting a BIXI “fixie” this weekend in Vancouver. From Friday June 12th through Monday June 15th there is a hands-on BIXI demonstration near the Science World geodesic dome.
Image: BIXI Ottawa-Gatineau
Statistic Public Bike Systems
It is a very worthwile project that deserves to do well, so let's hope there are no hitches. It's a bit frustrating that we keep having to have little trials though, before projects can be launched permanently. Surely by now we should ALL be convinced of the neccesity for projects like this?!
ReplyDeleteWhat would the name of the manufacturer be that makes the bikes for said BIXI company?
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