Toronto Bike Share

[P23]

The report clearly shows that riding a bike is much more dangerous than walking. Keep in mind that there are orders of magnitude more pedestrians than cyclists. In most parts of the city pedestrians are everywhere but there are only a handful of cyclists; only a tiny minority of the population rides a bike on busy roads in Toronto. Sure most bike accidents aren't actually fatal but the number of people who end up in the hospital is pretty large. Also you can clearly see from the map showing dots for bike accidents that bike lanes are unsafe, there are many bike accidents on roads like College St and Harbord St that have them. The statistics clearly show that riding a bike is the second most dangerous method of transportation (only motorcycling is more dangerous).

We need to spend money on real methods of transportation (i.e. subways and GO train electrification) not this nonsense. Bike lanes and bike sharing are a fad. Until 5-10 years ago they are pretty uncommon in North America even though bicycles have been around for a lot longer, and now we seem to have this craze where large numbers of cities all over the world are wasting money on this nonsense. In practically all of them, only a tiny minority of the population rides bikes because the vast majority of the population is too scared to ride a bike and practically all bike share systems have gotten into financial trouble because few people use them.

Lmfao, I'm not going to engage someone who literally types the opposite of the truth for every point.

 

[doady]

I saw cycling being extremely popular in Montreal even though it is much colder than Toronto. I don't see why people in Toronto and other places can't have that sort of success with cycling too.

Of course, bikes are more dangerous, because there is hardly any infrastructure for bikes, there are only busy roads designed for cars. And the solution is to get rid of what little bike infrastructure there is? Right...

That's like saying not many people walk in Mississauga, so Mississauga should get rid of all its sidewalks. Walking is obviously not a real method of transportation. Not many peopel use transit either so lets cancel the LRT and trash the bus system. Only a small fraction of people in Canada walk or take transit to work. The only real method of tansport is cars, so Canada should get red of all its transit and sidewalks.

 

[mdrejhon]

I would say most bike share programs have gotten into financial difficulties. Bixi (which used to run the bike share in Toronto and many other cities) filed for bankruptcy in 2014. These bike share programs will disappear once big sponsors like TD pull out.

Actually, Toronto's system is a bit cost-inefficient.
In a mere 6 months, Hamilton has out-bikeshared Toronto.

They are definitely not going to disappear. Look at Paris' Velib and Montreal's BIXI. The population likes the system so much they actually want to taxpayer subsidize it, like public transit! Also, classic bike share systems are high operating costs.

Newer bike share systems like Social Bicycles, the one that Hamilton uses.
Instead of smart rack/dumb bikes, you have dumb rack/smart bikes.

- costs less than half as much as BIXI systems
- covers a bigger area with fewer bikes
- gains membership faster
- very few "SoBi" type systems have gone into financial difficulties.
- all bikes have GPS trackers
- bikes can be parked anywhere (next user sees bike locations in map or app)

Please see this article, just come out July 7th:
- more active users than Toronto (5200 versus 4000)
- more stations than Toronto (over 100, versus only 80)
- covers bigger area (45 square km, compared to Toronto 15 square km)
- fewer bikes than Toronto (700 instead of 1000)
- started this year (2015)
- you can dock your bike anywhere (electronic U-bar to a parking meter, a stop sign)
- only 1.6 millon

"What does success look like for hamilton bike share", July 6th
- raisethehammer.org/article/2645/what_does_success_look_like_for_hamilton_bike_share

"Hamilton’s SoBi bike-share hits 5,000 members", July 5th
- www.thespec.com/news-story/5709337-hamilton-s-sobi-bike-share-hits-5-000-members/

"The surprise success of SoBi Hamilton", July 9th
- www.hamiltonbusiness.com/dir/2015/06/the-surprise-success-of-sobi-hamilton/

I am a Hamiltonian who commutes to Toronto for work.
I am a member of BIXI / Toronto Bike Share.
I am also a member of SoBi.
There is no contest.
Hamilton's bikeshare system is vastly superior, and much cheaper to operate.
I was rooting for a Canadian bikeshare manufacturer, but they went bankrupt.

Frankly, I'm surprised. I didn't even think Hamilton would be this successful. But I love it, I love the ability to park-and-forget a bikeshare bike anywhere. Ride bike to GO station, park-and-forget, hop onto the train. All bikes have GPS trackers, so the bike positions show up in an app/map for the next user to pick them up.

Consequently, because of this, I walk less to grab my SoBi bike, than to grab my BIXI-type bike, because people tend to park ('dock') them everywhere between stations, here in Hamilton. Sometimes nearly in front of my house (thank you, previous user)! That's simply frankly, staggering, amazing, considering Hamilton does only 700 bikes over 45 sq km, compared to Toronto 1000 bikes over 15 sq km.

(Sadly, I cannot say the same for the condition of certain Hamilton's potholed roads. )

 

[mdrejhon]

City of Toronto, Urban Planners, Bike Planners....

How would you like to get diagrams like this?
With 700 GPS-tracked bikes operating for 6 months, we now have:

From a bikeshare system that costs less than half as much per bike as BIXI?
Both in capital and operating cost?
More racks, cheap racks, no bike rack electronics?
(Only electronics is in the bike's solar powered GPS tracker).

Now you know where bikes go -- every single bike GPS tracked means you can do better bike urban planning than with old-fashioned rubber tube pipes. And all the bikes are solar/dynamo-GPS-tracked, so you can track unauthorized/lost/stolen bikes before they disappear. And bike rebalancing is crowdsourced with credit/incentives when returning bikes to empty racks. Less staff costs.

Edit: I realize City of Toronto has a great bike tracking app but that's not 100% demographically fair data from 100% fleet-wide GPS-tracked bikeshare bikes.

 

[mdrejhon]

(Ugh....I apologize for a third consecutive addenum....) Being a member of Bike Share Toronto *and* Social Bicycles Hamilton, I am surprised how expensive and crappy the BIXI system is compared to the newer bike sharing technology.

The Metrolinx $4.9 funding can easily completely scrap BIXI and repurchase a 2000-to-3000-bike SoBi fleet, completely from scratch. Get a bigger bike fleet for the same money. Cheaper to start over again get 3000 new bikeshare bikes with the Metrolinx funding, than to expand to 2000 old bikeshare bikes. And cut operating costs at the same time by crowdsourcing part of bike rebalancing.

The service coverage efficiency of a SoBi system is about 2-3x better than a BIXI system. Toronto could easily cover 100 square kilometers with a 3000-bike fleet, without increasing bike rebalancing cost.

Now you can walk the same 100-200 meters (average) to the nearest bike anywhere, and bike from Liberty Village all the way to the Beaches, for the same Metrolinx $4.9M funding! And with less staffing, and less bike rebalancing, to boot!

Also, full stations don't need to urgently be rebalanced in a hurry, as SoBi can be docked off-stations. So less bike rebalancing cost even if you choose not to crowd-source the bike rebalancing (moving bikes from full stations to empty stations).

After operating for only 6 months in Hamilton (SoBi Hamilton started 2015), the answer is now very plainly clear what Toronto needs to do, to cut losses, and start a financially sustainable, successful bike sharing system.

I am a car owner and bike owner. And I even wonder, how the heck did car-happy bike-resistant Hamilton bikesharing system out-bikeshare Toronto? I think the answer is -- BIXI is old, less-attractive expensive bikeshare tech that can only serve smaller footprints. SoBi successfully let me leave my car at home sometimes, I sometimes SoBi to the GO station, to commute to Toronto. I've seen some 'dock' their SoBi at the stop sign in front of my house -- so sometimes a SoBi is in front of my front door. That was a great self-advertising feature that caused me to decide to sign up for SoBi to sometimes eliminate my Aldershot commute. I can't risk my nice weekend bike alone in theft-happy downtown Hamilton, I don't have to worry about theft, SoBi is park-and-forget-anywhere (no official dock needed).

Toronto, switch to Social Bicycles. There's no contest. BIXI is crap (financially and efficiency wise). Sorry. Unfortunately, I was rooting for a Canadian company, but they messed up financially. Scrap BIXI. Get Social Bicycles! After just 6 months operating in Hamilton, the answer is clear.

Note:
I am a member of both systems: Bike Share Toronto and SoBi Hamilton. I have no financial interest in either companies, but I am surprised how crappy the wonderful BIXI is. I still relatively love it, it should not be discontinued. But I love SoBi more, and I think Toronto would be better off with SoBi too.

 

[salsa]

Gentlemen,

City of Toronto, Urban Planners, Bike Planners....

How would you like to get diagrams like this?

They already have that via the cycling app.

http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/c...VCM10000071d60f89RCRD&appInstanceName=default

 

[mdrejhon]

They already have that via the cycling app.

http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/c...VCM10000071d60f89RCRD&appInstanceName=default

This is a very GREAT app, but unfortunately, that's opt-in.

Only the more-enthusaistic cyclists as well as civic-minded-people will think of using this app. Given such limited numbers, there will be various statistical biases of such an opt-in census.

With SoBi, it's 100% coverage of 100% users of the entire bikeshare system, from casual users all the way through hard-core bicyclists. This is a more democratic cross-section of society, from poor people through rich people, students through commuters, etc. Regardless of how much they care about bike infrastructure. And there's no accidental recording of non-bike data. By activating a SoBi bike, you've agreed to have bike location tracked for anonymized statistical purposes. User doesn't need to do a thing -- SoBi does it automatically.

And some SoBi users don't even own a smartphone (a limit of 250 free memberships were given to low-income people, more can be sponsored as time goes). One only needs a passcode and knowledge of the official station locations. From this point of view, the SoBi bike data is more statistically and demographically 'fair' data.

Of course, it can be combined with the app too -- they aren't mutually exclusive -- and it can be interesting to see usage differences between bikeshare users and non-bikeshare users.

 

[LNahid2000]

The majority of bicycle commuters are not bike share users, so I'm not seeing how Hamitlon's SoBi tracking is any better than Toronto's opt-in system.

 

[PinkLucy]

They're completely different and used for different purposes. Toronto's tracks anyone who chooses to use the app. Hamilton's tracks who uses the bike share system. So in terms of how/where/when bike share is being used, it provides a ton of data. Toronto's bike share system doesn't have that (yet) and the OP is suggesting that they should.

A lot of people I know don't bother with Toronto's app; they already track their data (for their own purposes) and couldn't be bothered downloading and remembering to use another app.

 

[PinkLucy]

Agreed, they are both good tools; it's not an either/or scenario at all Toronto would benefit from more reliable, targeted data about their bike share system.

 

[salsa]

This is a very GREAT app, but unfortunately, that's opt-in.

Only the most enthusaistic cyclists will think of using this app.

With SoBi, it's 100% coverage of 100% bike users of the entire bikeshare system, from casual users all the way through hard-core bicyclists. This is a more democratic cross-section of society, from poor people through rich people, students through commuters, etc.

And some SoBi users don't even own a smartphone (up to 250 free memberships were given to low-income people), and know the official station locations.

From this point of view, the SoBi data is more statistically 'fair' data.

But SoBi data is limited to the bikeshare system's coverage area, which excludes most of the city. In Toronto that's like excluding North York or Scarborough, which is not helpful when it comes to planning the next 10 year bike plan for the entire city. The cycling app doesn't have to record absolutely everybody (including some kids circling the block in their neighbourhood). It's purpose is to give planners a better idea of which routes are more popular for cyclists, how many prefer side streets vs main roads, how many are coming from downtown vs the suburbs, etc. They get hundreds of submissions a week from the cycling app, so multiply that by several months and that gets more than enough data for their needs. If it's only avid cyclists are opting in, that's still good enough for their purposes. Besides, they are the most experienced group of cyclists, and their input so far (including in the public consultation) has been tremendously valuable.

 

[mdrejhon]

Well, both isn't mutually exclusive. They are both tools for excellent comparisions too, and compare different bike habits. App tracking and SoBi tracking is like a Philips and Robertson screwdriver in the same toolbox.

Even without bike tracking, there are many reasons for Toronto to switch to SoBi -- namely permitting bikeshare coverage from Liberty Village all the way to Beaches, by using the same $4.9M BIXI expansion funding instead as capital for a bigger, better, replacement system from scratch. SoBi is cheap enough to pull that off, and gives more with less.

 

[P23]

You can collect far more comprehensive data just by having sensors on the street. Then you can see volume of traffic for all cyclists.

 

[mdrejhon]

You can collect far more comprehensive data just by having sensors on the street. Then you can see volume of traffic for all cyclists.

Nope. Not nearly as comprehensive for every purpose unless you have lots of sensors.

When Hamilton put bike sensors for testing the Cannon bike path, they put them near the very end of the separated bike path. This was reported on RaiseTheHammer. They neglected to consider that most users enter/exits the bike path along various segments. As a result, bikes were severely undercounted.

A fully-GPS-tracked fleet of bikes, whereas that the entire bike path is entirely within the service area of said service -- can comprehensively analyze ALL various entry/exit points of a bike path. Sensors cannot do that, full stop.

They are both useful tools though in the same toolchest. It is useful to compare commute differences can occur with bikeshare versus owned bike. It is also useful to cross-check data for verification. It is also useful to heatmap the whole bike path, for urban-planning new bike path connectors. You just described a hacksaw tool while I described an exacto knife tool. Keep both tools in the toolbox.

 

[P23]

So that was due to negligence on the part of the people placing the sensors, and they even diagnosed the issue. If you want to monitor all entries and exits just put sensors at the entries and exits. Your GPS tracking will still only track shared bikes, and there's nothing preventing Bikeshare Toronto from sticking GPS sensors inside the current fleet.

To be honest you seem a little too worked up about this SoBi thing. Do you always write like this?