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Toronto Bike Share
- Thread starter kettal
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mdrejhon
Senior Member
Um.... *taps*
Already being done in Hamilton, Ontario, www.SobiHamilton.ca -- fleet of 750 GPS-tracked bike share bikes:
Ottawa, Ontario also has GPS-tracked bikeshare bikes, too, though the fleet is much smaller (300).
Hamilton is already mapping bike-share for bike infrastructure planning, as all of Hamilton's 750 SoBi bikes all have LTE GPS trackers.
For those not yet aware -- SoBi is a smartbike bike share system (kiosk-less, hub-less, dock-less) system that uses electronic U-bars that permit you to lock away from the official SoBi stations (just fancy dumb bike racks, no electronics). There's a couple of symbollic signup kiosks in touristy areas, but you can stand in front of any SoBi bike & register as a first time user via smartphone, and ride away on the spot. You checkout a bike via the keypad at the back of the bike. Each bike has a solar-powered LTE/3G-connected computer with built in GPS tracker and LCD screen, built into all 750 bike share bikes.
I don't ever worry about full bike stations as I can park anywhere I want in the territory. The nature of GPS-tracked bike fleets means more hubs, more stations because they are just cheap bike racks. And people park bikes off-official-stations (which is allowed).
I had kind of hoped the $4.9M contribution from Metrolinx would allow Bike Share Toronto to sell BIXI-type bikes and switch to a smartbike fleet of GPS-tracked bikes instead, but I guess keeping the BIXI technology was more cost-effective.
Note -- surprisingly (even to me), Hamilton's SoBi is more popular than Toronto Bike Share, in member uptake [the headline in a Toronto newspaper, no less -- metronews.ca]
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dob467
Active Member
Anyone know when the deal they promised for Presto card holders to get 50% off an annual membership will actually be offered?
smuncky
Senior Member
Every time someone asks them on Twitter, their response is that they basically have no timetable on that.
It was stupid of them to announce something like that and then 2 months later we still have no info on it. Makes the whole operation look bad.
DKsan
Active Member
Federal funding for Bike Share Toronto Expansion at 50 TTC stations ($1,250,000). At this link.
LNahid2000
Senior Member
Was just going to post this. Good to see another expansion so soon after the last one! Hopefully this one will take us further north.
Northern Light
Superstar
50 stations is material; though it will have to be accompanied by further expansion as its all well and good to access the bike at the stop, but you need a station to lock it up at after you get where you're going.
ie. if you extend this to the stations serving North York Ctr; it only makes sense if you add intermediate stations on Yonge, btw Shep/Finch and north of there as well, perhaps long Sheppard East.
Zach6668
Active Member
A dock at a TTC station is useless for most people unless there are at least a dozen more within a 2 km radius, away from the rest of the RT network.
Like, the one's on the Danforth, I use because I happen to live across from one, but it just substitutes for walking or TTC trips. They're useless as a first/last mile accelerator for someone who lives on O'Connor, for example.
I hope the expansion adds those radii docks to East York, Gerrard E, Queen E, etc in the east end, but I'm not sure given that wording.
Like, the one's on the Danforth, I use because I happen to live across from one, but it just substitutes for walking or TTC trips. They're useless as a first/last mile accelerator for someone who lives on O'Connor, for example.
I hope the expansion adds those radii docks to East York, Gerrard E, Queen E, etc in the east end, but I'm not sure given that wording.
mdrejhon
Senior Member
There are now 69 subway stations, and over 30 stations already has bikeshare. I presume several existing stations will be expanded, while the rest of all of the TTC subway stations gains them?
If these were smartbikes, you could just end your rental away from an official station -- dock them anywhere (regular bike rack) for a convenience fee (typically around $1-$2). Via an electronic U-lock...
Then having bike stations wouldn't matter nearly as much, as you could end your rental anywhere. Next user sees GPS positions of all bikes 'docked' off-station. And then probably return to the subway station with that same bike if nobody else has rented it during your errand (or you can put it on a "reserved hold" -- bike is locked but still reserved for you).
System like Ottawa's VeloGO, Portland's BIKETOWNpdx, Hamilton's SoBi, etc, all allow you to do that.
This would have made this $1.25M far more useful and valuable, since you can end your rental (and responsibility) in stationless areas, as long as you've safely locked near a path/road within a city geofence (e.g. 416 boundaries).
This is the thing I totally most lament the most about the earlier $4.9M expansion of Bike Share Toronto. Missed opportunity to switch the fleet to a some kind of a kioskless smartbike system that can also dock away from official-statons. But it's understandable to utilize existing assets...
That will make me bite on an annual membership, despite primarily using SoBi in Hamilton.
This is the catch.
If these were smartbikes, you could just end your rental away from an official station -- dock them anywhere (regular bike rack) for a convenience fee (typically around $1-$2). Via an electronic U-lock...
Then having bike stations wouldn't matter nearly as much, as you could end your rental anywhere. Next user sees GPS positions of all bikes 'docked' off-station. And then probably return to the subway station with that same bike if nobody else has rented it during your errand (or you can put it on a "reserved hold" -- bike is locked but still reserved for you).
System like Ottawa's VeloGO, Portland's BIKETOWNpdx, Hamilton's SoBi, etc, all allow you to do that.
This would have made this $1.25M far more useful and valuable, since you can end your rental (and responsibility) in stationless areas, as long as you've safely locked near a path/road within a city geofence (e.g. 416 boundaries).
This is the thing I totally most lament the most about the earlier $4.9M expansion of Bike Share Toronto. Missed opportunity to switch the fleet to a some kind of a kioskless smartbike system that can also dock away from official-statons. But it's understandable to utilize existing assets...
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Zach6668
Active Member
Sounds fine getting from the station, but seems like a lottery as to whether there will be a bike available for you when you need to get back to the station in the morning.
mdrejhon
Senior Member
I was thinking more of errand situations. Visiting doctors, appointments, interviews, store, etc.
You can even lock the bike "on hold" (lock the bike, but keep your clock running) so it's never a lottery.
But yes, you could play the lottery. I've done it before sometimes (before they installed a SoBi station 1 block away from home). If you normally take the bus to the subway station, you can opportunistically use bikeshare for 1-way trips (e.g. bikeshare ride home, and plan to catch the bus the next day, but take the bikeshare back to the subway station if the offstation smartbike is still there). I'm viewing this, from a "bonus perspective"
The bottom line is -- It's massively, massively more useful to have smartbikes at a subway station if you only install one hub at the subway station without anything nearby.
And you save enough money with a smartbike system to create more official stations away from the subway station. Hamilton got 2x as many official stations as planned when they luckily switched from a PBSC/BIXI procurement to a SoBi procurement.
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Zach6668
Active Member
Right, if you're going to make the mistake of having one dock at a transit station and none at all surrounding it to provide first/last mile possibilities, under any model, then sure, it's better with SoBi, but don't think either is by any means good. SoBi, in my mind, (and I've never used it), would be ideal if you could have a similar arrangement and density of permanent docks like BikeShare, with the ability to lock them up wherever as well. Maybe that's the deal, I'm not all that familiar with the implementation in, say, Hamilton.
Midtown Urbanist
Superstar
Having been caught at the massive delays this morning on the subway between Yonge and Bloor, the thought came to mind that if Bixi had a bikeshare station at Eglinton Station, I could have biked downtown this morning and docked the Bixi bike right on campus.
I wonder when they will expand to Eglinton. Is it a logistics issue? (Many people will bike downhill to downtown, but not many will bike uphill to Eglinton?)
I wonder when they will expand to Eglinton. Is it a logistics issue? (Many people will bike downhill to downtown, but not many will bike uphill to Eglinton?)
amnesiajune
Senior Member
Montreal just hauls a trailer of bikes back up the hill. I think the problem is that it's "uphill both ways" to some extent. Even going "downhill", there's one uphill section south of Davisville and another south of Summerhill. That would probably kill demand quite a bit, even during the subway closures.
Zach6668
Active Member
It shouldn't expand to Eglinton station as an alternative to the subway, it should be there to reach the destinations about a kilometre or so away from the station.
This is what is perplexing about the Danforth stations. They're good to get along the Danforth, but they serve no last mile purposes at all. We need to pepper docks around them so people can actually use them as a last mile, or to get to the shops on Pape, or the apartments on Cosburn, or the hospital on Coxwell, etc.
This is what is perplexing about the Danforth stations. They're good to get along the Danforth, but they serve no last mile purposes at all. We need to pepper docks around them so people can actually use them as a last mile, or to get to the shops on Pape, or the apartments on Cosburn, or the hospital on Coxwell, etc.