July 16, 2024 - Bike sharing is seeing huge increases in cities across Canada as a convenient, affordable, hassle-free way to take one-way trips during busy days that’s helping to fill gaps in the public transportation system reports CBC.ca.
Montreal’s Bixi, the first public bike sharing system in North America, said 576,000 users or roughly 1 in 4 Montrealers took 11.7 million trips in 2023 – up 31% since 2022 and 55% since 2021 when it added 1,000 e-bikes.
Justin Hanna, director of Bike Share Toronto, said Canada’s biggest city has also been seeing double-digit growth in usage, and expects 6.2 million rides in 2024 on its fleet of 9,000 bikes, up from 5.7 million the year before and just 665,000 in 2015 – it’s often faster than driving, especially now that e-bikes have been added to the fleet.
Vancouver’s Mobi bike sharing service is seeing increases as well including Calgary that offers e-bikes and e-scooters through two private companies, Bird Canada and Neuron, and saw a 25% increase in ridership of those options between 2021 to 2023.
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