In the Globe and Mail article, Bicycles made for vous, Susan Sachs illuminates the new bikesharing program in Paris (earlier reported on by Darren). She does a reasonable job recounting the various bike sharing projects in Europe and North America, including Toronto's Bikeshare program which was run by the Community Bicycle Network for 5 successful years:
Toronto's BikeShare project, run by a non-profit group and funded by the city, closed last year after five years of operation. At its peak, it offered 150 yellow bicycles from 18 pickup and drop-off points, but the program suffered from a high incidence of vandalism and theft.
I could perhaps forgive Sachs for getting the facts wrong since only volunteers are checking CBN phones these days and they probably missed her fact-checking call.
Susan: Bikeshare was NOT funded by the city. CBN was trying to move away from private funders who would only provide one-off funding on a year by year basis. It was just too unstable, administratively onerous, and the funds were slowly dwindling as funders got bored with the successful program. Bikeshare ended not because of bike theft or vandalism, it was because the money ran dry from private funding sources and the city wouldn't pick up the tab.
Bikeshare was quite popular among users, politicians and business folk. This last year was a big struggle for the board and staff. As they realized that there was just no political will in Toronto to keep it going, they just had to come to the conclusion that Bikeshare couldn't survive in this climate where the City is just not willing to make a substantial commitment to a more economically and environmentally sustainable transportation system based on transit and active transportation. So far, the city isn't making car drivers pay their share of the costs. By that I mean, if drivers actually paid their share for the road, health and environmental costs that cars impose, there would be more money for cheap and useful programs like Bikeshare.
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