Public bike program not abandoned: Mayor Miller

I got an email from the Mayor this morning (as did James at Urban Country). Mayor Miller isn't abandoning public bikes and is directing staff to look for other funding options. He mentions Bikeshare, which was run by the Community Bicycle Network and had a hard time getting enough funding from the city to sustain itself too:

Thank you for your email letter.

We appreciate you taking the time to write.

Until 2006 Toronto was home to the innovative and award-winning Bikeshare community bicycle-lending program. Following its collapse the City began developing a business case for a public bike program.

The City considered launching such a program using the Vienna business model (which is also used in Lyons and Paris) where it is provided free to the City and affordable to users because it is supported by revenue from billboards on the bike stations. After much deliberation it was decided not to increase the number of billboards on the street and launched a competitive process to find a company to provide a non-ad-supported version.

A public tender was issued and City Council gave staff authority to negotiate with BIXI, which is owned by the Montreal municipal parking authority, to develop a detailed business plan for launching and operating a Toronto public bicycle system at no cost to the City. Unfortunately, the outcome of these negotiations did not guarantee that there was no risk of costs being incurred.

A public bike program in Toronto is not being abandoned. It remains an integral part of our sustainable transportation plan. The Mayor has instructed City Staff to review the viability of this type of program with other funding options.

I hope the Mayor pushes staff a bit to look outside the box. It's going to save us money soon enough in health care costs, road maintenance, insurance.

The Star also reports that talks have stalled but that the City is still optimistic.

“I’m optimistic there will be a public bike-share program in the foreseeable future,” he said.

A report on the idea to the city’s works committee was scrubbed from the March 2 agenda, raising concerns the deal was dead. It’s not, Welsh said, but he couldn’t guarantee a Montreal-style bike rental system would be available in downtown Toronto by the summer as originally planned.

With an election looming, cycling activists fear that if current negotiations fail with Bixi, Montreal’s public bike system company, a new council might not pursue the idea.

“Now is the window to get it done,” said Yvonne Bambrick, executive director of the Toronto Cyclists Union.

“Having a public bike share program will change the face of Toronto for the better. I’ve seen how it’s been taken up in Montreal and in France. There’s some major benefits all around and I really wanted to see those benefits play out on the streets of Toronto,” she said.

Bixi has signed on to begin new bike-share systems in Minneapolis and Melbourne, Australia, this year, but Toronto still doesn’t have a deal.

The snag is over who pays for the program’s start-up cost of $10 million to $11 million. In some cities, the municipality pays for the bikes and stations, and sometimes advertising can cover the costs.