Toronto Parking Authority Taking Over Bixi

By Penny Munoz

The City of Toronto is breathing new life into local bike-share program in hopes that it might finally take off. The deal with the creators of Bixi, the Public Bike System Company, states that as of spring 2014 the program will be run by the Toronto Parking Authority (TPA) until a private sector sponsor volunteers to assume all operations.

“We don’t mention Bixi anymore,” said Public Works Chair Denzil Minnan-Wong at city hall. “It’s the public bike share program, until some sponsor comes up with a very large cheque that we can use and apply to the program to keep it sustainable.”

Part of a start-up incentive, city council helped Bixi gain footing with a $4.8 million loan that was used to mobilize 1,000 bikes and set up 80 stations around the city. However, Bixi’s expenditure proved to be higher than expected, with annual operating costs estimated to be about $1.5 million which are mostly covered by users and sponsors, but the company is still falling short about $100,000 to $200,000. Early 2012, only a year after Bixi was launched, the company told councillors that they would be unable to pay back their remaining $3.9 million loan. Searching for a solution in hopes of salvaging the program that was supposed to enhance Toronto’s means of public transportation, Minnan-Wong pitched the idea to reallocate Bell Media’s Astral funds that were supposed to go towards building public washrooms.

"Bike sharing will be part of the better Toronto we all want to build,” said Minnan-Wong. "Public bike-sharing is public transit."

One of the biggest downfalls of the bike-share program, according to supporters was the limited reach of the network, with only 80 stations spanning the city. Though the program seems to be back-pedalling, optimists allude to bike-sharing programs in other cities all over the globe, like New York and Paris that have proved to be wildly successful, positively contributing to pollution and traffic reduction.

TPA president Lorne Persiko says that they are negotiating with Alta Bicycle Share of Portland who are responsible for managing bike share programs in Boston, Chattanooga, Chicago, Melbourne, New York, San Francisco and Washington. Through better management and greater sponsorship deals, Persiko said he thinks the bike-share network could be improved. Looking for the highest bidder to manage the program in the spring, Persiko said “We park cars... That’s why we are outsourcing the management. We think we can make it a success.”

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