Montreal’s BIXI Public Bike Sharing Program
Feb 22nd, 2010 by staff entry
Cycling is a healthy, cost effective and eco-friendly alternative mode of transportation to automobiles especially within a city. Montreal has recently introduced a wide scale public bike sharing system in an effort to promote an alternative means of transportation within the city center.
The BIXI Bike System was developed by a Montreal organization and had its first full scale test in 2009. The system has been so successful that other cities including Boston, Minneapolis, London and Melbourne are planning to introduce it in their cities.
How does BIXI work?
The BIXI system is a series of bicycle stations strategically placed around the city where people can borrow and return bicycles with relative ease. The stations are located close enough to each other that no matter where you are in the city core you do not have to go far to either borrow a bike or return one. The bicycles do not need to be returned to the same station were they were borrowed from. The cost to rent a bike is relatively inexpensive and if you only need to run a quick errand the cost is free for the first 30 minutes.
Each station has an automated system where you can rent or return a bike and locate other stations in the neighborhood. Each bike station is easy to install and solar powered so it can be placed anywhere without much trouble. The bicycles have been specifically designed for heavy urban use.
You can find out more about the Bixi Bike system by going to the Bixi System website.
To see how Montreal has implemented the system visit the Bixi Montreal website.
Here are a few videos to give you a better idea of how the Bixi System works.