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BikeShare is no more. After six years of award-winning programming and service, the Community Bicycle Network's BikeShare program announced this morning that they will not be reopening next season. Turns out they were unable to secure the funding they needed.
This, despite the fact that the program has been a huge success. "In just five years," explains Margaret Hastings-James, a CBN director, "the program has signed up over 2000 members, put 243 bikes on the road and established 16 community-based hubs that also serve as a very important outreach network." Further, the program has received international accolades, including the Stockholm Award for Sustainable Development.
It was also relatively inexpensive. With annual operating costs around $90K, BikeShare gave great bang for your buck. (Assuming you can put a price tag on social justice issues like "access to transportation," and environmental issues like "trying to keep this planet from killing us.")
No one's arguing that our city is awash in cash, but supporting BikeShare would have been a significant (yet small) strategic investment. The Mayor and many councillors said that addressing the threat of the climate crisis would be a priority this term. Failing to support BikeShare is a funny way of showing it.
And yet, there might still be some hope. The CBN will meet with BikeShare stakeholders early in the new year to discuss options. Maybe their savior will still appear. After all, you don't know what you got 'til it's gone...
Photo of one of BikeShare's yellow bikes near King & Jarvis from the very bike-obsessed photojunkie.
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I have much to say about this, but right now I am so angry that I am fairly confident that anything I might write would be libelous.
Perhaps later today.
Maybe I'm missing something, but $90,000 divided by 2000 members is $45 a member. Why can't the members who use the service fund this thing?
Heard about this on CBC this morning... the lack of government support and financial backing is such a shame.
Which part of the city government specifically funded the program, and what reason did they give for stopping?
This is just so typically dumb.
This is a great environmental sustainability project that costs nothing compared to other city projects, and yet they scrap it.
I love Toronto, but if you ever want to know what wrong with it, it's this right here. Small time thinking.
The yearly fee is $50 (lower for students/low income), so it should be (nearly) self-sustaining, or cost next to nothing for the City to cover a deficit. Sounds like there is some part of this story that is missing.
Again, to the extent that there is a deficit, why should the city (as opposed to the members, who derive the benefit of the service) cover it? As GH points out, its pennies a glass.
SO sad! I see the bikeshare bikes everywhere- I'll miss all the yellow. :(
"Sounds like there is some part of this story that is missing."
BikeShare didn't die. It was murdered.
I might write about it sometime soon.
$90,000 annual budget to put 243 bikes on the road works out to $370 per bike. I can see why this is not sustainable. The local Mall-Wart sells bikes for $69. The economics explain why this cannot sustain itself without taking and using other people's money.
I have nothing to do with BikeShare and am not as well-connected to the project as people like Ron and Jonathan are, but Ayatollah, that strikes me as an incredibly oversimplified analysis of the numbers -- there are, I'd think, a lot of other costs associated with BikeShare beyond just the bikes...
I'm just guessing here, but I'd second that motion. There are administrative and bike maintenance costs and I'm sure they have to have some kind of insurance (which doesn't come cheap). Things are always more expensive to run then you'd think.
My understanding is that their biggest expense was the maintenance of the bikes. For this purpose, they had at least one full-time mechanic, and it showed; BikeShare bikes were consistently in better condition than most other bikes you would see parked around the city.
I assume this saved them money in the long run, as it wasn't often necessary to replace broken bikes.
Sorry to seem totally clueless but I'm not sure what Bikeshare is (or was) as I couldn't get the links to work. could anyone use the bikes?
The links work fine for me. Here's the description of BikeShare from the official site:
Now just change all of it to the past tense (sniff).
I'll be honest, the entire business seems goofy to me but here is an idea for those who feel differently: channel 10% of the energy currently committed to lamenting the loss of this organization into developing a business plan. Approach the principals of the organization and offer to purchase the member list and the bikes and equipment. Notify the members that government funding has been lost, but with operating costs around $90,000, the organization can be member-funded based on a nominal increase in member fees. As I have stated above, it appears that the organization can be funded on approx. $45 a member, which is less than the "regular fee" disclosed above (assuming charitable tax exempt status). If the members care about the service, they will shoulder the cost. If the members won't support it, meaning there is no real market for the service at its true cost, then why lament its loss? We shouldn't be encouraging the city (and taxpayers) to carry the burden of a project that its own membership won't support when given the choice.
Don't forget the cost of the weird jerkassery that was some anonymous moron going around and slashing Bikeshare tires.
Maybe I'm just so used to staggeringly extravagant budgets, but $90 000 seems so modest. Is that really all it costs to maintain a network of over 200 bikes and to sustain its community of members?
There are lots of interesting questions being raised here ... it'd be great if Torontoist can get their hands on more information on what went on. I'd love to read it.