Bikes as a Public Good - Last week's events a big success

Last week TCAT, in partnership with the Community Bicycle Network and the Clean Air Partnership,
hosted two events, both looking to start the public discussion on
public bike sharing, and the prospects for bringing a world-class
system to Toronto. For those who don't know, public bike sharing
systems provide bikes for short-term rental at stations scattered
around an urban area. Bikes can be rented at one station and returned
to another. The most prominent such system is the Velib system, with over 20,000 bikes at over 1,200 stations around Paris.

The first event was a community forum on Thursday night at Innis Town Hall. We heard from David Boyce, Veolia Transportation; Herb van den Dool, BikeShare/Community Bicycle Network; and Alain Ayotte, Stationnement de Montreal. Our engaging host was Dave Meslin.

The second event was on Friday and this was a stakeholder roundtable.
TCAT invited stakeholders from all levels of government, transit
agencies, community groups, and consultants to hear similar
presentations to those on Thursday and then to brainstorm ideas about a
potential Toronto public bike sharing system. One additional
presentation at the roundtable was by Nate Kvamme, Humana's Freewheelin' Program.
The stakeholders discussed issues of user groups & marketing,
service area & integration with public transit, technology &
infrastructure, and financing.

Both events generated many ideas, and also some concerns. The City,
and others invovled in the planning, will have their hands full
figuring out how to make sure such a system will work and best serve
Torontonians.

The results of the two events from last week will be compiled in a
summary report that TCAT will be submitting to the City as it begins
its own planning process.

TCAT looks forward to assisting the City in implementing a public
bike sharing system in Toronto, and we will keep you updated as it
moves forward.

In the meantime, if you would like to view the presentations and listen to podcasts from Thursday and Friday's events, please click here