City of Vancouver signs $5-million deal for five-year ‘Smart Bike’ sharing system

Vancouver is set to have the largest ‘Smart Bike’ system in North America.

The City of Vancouver mayor’s office made the announcement with several tweets on Tuesday morning.

https://twitter.com/VanMayorsOffice/status/702188343963099136

https://twitter.com/VanMayorsOffice/status/702188903466409984

CycleHop Canada has been chosen as the operator of the program and will get an initial financial boost from the City of five-million dollars for the launch and operation of the public bike share for five years.

The first phase of the Vancouver bike share program will begin in summer 2016; which will see the launch of 1,000 bicycles and 100 stations. An additional 500 bikes and 50 stations, according to the city, will be added by the end of year.

The service area will include the downtown peninsula, extending to Arbutus Street, 16 Avenue and Main Street.

WATCH: Erin O’Mellin joins BC1 from Hub Cycling, the cycling advocate group, to discuss how the city has kicked its bike share program into high gear.

5:53 Vancouver gears up for long awaited public bike sharing service

BIKE SHARING PROGRAMS IN CANADA

The first widely deployed bike sharing system in Canada was Bixi Montreal in 2008. At the time Bixi technology was used in several cities in North America and its modular bike sharing system was ranked by Time Magazine as the 19th best invention of 2008.

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The Bixi program in Montreal eventually expanded to 5,000 bikes and 400 stations, making it the largest bike sharing program in Canada at the time. The initial program costs were $15 million for planning and implementation, but as the program continued expanding the costs rose to almost $23 million.

WATCH: See the bike being used in Vancouver’s ‘Smart Bike’ system

0:55 See the cycles being used in Vancouver’s new public bike sharing program

In 2009, Ottawa launched a pilot program, Capital Bixi, with 100 bikes and 10 stations. In 2012, it expanded to 250 bikes and 25 stations. Capital Bixi was sold to U.S.-based CycleHop in April 2014, after Bixi filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2014. CycleHop then renamed the service to VeloGo and replaced the fleet with ‘smart’ bikes. VeloGo began its service in the summer of 2015.

Toronto got their Bixi bike share system in 2011 with 800 bikes and 80 stations. In 2013, when Bixi could not repay its $3.9 million loan to the city, the system was taken over by the Toronto Parking Authority and renamed Bike Share Toronto. Today it has grown to 1,000 bikes and 80 stations.

Last year in March, Sobi Hamilton was launching in the steel city with 750 bikes at over 100 stations.

Bike sharing systems are popular around the globe.

BIKE SHARING CHALLENGES

City staff started looking into the project in 2009 but it has faced many challenges. One challenge in particular involves bike helmets. Because all cyclists must wear helmets, the city says each station will have a helmet vending machine and return service. Users will be able to rent a helmet at the same time as the bike rental and return the helmet to any station. After each rental, the helmet will be sanitized and inspected before being replaced in the vending machines.

Weigh in on the bike helmet rental solution in our POLL below.