Cycling

public bike system

Public Bike Share System

Vancouver residents and visitors caught an early glimpse of a public bike share system during a recent demonstration. They were able to see how a self-serve rental station for bikes works, and provide their feedback.

For the demonstration, the City of Montreal provided Bixi, their award-winning public bike share system developed through the city's parking authority. Each bike station includes a pay station, bike docks, and bikes, and is equipped with solar panels that power the station.

Public bike share systems are intended for adults to use for short trips, generally under five kilometres or 30 minutes each way.  Users would be able to rent bicycles from one location and return them to another, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The City of Vancouver is currently exploring how to implement a public bike share system in our city. The City’s Greenest City Team has identified the implementation of a public bike share system as one of the eight GCAT Quick Start Actions (44 in total), and is identified as a high priority project for 2009-2011. Staff is actively reviewing the business analysis and cycling safety issues. More information will be available in 2010.

>>Learn more about Bixi outside website

Public Bike System - Survey Results

During the PBS demonstration event on June 12-15, 2009, residents and visitors were surveyed to find out what they thought about having a public bike system in Vancouver, and how they might use it.

Overall results indicated that if a similar bike share system was available in Vancouver, about 80% of respondents would use it in summer, and 70% would even use it in winter.

The following section summarizes the results of each section of the PBS survey. For more information email the Bicycle Hotline at cycling@vancouver.ca.

Likelihood of respondents to include PBS as one of their transportation choices

Summer

Summer graph

Winter

Winter graph
Legend

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Likelihood of respondents to use PBS during the summer and non-summer months

likelihood graph

Comparison of gender and likelihood of using PBS

Females

Females

Males

Females
Legend

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Place of residence and likelihood of using PBS during the summer time

Downtown

Downtown to metro core

City of Vancouver

City of Vancouver
Legend

Lower Mainland

Visitors graph

Visitors

City of Vancouver

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Types of trips respondents would make on PBS

PBS type of trip %
Commute to work or business use only 7%
Shopping or personal use only 18%
Leisure or recreational only 41%
All of the above 43%
  100%
Combination of types of trips %
Commute to work or business use & Shopping or personal use 14%
Shopping or personal use & Leisure or recreational 77%
Commute to work or business & Leisure or recreational 9%

 

100%

Use of PBS with another mode of transportation

Combine PBS with one other mode %
Walk 33%
Bicycle 3%
Transit (e.g. bus, SkyTrain, Sea Bus) 49%
Taxi, tour coach 1%
Drive alone 8%
Carpool, Ride-share 0%
  100%

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Use of PBS with a combination of modes of transportation

Combine PBS with a combination of other modes %
Walk/Bike/Transit 7%
Walk/Transit 50%
Walk/Drive alone 2%
Walk/Transit/Carpool 3%
Transit/Drive alone 3%
Other combinations 36%
  100%

Number of one-way trips respondents might typically make in summer

Number of trips

Preference of PBS membership

Preference of membership

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