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.
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
Winter
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Likelihood of respondents to use PBS during the summer and non-summer months
Comparison of gender and likelihood of using PBS
Females
Males
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Place of residence and likelihood of using PBS during the summer time
Downtown
City of Vancouver
Lower Mainland
Visitors
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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
Preference of PBS membership
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