Do You Even Need To Own A Bike Anymore?
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- čas přidán 10. 11. 2022
- After my bike was stolen I spent a summer riding around on the system that kicked of public bike sharing in North America #bixi to see how it was going after all these years, and if it can actually replace a bike.
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That's a great video, Paige! Thank you for summarizing the service so well and for your comments. 🙂🚲
No problem friendly Bike Share Operator, care to comment on the issues citizens have raised in the comments?
- Why don't you auto add "Free eBiki rides" to a little tally on the app? The emailed redemption codes are not a good system.
- A "Buy Key" button should exist in the account's web UI, even if it just took you to a web form for now so people without smartphones or tourists without data know this is an option.
- A bulk eBixi option (or subscription) also seems to be a popular request
I hope you can prove my point in the video that there is a productive and iterative process between citizens, Bixi and PBSC.
I had no idea the bixi key was such a rare commodity. From now on I’m sleeping with mine under my pillow and calling it my precious
was so happy i found mine in a drawer when i reactivated my membership this year. sometimes people look at me in awe when i unlock a bike with this sanctified relic of the past
😂
bold move kissing a public bike at the beginning lol
Good for immune health
Was also my first reaction! 😂
Hey Paige, great vid as usual! FYI you can actually still get keys, it's just not advertised anywhere that I'm aware of. If you write to BIXI support asking for a key they'll send it to you, at a cost of 15$.
That's what I did when I first signed up for a membership at the start of this year's season, because I didn't have a smartphone to install the app onto at the time. Now I do have a smartphone with the app, but the key is just so much more convenient.
Joy! That's good to know, I figured there might be a "manual human interaction" way around that policy, was planning on crashing the bixi christmas party. But they need to have a formal and permanent path for people who don't have a phone with data.
Love this system. Now you can sign out for free bike trailers in Montréal. Genius. Replaces your truck.
We operate a 6 figure service business all by bikes and trailers. 7 years in and will never go back. Last I ran the numbers we save $15-20k in transport costs per year!
~$5000 for an ebike seems so crazy to me when a escooter for half that price can go over 50 km/h and can ride for like ~30-50 km without any pedaling
this video did make me wonder if anyone is doing docking rental scooters though, you really sold the benefits of a dock
In the Netherlands a bike-leasing company called Swapfiets is really taking off. It's a subscription for a bike basically. So you have your own bike, but it's ensured it always works, no maintenance effort and costs and no worries about theft. It's a nice in-between between owning a bike and bike share/rental, serving a different segment of the market.
I love BIXI! I don't personally use it, but I was able to convince a friend to use it a couple times when coming back from a night out at a bar in the city. No need to watch for the last metro, goes surprisingly fast and you know it's there if you decide to spontaneously have a night out after work. Service is even now offered in my neighbouring city of Laval!
There is still a helmet law in Quebec for E-Bikes though. I don't see many people abiding by it but occasionally the police will dish out tickets, which I believe is ~100$
that is a good point. for a while i never used an electric bixi because i never had a helmet on me, but i've seen enough people ride past police on electric bixis without wearing helmets now that i feel comfortable flouting the law in a pinch 😅
Glad to hear the bike sharing program is working so well in Montreal. one of the cities that I've gotten to try their program (Madison WI) wasn't bad and being a big college town, alot of students don't drive, so having bikes can work really well, but from locals I've heard they are, while cheap, kinda poor quality and get gears get stuck all the time. I wish they would give more money to this program and allow their program to grow to more parts of the city, another complaint I've heard is either no bikes or no bike parking, because everyone goes to campus and away from campus. More parking spots would allow more people to see the value in biking instead of ubering or just purely walking everywhere and hating it.
I have visited Montreal many times. The last time was during covid so I wanted to stay outdoors. I initially was paying by minute but after the first day I realize it would be cheaper to just get a one-month membership. It was a wonderful time and I saw so much of the city and in a different way.
We use the same bikes in Toronto and you *can* do a grocery haul! I put a reusable grocery bag in the front rack and secure it using a yoga band. Smaller stuff can go in my knapsack.
In my city, the bonus is 15 minutes free on rentals that are from a station where there are a lot of bikes (usually the station below the hill) to other stations. Combined with the first 15 minutes paid by the city, that's 30 minutes of free riding...
Bixi is great, there is some reliability issues but Montreal is one giant reliability issue. It'd be great if they started slowly introducing cargo bikes and ones with child carriers etc. to the network like they did e bikes to increase its utility as a system.
My long-winded Bixi thoughts:
This year I dusted off my old Bixi key and got an annual membership for the first time in nearly a decade. Through a sponsorship deal with Rachelle-Béry, Bixi members get a discount on groceries such that it more than pays for itself 🤑 It's great that network is so much more developed now than it used to be - no longer do you have to live in the cool neighbourhoods to be able to use the service 😎 The reason I stopped using it back in the day was that I moved from Rosemont to a bixi-less wasteland, but thankfully such places are disappearing as the years go by. I did however run into the issue of empty stations quite a bit this summer, but at least that means people are using the service.
This week I was in Toronto and gave their Bixi-derived service a try. It was nice that they don't charge extra to use an e-bike, it's regulated purely through the luck of the draw and whatever you happen to find at any given station. Maintenance seems to be an issue though: of the five bikes I borrowed I had to bring three back to the station because they were defective in some way. Was not expecting Toronto's service to be less reliable than Montreal 🤷♂️
One thing that drives me crazy about Bixi is that the markings on the seat posts are not standardized in any way, just a series of arbitrary numbers that vary from bike to bike, making it super annoying to get the seat height dialled in right. It would also be nice to have a subscription tier that includes e-bikes, or at least have a few e-bike rides per month included in the annual membership.
All in all though, it's incredibly convient to have a 'bike in your pocket' at all times that you don't have to worry about, and the size of the fleet and the network have made the service more useful and convenient than ever. Combined with all of our cycling infrastructure, Bixi is one of the great things about living in Montreal.
Yeah the seat post thing is pretty funny. It might as well say “2, 4, 6, 8, go, bixi!”
13:45 I fit a TONNE of groceries in the front bixi basket when I use an ikea bag. Even if some of it hangs out over the left and right sides, it is wedged in there (just tie the handles together so nothing falls out). I also fill my backpack with food, and together I'm able to take home a lot.
Great video! I'm never used Bixi. I live on the South Shore and still have the old clunker I bought second hand 25 years ago.
After riding the BIXIs for a year now, my largest complaint is that they don’t offer a 2nd tier to their membership system to include an option for an e-BIXI pass. As you mentioned, there are many people who would only use an electric BIXI for certain trips and by only providing a per-per-minute option, it can make those riders second guess whether to ride. I understand why they haven’t implemented it up to now but as their electric bike fleet is becoming a substantial proportion of their total fleet and rider preference, as you mentioned, is clearly shifting towards the e-bikes, I think they’re missing out on a great opportunity to cater to a growing sector of the market and introduce it as an option. Even if it is double the price of the regular membership, the convenience of not pricing out your trip and possibility to save money if you ride them a lot, it brings a peace of mind that I would gladly pay for. Likewise, I think it would encourage more riders (including more suburban or lower mobility users) to bike and pave the path towards other e-bike options like cargo bikes.
I do like the fact that you can choose if you want to save money some days, or spend on others. There is the health benefit factor to biking on the gray bixis, and it's good that you are nudged towards at least sometimes taking a gray bixi. If you had an eBixi membership, human nature would probably cause people to get in a mindset of only looking for electrics especially because "They're paying for it". They could have a smart system where if there are no gray bixis in the rack, you can get the eBixi at the 45min free rate. I have a feeling that they really rake it in on the eBixis, would love to see those financials.
The Republic of Ireland has a bike rental program similar to Montreal’s. The bikes could be the same, just different colors. The bikes come with baskets and rear racks.
5:26 ohh they redid bike lane the pavement there, didn't knew that!
+1 for bringing back the key.
Minneapolis has the "nice ride" system which is very similar (same stations and keys). It's also similar to many other systems especially in the US, in that it's been mostly privatized and app-ized.
It started as a non-profit that got capital from grants and donations and the usage/membership fees just had to cover operating costs. But after the public sector proved out the concept they of course sold it off to the biggest corporation they could find, which was then bought out by Lyft who have jacked up the prices, pushed a bloated app instead of being able to rent directly at the station (you can still buy the keys though if you know where to look) and instead of going for charging stations like montreal, for the ebikes they are pushing little metal bike racks that are *only* for their Lyft branded ebikes, slowly squeezing the classic bikes out of the system and making them second class citizens as they can only use the normal docking stations which are in a lot less places.
On the topic of wearing helmets, the channel Shifter made a great deep dive on it recently, highly recommend if you're interested
We have Lime in North Vancouver. Never tried it but it seems very popular.
Great piece, Paige! Am now incorporating into my daily vocabulary the phrase: “Bike-pilled”
I remember using bixi once in montreal: Friend and I rode it up uphill to get lunch and immediately decided to just transit/walk for the rest of the day
Hearing there are more and more ebikes in the docks is great. I just checked Toronto's map and it looks like there are less than 30 e-bikes currently available -.-
I love our system here by VAG/nextbike in Nuremberg: having stations but additionally having a flex parking zone in the central area. It really boosts the reach and convenience of transit: travel by subway/tram as far as possible and then use the bike share for the last mile. Our monthly transit ticket includes 10h of free ride share, of which personally I often use 6-9h for actual travel and 1-2h for parking on errands/trips outside the central area.
Good to see Scott again!
Excellent video ! In Edmonton i would 100x times prefer we kicked the escooters/ ebike rentals to the curb and got in touch with Montreal to implement bixi here. It's an excellent system, its proven in so many cities now, ebikes in the fleet make it a no brainer as you point out. Working with Montreal keeping Canadian tech going would be a dream. For bike fleet maintenance, NYC and other's "bike angel" system is fantastic to incentivize moving bikes or parking them at empty racks.
I'm debating right now between buying a bike or sticking with Bixi for this year. I live in Montreal Est so the nearest bixi dock is a few kilometres away so I'll need to get a bus to it, and it would be more convenient to have my own bike to get out to the metro and just go from there.
But at the same time I like the convenience of Bixi since I can just pick one up where ever in the city and drop it off, I don't need to worry about getting it all the way home. Also it's great for if you're in a neighborhood with inconsistent bus routes but a lot of bike stations, and it's often faster biking through the traffic.
Bixi's can be so inconsistent though, with empty or full stations depending on the time of day, not all of them ride the exact same, and there are some bike seats that are either too loose or completely stuck because some *_idiots don't know how to adjust the seat properly!_* Because of that I would prefer having my own bike that I have adjusted and well oiled all the time.
Still , when it works like it's supposed to, nothing can replace the convenience of just having those stations for short trips downtown or going from one neighborhood to the next.
I don't want to pay for both so I need to figure out what the best option for me would be.
That key would be the greatest thing to have ever as someone who doesn`t have mobile data I cannot tell you how much of a pain in the a$$ the stupid PBSC app is
Had no idea there are no more keys!
So much better than the scooters we've got here in Portland.
I like how people from New Zealand say bike
Awesome to learn the process of improvement behind it. In Quebec city we recently have a growing number of "aVelo" probably made by same people that are doing Bixi, and it's all eBike with Charging stations. So cool to know we had it easy thanks to all bixi's iterations :) !
Live in Antwerp, and our bike share is really one of the best in the world. I did some Wikipedia research and I'm pretty sure there's no city in the world with more stations and bikes per Capita. The bikes are really nice, they're not too big. We have a card for the year, and it's 55 euros. It's definitely something our city excels in. We don't have e bikes. But it's a different city we certainly don't need them lol
Yeah, the Auckland bike share failure is sad really. They were heavily considering it, maybe even had funding sorted?? And then the dockless private schemes just started kicking off, and like a squirrel (fantail) they went “oh shiny!!” And made that the solution.
Needless to say, the dockless ones are just not on the same level as the docked ones. And they’ve kind of tainted the public / political conscious. “We already have share bikes” etc etc.
On the upside, I think that the embracing of the dockless bikes has made the council super liberal with the newer micro mobility stuff. Scooters and the like. I know quite a few people commuting on an e-scooter they own.
Mandatory helmet law?
I didn't know New Zealand Police have jurisdiction in Montreal 🤣. Is your friend in the show a New Zealand Cop, tell him NZ has the best police ads!
San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose also has one of these PBSC systems(Bay Wheels, operated by Lyft - who are apparently now in talks to acquire PBSC). I rode it just today. I tend to skip the e-bikes because I'm mostly going for joyriding and exercise, but the system is pretty good - I've learned to check the bike to see that the pedals spin smooth and the saddle stays in place. There was one time where I docked the bike and then the station was offline for the next, uh, 36 hours, so they had to refund me for a $100 charge. It's clearly popular, and sometimes I will try to get those rewards points. The bottleneck isn't really the system, just lack of quality bike infrastructure. But Lyft has some capital to throw around and punch through red tape, I know they're working on it.
The deal is signed, one of the many things I didn’t include in this video. Obviously kind of sad.
Lyft bike share in San Francisco is ridiculously expensive. $10-15 for a 20 minute ride
I hear you about the keys. If they don’t come back, I’d at least like ALL stations to work with Opus cards.
I was told by Bixi customer service that they're actually phasing out the OPUS support. The newer stations don't accept them at all if I recall correctly. They clearly want everyone to just use the app, but they'll only pry my key out of my cold, dead hands 🙃
Damn still wearing shorts in November? ;-) Intresting video Paige! About the last part, I live in the Netherlands and nearly everyone owns a bike themselves. But the most successful bikesharing schemes that are popping up here are cargobike-only bikeshares.
I imagine that has something to do with the transport system being much more bike focused. A cargo bike is a bit more of a niche item but a standard bike is an essential. Most people in Montreal don't bike everyday but might have a bixi membership for when biking happens to be the most convenient way to get somewhere, I imagine people's needs for cargo bikes are similar in the Netherlands.
It's been a crazy October/November here. It hit frickin' 23 at one point, which is likely when Paige was filming.
hes back!
here in Brazil they tried to implement Yellow Bikes (rental bikes that don't stay in specific places) the result was, bikes being stolen frequently, or vandalized
To be fair to Vancouver BC bike helmet laws. I don't think I've seen or ever heard of someone being fined for not wearing a helmet on a bike. That said I get how it costs the system more.
I really like you highlighted that people visiting would want to use a shared ebike. I'll definitely suggest it to my folks or in laws if they visit.
Great vid.
Bicycle helmet laws exist because, IMO, much more hostile traffic conditions where the cars are really out to get you. Go to someplace like the Netherlands where bicycle use is deeply ingrained into the cultural fabric? The Dutch look at you really funny if you bring up helmets.
Quebec doesn't have all-ages bicycle helmet laws because we're the Don't Give A Fuck Province. Have you seen what we eat willingly? Poutine, medium fat smoked meat, frites, etc.? And no helmet is going to save your ass with our drivers, tbf. So we Quebeckers just go merrily risking death, as we always do.
I almost didn't click on this video because I didn't know what it was about, and the cover (thumbnail and video) resembled the vague clickbait that is all the rage these days. The title could mean anything, but if you had added "Why public bike shares are great" at the end it would have been a sure click. Just FYI.
Bixi seems to have a decent area covered by stations. Mobi in Vancouver is only useful if you live in or near the downtown core, so it's useless if you're outside the city centre or in the suburbs.
Yeah, that is annoying. There's bike shares in the other council areas, not sure why they can't be linked other than dumb council rules. It's probably the same as the old taxi laws that had to be force changed by the province.
That's how Bixi was in the beginning too, but it has expanded greatly over the years. I think we had a pretty big head start over just about any other city in North America, it didn't happen overnight
I wouldnt wear a helmet worn by 10,000 other people during our hot summer. Too nasty
I think something interesting (and negative) is happening with Chicago's bike system (Divvy). I was using it this summer, and what I noticed compared to previous summers was that the classic bikes were in total disrepair compared to the electric bikes. As someone who prefers riding the classic bikes for both exercise and cost, lots of Divvy stations almost forced you to rent e-bikes. This may or may not have to do with Lyft being the current operator of Divvy and potentially prioritizing the electric money-makers over the classic bikes. When I went to Montréal this summer, I did not have this problem at all. Do you think there's a difference in how Bixi is ran compared to Divvy? And do you think having the classic bikes around as a public good is beneficial even though it is not as profitable as the e-bikes?
I guess it's possible that the e-bikes are nicer because they are newer. A few years ago Montreal had a new model of 7-speed bixi which were always a nicer ride than the old gray ones. Now there is a newer model of gray bixi which I look for that has a different handle and 90% of the time that will be in better condition. There is also an element of charging helping with maintenance, it means every day someone from the network operator is handling the bike. People also often park e-Bikes and hit the repair button when the batteries are flat so maybe a maintenance person shows up more often and services it.
In the end most bike share networks feel unloved and under invested in. Bixi does not for some reason, that's why I'm interested in doing a deeper dive on bike shares because I have a few theories, but I don't really know why things ended up like this. I get the feeling the current situation like most good institutions is the result of a long dedicated effort over the last decade.
@@PaigeMTL It helps that bixi is still operated by the public sector. Most of the systems in the US have been privatized to varying extents. The private operators have a much larger incentive to cheap out
Divvy has stated that they're gradually phasing out classic bikes entirely. They'll repair and maintain their existing fleet but won't replace any classic bikes that are unsalvageable.
I personally think that it's fine for Divvy to focus on profitably. It makes the city plenty of money at a time when we desperately need it. I've heard that the classic bikes were money pits, but I wish Divvy raised the rates instead of just phasing them out.
The answer to that question… ah, yeah!
Oh the urbanity! Just did a video about the keys.. you just have to apply for one aparently
The only disagrement is that you re never sure were you will be able to return it
the slow end to ownership is likely not a good thing for any of us in many different areas of life
Hey Paige, Any vedio on finding jobs for Anglophones? I REALLY want to move to Montreal, but its starting to look like a catch 22,you need to know French to get jobs, but unless I have a job how would I sustain myself ?
Even if you find an English job you should learn French. Start studying now before you arrive and you can continue French courses when you get here.
chea bixi!!
Ch'ter manquer mon bonhomme
fyi your patreon link is broken
comment
YOU will own nothing and be happy.
Ugh, great video as always, but now I already miss summer biking 🥲
The amis bixi point system is awful
You have to send the link to a friend, they have to download the app, and then put in the code
It's so cumbersome
I wish you just got a free credit for ebixi on your own account or got free unlocking for friends via your app.
Also, I got a key last year for 15$, I just called and asked
Yeah, they should totally just have a little "Bonus eBixis" tally on the app, done. The current system is so useless I stopped even trying.
We know that. 😅 We would like to offer other rewards, but it is not technologically possible at the moment.
@@biximontreal1456 aww no worries, hopefully it can change in the future but I still like racking up points just for the fun of it