Public bikes to hit Toronto streets next May

City council has given the thumbs up to a bike-sharing program that should see about 1,000 bikes set up for public use throughout downtown Toronto by May 2011. The initiative will be run by the same company that orchestrated the successful Bixi—“bicycle taxi”—program in Montreal. In theory, the city of Toronto will incur no costs in the endeavour but will act as a guarantor for the $4.8 million loan needed to start things up.

The city will also cover the cost of replacing or repairing stolen or vandalized bikes if the rate of damage to the fleet rises above six per cent. Here’s hoping that Torontonians are as tame as Montrealers (we are, after all, out-partying them now), who demonstrated an admirable one per cent rate of vandalism or theft in their program last year. Things didn’t go so well in Paris, where a much larger bike-sharing program ended up with 80 per cent of its initial bikes stolen or damaged.

Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, ever the optimist, speculated to the Star that demand could be so high that the number of bikes may need to double or triple. Looks like the conversation about bike lanes won’t end with the election.

• Bike share plan gets a green light [Toronto Star]
• Proposed bike-share program would put 1,000 bicycles on street next May [National Post]