Bikes are essentially flawless: an excellent form of exercise, great for the environment and an easy solution for gridlock. But it’s not always cool to show up to a patio date with pit stains and soggy chinos. Thankfully, somebody at city hall is on the case. This summer, the already popular Bike Share program added 300 electric bikes to its fleet. Outright buying one of these magnificent steeds—which have a max speed of 25 kilometres per hour, about the same as a normy—costs upwards of $1,500, but a 30-minute rental costs just $3.25, the same as a regular Bike Share two-wheeler. The e-bike revolution comes at just the right time, on the heels of the great cycling surge. This summer, Bike Share reported its highest-ever number of rides in a single weekend—6,000 trips were taken on June 6 and 7—and a 60 per cent increase in one-year membership registrations between May 2019 and May 2020. It’s another impressive development for the program, which began under the private Montreal company Bixi in 2011 and was saved from extinction by the City of Toronto, which improved and expanded the offering. Across Toronto, there are now 6,850 bikes, 625 stations and 12,000 docking points.
