In Montreal, we’ve been seeing an additional mass of bikers weaving their way through the city lately. Us Montrealers are the lucky first recipients of a bunch of Bixi, North America’s first large-scale bicycle-sharing system, and boy are those bikes sexy. They’re computer-chip based, solar-powered, WiFi-enabled and have an old-school shape that’s easily recognizable. They also have LED head and taillights and a bell!
Disc jockey/bike jockey
Where they're at
We’ve got 3,000 of these bikes set up between 300 downtown bike stations. It works like this: swipe your credit card in the pay station, ride off on your bike, return it to one of the 300 stations around town.
And, obviously, when snot is freezing in our nostrils during the winter, the Bixi bikes will be hibernating somewhere indoors…
DJ Vivie-Ann checks it outttt
Ride me
Wonder which cities will be picking up this trend next?
#1 by oks - May 17th, 2009 at 01:55
woah, nice! same system as Velib in Paris, then – sheer brilliance. but Montreal ones look sooo much badasser:)
#2 by nate s - May 17th, 2009 at 13:21
I love canada
(it’s the real america)
#3 by admin - May 17th, 2009 at 13:32
lol, hopefully wont happen here… but prolly… the bikes have GPS trackers installed..so they can be located… unless of course the thiefs figure out how to remove or disengage the trackers.
#4 by Elly - May 17th, 2009 at 17:35
They have something similar in Auckland, New Zealand. Cool though
#5 by admin - May 17th, 2009 at 17:42
Aussies always know what’s up when it comes to living healthy and helping out the environment!
#6 by PhiJey - May 18th, 2009 at 11:23
How do you do then, if lets say, five people goes from point A to point B.. and then there is no slot left to return @ point B, we have 3 people with their bixi…. What they do?
#7 by admin - May 18th, 2009 at 11:28
@PhiJey — you go check the next station! which is probably 100m away…there’s over 300 stations being put up in the montreal area.
#8 by Cory Osborn - May 18th, 2009 at 13:08
We’ve got the SmartBike system in DC, surprisingly headed by ClearChannel of all entities. However, the aesthetic of the bikes probably deter a lot of potential riders. They look pretty ridiculous. The Bix bikes look pretty cool though. Much better execution.
#9 by admin - May 18th, 2009 at 16:33
@Cory Osborn – just checked out the DC SmartBikes and you’re right – they look a bit kid-ish. The Bixi bikes definitely look more sturdy! And that’s important, considering the way some Montrealers drive…
#10 by Mitch - May 18th, 2009 at 19:53
If I attempt to return a bike at point B and the slots are filled, then I’m required to find another area nearby where I can return the bike… This can be a problem if I am running late for a meeting or if it’s pouring rain. I’d be better off locking it up, then using it again later to return to point A.
#11 by admin - May 18th, 2009 at 20:15
@Mitch – for $5 a day, keeping it locked somewhere else for convenience makes a lot of sense. As long as you have a bike lock!
#12 by Elly - May 19th, 2009 at 04:03
So, I don’t mean to be presumptuous or anything, but if by ‘Aussies’ you were referring to my comment about New Zealand you’re a little, uhm, off. ‘Aussies’ refers to people from Australia. Which is a different country from New Zealand
Close though!
#13 by admin - May 19th, 2009 at 08:01
@Elly – woops, geography fail! Didn’t mean to lump New Zealanders with the Aussies – they don’t even share the same continent!
#14 by shenanigans1983 - May 21st, 2009 at 14:23
And people from NZ are commonly called Kiwis…
#15 by Lucy - May 30th, 2009 at 23:21
They had these in lots of area’s in Japan, they worked really well there.
(and in paris…)