Toronto urged to explore dockless bike sharing
Interest in bike sharing is growing, but Toronto is running out of space for docks, says Mike Layton.

TheStar.com
Sept. 19, 2017
Gilbert Ngabo

The city needs to revisit its approach to bike-share parking, as the bulky stations are taking up too much space, says one city councillor.

Trinity-Spadina Coun. Mike Layton introduced a proposal at Tuesday's public works and infrastructure committee asking staff to explore the possibility of introducing dockless bike-sharing technology. Currently the city's Bike Share program relies on the use of large docking systems, which can be a big inconvenience in a city as dense as Toronto, said Layton.

“The stations are big, and that has actually been a barrier to the rollout,” he said, noting the docking stations can be two metres wide and 12 to 15 metres deep.

“Finding a space that can accommodate that is tricky. We have areas in my ward, which has an enormous population of cyclists, but we have difficulty putting the stations in.”

Last month, Bike Share Toronto added 70 new stations to its infrastructure, upping the total number of stations to 270 with a fleet of 2,750 bikes.

The multimillion-dollar program has been increasing in popularity, now counting as many as 9,500 active members who each pay a $90 annual membership fee. Last week Bike Share reported reaching a million rides this year, putting it on course to eclipse last year's record of 1.1 million trips.

But Layton said bike-sharing technology has been evolving quickly, with new startups across the world offering bikes with locks that do not require big and costly docks. In Toronto, the private company DropBike rolled in earlier this summer for a pilot project. After a little over eight weeks, the project reports more than 5,000 rides by about 1,400 users.

“We are a direct competitor with DropBike, but it could be that there are other types of technologies that we could integrate,” said Layton. “We should stay up to date. I wouldn't want the city to just fall behind in what we offer.”

The item was referred to city staff for further review. They will report back to council in October.