So Bixi is in the red, and it looks like the City is prepping to bail out the arms-length public agency, which I believe is actually affiliated with Parking de Montréal.
Yeah I know, weird eh? The rent-a-bike-to-get-cars-off-the-street public transit agency is being run by the people who profit immensely off of people who drive into the city and pay for the privilege to do so. Me no like!
Here’s the link to the Gazette article.
You can probably guess which is my comment…
TL;DR – we need island-wide Bixi service, and it should be transferred over to the STM for future expansion. It should be part of the larger public-transit transfer system and cost per use, cost for a monthly pass and accessibility should be improved so as to allow for the highest possible number of potential clients.
I mean, c’mon!
Dear readers – what should we do with Bixi? Will it become yet another Montreal White Elephant?
I’m sure you’ve seen this already, but
http://www.reddit.com/r/montreal/comments/hf50m/bixis_response_to_rumors_and_complaints_about_the/
I think that this was always the plan for Bixi – as a business model it’s not really profitable for a long time so really for it to survive past the first couple of years or so it will pretty much need to be bailed out.
Public transportation is something that needs to be treated as a public service.As long as it’s well received and I see no problem with it remaining unprofitable for a little while.