Bike sharing in Canada
MONTREAL
Name: BIXI Montreal Launch year: 2009 Size: More than 6,000 bikes Cost: $5 per day
TORONTO
Name: Bike Share Toronto Launch year: 2011 Size: More than 2,500 bikes Cost: $7 per day
VANCOUVER
Name: Mobi Launch year: 2016 Size: More than 1,500 bikes Cost: $10 per day
History of bike sharing
LARGE-scale bike sharing begins in 1965 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, thanks to a group of activists who decide to leave a collection of bikes — all painted white— unlocked around the city for anyone to use. Issues soon arise, however, as most bikes are stolen and vandalized.
Further attempts at large-scale bike-sharing programs aren’t tried again in Europe until the late 1990s. A series of technological advancements — from coin-operated stalls to user ID cards that track use— are implemented
throughout the 2000s to cut down on theft and vandalism.
As early as 2008, bike-sharing pilot programs start popping up in North America, with the continent’s first large-scale bike-sharing operation being Quebec’s BIXI Montreal in 2009.