Comment 118907

By Gregory (registered) | Posted May 29, 2016 at 13:12:14 in reply to Comment 118879

With respect to SoBi, I recall that we invested $1.5 million to cover the cost of the bikes and lock up stations (about $2,000 per bike). Should we be looking to expand this program? Is it possible to introduce an electric assist version to expand the potential audience? Would it help if we painted bike lanes on many major streets to increase rider comfort (as well as slow down vehicular traffic as a result of sometimes narrower and fewer lanes)? What dividends would accrue in terms of carbon emission reductions, improved general health and well being of citizens and how quickly can we get this done - surely sooner than a ten-year time horizon? Note that subscribing to this service costs about $0.39 per day for a 90 minute riding time, about a tenth (12.3%) of the user cost of an HSR monthly pass. If we could justify this option for 50,000 SoBi bikes, it would cost the taxpayers about $100 million. Don't know what the useful life expectancy is for a Sobi, but at 5 years, we would need an additional 5 replacement cycles ($500 million) in order to compare to the LRT life expectancy at 30 years. I would expect bicycles designs to improve over time and for costs to decrease. WEHat I like about this is we only need to invest a tenth of the LRT project, get dramatic results later this year and avoid all the negative fallout on businesses, while reducing congestion.

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