Comment 96102

By JustinJones (registered) - website | Posted December 18, 2013 at 13:33:56 in reply to Comment 96010

Kevin - I talked to some of the people behind it, their idea for having a few bikes available at the Lakeshore is for recreational purposes, you're right, but that's simply being put there to cater to a demand that isn't being met (there's no place to rent bikes out that way) and as a potential income generator for the organization.

As far as the number of bikes, while I appreciate the value of the ITDP report, it's also important to consider the context of where we're at. Even in the primary service areas (the orange ones, which are where the highest density of bikes will be, and where balancing will be most important), Hamilton has about 1.5% mode share for cyclists. So the idea of having at least 10 bikes per 1,000 residents in the entire service area (secondary areas having MUCH lower density of bikes and much less resources dedicated to balancing bike locations from what I understand), is a bit far-fetched right now. We have an opportunity to have a great, made-in-Hamilton solution to this - the contract is designed in such a way that if the program is successful, SoBi Hamilton will put all the money into improving the system - aka more bikes, more stations, better coverage. Yes it would be great to see a $15 Million investment in Bike Share in Hamilton, but for now we have to take the opportunity to put something in and work hard to prove the nay-sayers wrong, and to do that we need to get our mode share up, then we can really start making the case to make Hamilton a better place for all road users.

Musings on bikes, community and other fun things: https://mrbikesabunch.wordpress.com/

Permalink | Context

Events Calendar

There are no upcoming events right now.
Why not post one?

Recent Articles

Article Archives

Blog Archives

Site Tools

Feeds