City Bike Share Program Moves One Step Closer To Reality

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A file photo of the Bike Share program at UWindsor.

A bike share program is one step closer to reality in Windsor.

Urban Systems recently completed a bike share feasibility study that recommends City pursue a partnership with one or multiple private operators to provide bike share and/or e-bike share services to Windsor for little to no cost to the municipality.

The proposed bike share would be a phased program with the first phase recommended to be between the riverfront, Prince Road, Tecumseh Road, and Drouillard Road. This phase would cover 15% of the City and includes approximately 65,000 residents serving key city areas including the University, Downtown and the riverfront.

The study recommends that the area be served by approximately 450 bikes. This number was reached by applying a 7 bike per 1,000 resident ratio to the population of the service area.

According to the study, a conservative trip uptake rate of 1.5 trips per bike per day, at a system size of 450 bikes, Windsor can expect an average of 675 trips per day when the system is in operation.

To balance trip directness, fleet availability, and mitigate bicycle clutter at high use locations, a hybrid-dockless model is recommended, rather than fixed docking stations.

“Dockless systems offer the user convenience in the ability to generally start and end trips closer to their true destination, with the ability to leave the bike where desired. The bicycles are reserved, paid for, and accessed through a user’s smartphone app, with users generally paying a per-trip fee based on time,” the report states.

In addition, GPS units on both the phone and bicycle provide operators information on trip usage and travel patterns, as well as provide customers with a map of all the bicycles they can access nearby.

City Administration is recommending that if city council wishes to move forward with the bike share program that they give them direction to report back on bylaw and policy recommendations to support a partnership with one or multiple private operators to provide bike share Services to the City of Windsor.

City Council meets to discuss this on Monday, March 25th.

To view the entire council report, visit the Walk Wheel Windsor page.