Bixi (sometimes stylized as BIXI) is a public

bicycle sharing system A bicycle-sharing system, bike share program, public bicycle scheme, or public bike share (PBS) scheme, is a shared transport service where bicycles are available for shared use by individuals at low cost. The programmes themselves include bo ...

serving the metropolitan area of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. Launched in May 2009 by

Public Bike System Company Lyft Urban Solutions, formerly PBSC Urban Solutions and originally Public Bike System Company, is an international bicycle-sharing system equipment vendor with their headquarters based in Longueuil, Quebec. The company develops bicycle-sharing s ...

(PBSC), it is North America's first large-scale bike sharing system and the original Bixi brand of systems. PBSC filed for bankruptcy at the beginning of 2014 after the company started experiencing financial difficulties in late 2013. The City of Montreal then bought PBSC's assets for $11.9 million in February 2014 and created Bixi Montréal, a non-profit entity, to run the bike sharing operations. In 2023, Bixi was the second-most used bicycle sharing system in the U.S. and Canada, behind only the Citi Bikes of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, which are modelled after Bixi.

Name

Bixi is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of "bicyclette" (French for "bicycle") and "taxi", underlining the concept of being able to hail a bicycle just like a taxi. The name was coined by Michel Gourdeau, who won a public competition to find the best name for the service when it was first introduced in Montreal. The prize for the winner was a Bixi pass for life.

System components

A complete station is made up of a pay station, bikes, and bike docks (where the bikes are kept), which are fitted into modular platforms powered by solar panels. These platforms are the base and electronic ports for pay stations and bike docks. Bike stations can be created, expanded, configured, and removed in about half an hour, monitored by a real-time management system. Excavation or preparatory work is not required, allowing the installation of a bike station as an addition to on-street parking.

Bike dock and locking system

Bike docks are used to store and lock bikes. These modular docking stations are formed by a combination of groups of four docks. The bike dock's modularity allows a pay station to be used in the place of a single dock. Maintenance and repair of the system is simple because of a removable module present in every docking station, which contains the locking system and all necessary parts that allow the system to function. In case of repairs, this module can be replaced with an identical one immediately, reducing the downtime of the system. The locking system is based on an energy-efficient motor used in the medical sector. The principal inventor of these systems is Charles Khairallah, president of Robotics Design, with co-inventor Michel Dallaire, president of Michel Dallaire Industrial Design.

Bikes

The bicycles are utility bicycles with unisex step-through frames and three gears. The one-piece aluminum frame and handlebars hide cables in an effort to protect them from tampering and harsh weather conditions. The heavy-duty

tires A tire (North American English) or tyre (Commonwealth English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over w ...

are designed to be puncture-resistant and are filled with nitrogen gas to maintain proper pressure for longer. Twin LED rear lights are found inside the frame, and the sturdy frame weighs approximately . White LED lights are found in the front of the bike. The bikes are built in

Saguenay, Quebec Saguenay ( , , ) is a city in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada, on the Saguenay River, about north of Quebec City by overland route. It is about upriver and northwest of Tadoussac, located at the confluence with the St. ...

, by Cycles Devinci. Blue electric bicycles were added to the Bixi fleet in 2019.

Pay station

Users can rent a bike using a subscriber key (a "Bixi key") obtained through a long-term (30-day or annual) online subscription or an access code provided by the pay station (24-hour or 72-hour access) or by downloading and using the Bixi App and scanning the QR code located on the bike. The App also contains a network map with locations of other bike stands and the number of bikes or spaces available per station. Pay stations are touchscreen-operated and only accept credit cards. A button is used to notify Bixi mechanics of bicycles requiring servicing.

Subscriptions

In order to use the system, users need to take out a subscription, which allows the subscriber an unlimited number of rentals under 30 minutes for one- and three-day subscriptions, and 45 minutes for one-month and one-year subscriptions. A trip that lasts longer than this no-charge period is subject to additional charges on an increasing scale. This increasing price scale is meant to keep the bikes in circulation.

Development

Stationnement de Montréal

The project was included in the transportation plan for the City of Montreal, which aimed at encouraging active modes of transportation, such as bicycle. The program is run by the city's parking authority, Stationnement de Montréal.

Other developers

* 8D Technologies developed the technological platform behind the Bixi system, including the wireless bike station terminals, RFID bike dock technology, and all software systems. The system runs on solar energy to reduce environmental impact and maximize energy efficiency. 8D also created the Spotcycle bike-share smartphone app that locates and shows the status of bike stations close to the users. *Michel Dallaire created the design of the physical components. * Robotics Design created the modular bike dock and intelligent locking system. *Cycles Devinci manufactures Bixi bikes in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec. * Rio Tinto Alcan is the title sponsor of the Bixi program and provides aluminum for the bikes. *Morrow Communications.

Station network

The location of a Bixi bike station is determined by several parameters, including population density, points of interest and activities (e.g., universities), bike paths, other transportation networks, and data on travel patterns of the general public. In 2009, 5,000 bikes were deployed in Montreal through a network of pay stations located mainly in the boroughs of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, the Plateau-Mont-Royal, and Ville-Marie, spilling over into parts of Outremont and the South West. , the Bixi fleet has expanded to more than 11,000 bikes, about 2,600 of which are

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

, in more than 900 stations. The network has spread outside of

Montreal Island The Island of Montreal (, ) is an island in southwestern Quebec, Canada, which is the site of a number of municipalities, including most of the city of Montreal, and is the most populous island in Canada. It is the main island of the Hochelag ...

, with stations located in the suburban cities of Laval,

Longueuil Longueuil () is a city in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is the seat of the Montérégie, Montérégie administrative region and the central city of the urban agglomeration of Longueuil. It sits on the South Shore (Montreal), south shore o ...

, Boucherville, Terrebonne and Sainte-Julie.

Difficulties

Montreal's Bixi system experienced some initial difficulties less than two months after its introduction in 2009, with damage and vandalism to some of the bikes. '' La Presse'' reported on July 5, 2009, that one in five bikes had been damaged and 15% of bike racks had become defective. Stationnement de Montréal communications director Michel Philibert said that the organization planned to reinforce racks and was testing prototype designs. Designer Michel Dallaire said it never occurred to him that people would try to break the stations to steal bikes. Since then, there has been no significant damage or vandalism issues reported in any of the Bixi installations. The program experienced several serious setbacks and obstacles during its lifetime, including mismanagement, breach-of-contract litigation, and the surmounting of debt, most notably when the City of Montreal was forced to sell the lucrative international division, eliminating the only part of the program that turned a profit. Eventually, this contributed to the company's filing for bankruptcy in January 2014. The international division was renamed PBSC Urban Solutions and continued to extend its activities in several countries, including

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

References

External links

Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bixi Community bicycle programs Transport in Montreal Cycling in Quebec 2009 establishments in Quebec Bicycle sharing in Canada