Bixi bike-sharing program posts $1-million surplus
Buoyed by an increase in bikes, docking stations and overall popularity, Montreal’s Bixi bike-sharing system enjoyed a record year in 2017, with a nearly 20 per cent rise in ridership.
More than 4.8 million rides were taken on Bixis in 2017, up from 4.1 million the year before. That puts it in second place in North America in terms of bike ridership after New York City.
The jump in usage helped nonprofit Bixi Montreal register an operational surplus of just over $1 million for the fiscal year.
Bixi had revenues of $10.5 million in 2017, with $4.6 million coming from memberships and rider fees, $3 million from advertising and sponsorship deals, and $2.9 million from the city of Montreal, which agreed to pay that amount every year for five years to keep the system running as part of its public transportation network.
“We finance these types of expenses because they represent movement in our city,” councillor Éric Alan Caldwell, city executive committee member responsible for transport, said Wednesday at a presentation of the bike company ’s 2017 financial report. “It’s active transit, it’s less congestion on our roads, it’s interconnectivity with our other modes of mobility.”
The surplus funds (Bixi had expenditures of $9.5 million, most of it spent on management of its operations) will go toward special projects, like the addition of electric bikes to the network, coming in August, and costs for equipment.
An expansion of the network, beyond the 11 boroughs and two other municipalities (Westmount and Longueuil) that the system presently serves with 6,250 bikes at 540 different docking stations, is promised for the near future, but no details were forthcoming during the presentation of Bixi Montreal’s financial results on Wednesday.
Much of the increase in ridership was due to the additions of 1,000 bikes to the fleet in 2017, as well as an additional 2,214 docking spots, a jump of roughly 20 per cent over the previous year.
Bixi isn’t interested in trying out the new dockless system of bike sharing popular in China and tested in some Canadian cities where users can leave and pick up bikes anywhere, at least for now, because trials elsewhere have proven “chaotic,” Caldwell said.
“The system that we have that is well-organized and easy to control, with docking points,” in a city the size of Montreal, he said.
Bixi had more than 258,000 riders in 2017 and a satisfaction level of 94 per cent, according to a survey of users. Ridership increased by 144 per cent from 2014 to 2017.
Bixi set a one-day record of 41,728 trips last summer on July 30, when bikes were offered free.
Despite its recent success, city officials said it’s unlikely the bikesharing system will ever be selffinancing.
The few profitable bike-sharing models seen worldwide tend to be smaller operations run by private corporations that prioritize profits over providing quality service to a wide area, officials said.
Montreal’s focus is on using the bikes as a complement to its public transit system on a wide scale (the system covers 95 square kilometres), making it more expensive to operate.
North America’s first bike-sharing service went through financial difficulties for several years. After declaring bankruptcy, it was taken over by the city in 2014. A study last year by the Montreal Economic Institute found Bixi will have cost Montrealers $60 million by its 10year anniversary in 2019.
Last year it recorded a $654,075 surplus for its 2016 operating season, as revenue from memberships and advertising exceeded budgeted expectations.