Hamilton Bike Share to offer subsidized memberships
SoBi pilot project will include bike stations in targeted areas
The annual $85 SoBi bike sharing fee is still too costly for some, so a new summer pilot will provide 200 free or subsidized memberships.
The city is also adding more bike stations in poverty-prone Code Red and Neighbourhood Action Strategy areas to give residents there better access to the bike sharing program.
The half-million-dollar pilot is funded by the city ($201,255), a Hamilton Community Foundation grant ($49,245) and a Federation of Canadian Municipalities grant ($274,500), says Peter Topalovic, city manager for sustainable mobility.
The specific Hamilton area getting the 14 new bike stations and 75 additional bikes is between Sherman Avenue North and Ottawa Street North, and from the Escarpment to Barton Street East, he said.
About 100 free memberships are going to low-income housing and service agencies to determine who to give them out to on a temporary basis — by the day or the month.
Subsidized memberships will be given out on a first-come-firstserved basis for those who “selfidentify” as being in need, Topalovic said.
The subsidy allows for a $3 membership fee per every three months.
Topalovic developed the pilot in partnership with others based on models in Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, he said.
“While the $85-per-year pass is very economical … for some, $85 is too expensive,” he said.
Hamilton’s bike share system — known as SoBi but officially called Hamilton Bike Share — started in March 2015 with a 40-square-kilometre span, 750 bikes and 115 bike stations, or hubs.
“It was always envisioned we’d have a program for low-income as well,” Topalovic said.
SoBi ran a pre-pilot with funding from Union Gas that gave out 20 free memberships to agencies as a way to “work out the kinks” for this pilot starting in midsummer, he said.
The goals of the officially named “Everyone Rides Initiative Pilot Project” include improving access to affordable transportation, helping to reduce poverty, and contributing to “positive public health outcomes” through increased exercise and greener methods of transportation.
Thea Jones, Hamilton Bike Share’s manager of the Everyone Rides initiative, said residents can get their subsidized memberships starting in May at the SoBi office at 126 Catharine St. N. A free SoBi basic course is required to get the subsidy.
Jones already has 20 to 25 youth refugees signed up for subsidized memberships. Their basic course will use an Arabic translator to relay instructions, she said.
The idea for a bike sharing program in Hamilton — and now the low-income pilot — came from Topalovic, who was impressed with Montreal’s system while at a conference there in 2008.
Jones credits Topalovic for making it all happen despite large initial overhead costs.
“Hamilton wouldn’t have Bike Share without him,” she says. “He’s a big advocate for bike sharing. He’s the contact within the city, and he found ways of gathering funding to purchase the bikes to start with.”