Partnership with Shaw will help Mobi bike-sharing expand its turf

Corporate branding and free wireless Internet are coming to Vancouver’s Mobi bike-share system, courtesy of a deal with Shaw.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson announced the five-year partnership with Shaw on Tuesday. Although the telecom company isn’t revealing how much money the deal is worth, the cash will go directly to Mobi.

The sponsorship means the bike-share system is now officially known as “Mobi by Shaw Go ”and more than 100 Mobi stations in the downtown area will have access to Shaw’s free wireless Internet service.

The cash infusion will help the system expand beyond its current borders, generally bounded by Arbutus Street to the west, 16th Avenue to the south and Main Street to the east, the mayor added.

One of the newest stations, however, has been installed at the Shaw Tower downtown.

Mia Kohout, general manager of Mobi operator Vancouver Bike Share, said her employees get frequent calls about expansion plans for the east side of the city, particularly around the Commercial Drive-Broadway area. However, there are no planned dates for opening stations in that neighbourhood.

Right now, there are 94 working stations with more than 900 bikes, and the goal is to have 1,500 bikes at 150 stations.

Bike sharing has had some struggles across North America. Seattle’s program, Pronto, will end in March, about a year after the city invested US$1.4 million to bring the entire system under its control, despite low revenue and ridership numbers. Bixi, Vancouver’s one-time partner in plans for bike-sharing, ran the continent’s first public system in Montreal until it filed for bankruptcy in 2014.

The City of Montreal bought Bixi’s assets and now runs the program as a non-profit.

Vancouver’s program has so far avoided many of the pitfalls seen in other cities.

Ridership is growing faster than expected.