Montreal Introduces Bixi

[Ephraim]

Montreal today unveiled Bixi, the new bicycle rental system. Great for locals but also for tourists.

 

The daily charge is $5 ($28 for the month and $78 for the year. The first 30 minutes of bike rental is free, each time you take a bike out. So you can take a bike, go to where you want, drop of the bike, tour and then pick up another bike and get another 30 minutes to get to your next station. If you go beyond the 30 minute limit it's $1.50 for the first half hour, $3.00 for the next half hour and $6.00 for any subsequent 30 minute period. In other words... they want you to return the bikes and then take them out again later.

 

Half the stations are already open, including the one right near my home (next to Square St. Louis and Prince Arthur) and most of the stations in Old Montreal as well. Online you can see the active stations, how many bikes are available as well as how many spaces for returning a bike.

 

For those of you cruising, there is a station almost in front of the cruise terminal with 8 bikes. The next two closest stations are Quai King-Edward (next pier over) and at St-Nicolas corner of St-Paul.

 

PS: Disclaimer, I own a B&B in Montreal, so I'm not unbiased. I'm also born, bred and live here... so I'm not unbiased that this is the best city in North America. If you live in Toronto... sorry :)

[The Nice Family]

Why, Ephraim, you cheeky thing! Dissing the big TO;) ... FWIW I agree. My dream would be to have a small place in Montreal with a small place here in Nanaimo and just keep switching as the weather dictates - i.e. stay OUT of Mtl. from Oct-May.

 

Thanks SO much for sharing about BIXI. I'm going to check that out for sure, before our trip in October. How long do you figure (including pushing the bikes uphill when necessary) to get from Old Mtl. to, let's say, The Plateau?

[Ephraim]

From my place to Old Montreal.... 5 minutes. From Old Montreal to my place... about 15 to 20 minutes. Mount Royal does give the city an incline. Luckily, there are bike paths not too far away.

 

The cycle path map is at http://www.velo.qc.ca/documents/reseau_mtl_mai08.pdf

[megr1125]

great info...

 

i would tend to agree that Montreal is the best city in Canada! (But I LOVE Vancouver, Victoria, Ottawa and Toronto too!) Equal opportunity traveler here.

[Freo]

Thank you for posting the map. Weather permitting, I like to ride around in the old port.

[The Nice Family]

I've had a quick look on the website, Ephraim and I'm a bit confused. They say the stands have "solar power"? Are these bikes motorized?

 

Oh, one more question. Are bike helmets mandatory in Quebec? They are here in BC. I'm just wondering about the helmet thing. Don't know about cycling around the city without one......Montreal's got loads of fantastic things.....cautious drivers not being one of them (that's not saying they're BAD drivers, just very, very confident and bold drivers - sort of like the pedestrians).

[Ephraim]

Helmets are not mandatory in Quebec.

 

The bicycles are human powered. The Bixi station has solar panels and I think there is a small solar cell on the bicycle for the anti-theft device.

 

I would stick to the bicycle paths for most travel in the city. But there are quite a few of them. Bixi's intent is to get you from point A to point B, drop off the bike, do what you want and then take another to get from point B to point C, repeat until you want to return to point A.