One-way pass, new pricing structure mean big improvements for Montreal’s Bixi bike-sharing service: reports

In 2014, Montreal’s Bixi bike-sharing service implemented a new pricing structure and other features, part of a five-year business plan intended to boost the number of riders using the system. Recently, the Montreal Gazette reported, the results of that plan—in hard, unmistakable numbers—were released, demonstrating how successful the initiative was.

In short, the Gazette said, the plan has thus far proven more successful than expected.

Among the implemented changes were the offering of a $5 24-hour membership, as well as a $2.75 one-way fare—something less expensive even than one-way transit fares in some Canadian cities. The result, Bixi head Marie Elaine Farley said, was a 91 percent uptick in occasional use throughout 2014. In all, it represented a jump in 9.4 percent of the service’s overall usage over that year.

Using other figures, the increase in Bixi’s numbers mean 181,000 people used it—a margin of improvement that, Bixi says, owes itself to the company’s willingness to listen to its customers. Those changes, too, had the effect of exposing those who may not have previously considered using Bixi to the bike-sharing service, making it more accessible in general.

“It was important for the Montreal Bixi team to be attentive to the needs of its customers,” the company announced in a published statement, “but also to introduce the service to even more people in 2015.”

Montreal’s Bixi network features 460 stations housing 5,200 bikes throughout the city. For the winter, however, Bixi stations are closed until 2016, when the service will start up again for the season on April 15.