With the example of other Canadian cities in mind, officials in Windsor, Ont. considering bike-sharing

In Windsor, Ont., it seems, cycling is in the air these days.

A few weeks ago, we reported that the southern Ontario city will be receiving a bike-friendly facelift starting this year, when a $46 million project kicks off to improve a key route through the city with the installation of bike lanes.

Now, as the CBC reported this week, there are rumblings that Windsor will be the next Canadian municipality to give the idea of bike-sharing a shot—if the price tag is manageable, officials say.

One of those officials—Paul Borrelli, Windsor’s ward 10 city councillor—asked staff earlier this week to draw up a rough outline, exploring exactly what would be required in terms of resources to bring a bike-sharing program to the city. After looking at the way social cycling works in other cities, the idea of doing the same for Windsor dawned. They’re the most popular, he figured, in the world’s major city centres.

So why not Windsor, he asked?

“It’s a great way to use the bicycle when you need it,” he told CBC reporters. What other local advocates want to see is something more large-scale than bike-sharing programs being floated elsewhere in the city—like at the University of Windsor, for example, where the law faculty plans to buy a pair of bikes for students to use when commuting between school and downtown. It’s a start, said Chris Waters, the university’s acting dean of law and Windsor Bicycling Committee chairperson said. But the city itself can go further.

“It’s very small scale, obviously,” Waters told reporters. “I’d like to see something on the bigger scale, whether that be something specifically for the university, or the downtown, or a broader bike-share program in the city. I think there’s a lot of potential there.”

In planning the details of such a program, Borelli is confident that need—and a bike-sharing program’s more pragmatic aspects for users—will make such an initiative successful in his city. “Not everyone is able to have a bike,” he said. “There are many people downtown that don’t have a place to put a bike. Using it when needed would be the best.”

Though they’ve had their share of challenges, the appeal of bike-sharing has been growing in other cities like Montreal and Toronto.