It’s full of potential, but is at an awkward stage where it’s more of a nuisance than it is convenient.
The Bixi program launched in May with 10 stations and 100 bikes, three are located on the Gatineau side and seven are concentrated in the downtown core. Because there are so few stations it leaves you with few options of where you can feasibly go. A bike ride from Preston Street to Rideau Street would typically take less than ten minutes, but because the closest station is at the Canadian War Museum I had to walk down about five blocks to a Bixi station.
Another catch is you can only take a Bixi bike out in 30-minute intervals before returning it to a station unless you want to be charged late fees and there is a $250 deposit. With short time-periods and few stations in Ottawa you are very limited.
I was able to make the trip from the furthest west station to the furthest east station in one go. My station lead right onto the bike path along the river until I got to the docks and went uphill to the canal.
It was fun and quick, but there wasn’t anywhere else I could really go that would have a station nearby. The stations are all very close together, some only a block away which is useless to anyone who actually lives in Ottawa.
This program is ideal for tourists since they are likely only going around the downtown core and this is cheaper than public transportation. My friend who was biking along with me had used a bike share program in Paris and said it was a great way to see the city. He would rent a bike after going out, head home and then use it to go around Paris the following day.
The Bixi bike itself is not my ideal bicycle — it’s bright red, has a huge frame, glaring logos and flashing lights even during the daytime. I wore a matching helmet which probably didn’t help my case for aesthetics, but safety first.
On the plus side, it is very light and has a simple gear system. They’re not built for speed by any means but they do the job for a casual ride on a bike path or in the streets. And when you did find a station there was never a shortage of bikes even at main stations during peak hours.
All in all I’m waiting the program’s expansion into neighbourhoods I would actually like to go: Centretown, Hintonburg and the Glebe to name a few. To me, the whole point of the Bixi program is to give you a way to get between points of interest in a way that is faster than walking and more direct than busing.
The Bixi programs in Toronto and Montreal serve this purpose much better with 1000 bikes and 80 stations and 5,050 bikes and 405 stations respectively.
Thankfully, this is just the pilot project of the Bixi program in Ottawa and it should be expanding to increase its amount of Bixi bikes from 100 to 500 and build stations across the city. Until then, a Bixi ride is really not worth the trouble of walking from a station or riding a red eyesore.
— Photo by Karinny Cezar
