Bike Share Toronto set to beat 2023 ridership record by October
CBC
As Toronto grapples with growing gridlock and rerouted transit routes, Bike Share Toronto is experiencing record demand, with the total number of trips in 2024 expected to pass last year's ridership by October, according to the service's director.
Ridership has grown substantially each year since 2015, when 665,000 trips were recorded. So far this year, riders in Toronto have taken 4.7 million Bike Share trips, already overtaking total ridership in 2022 and fast approaching the 5.7 million mark set in 2023, according to Bike Share Toronto director Justin Hanna.
He expects more than six million trips on Bike Share by the year's end.
"I think the popularity of bike share is because we're offering an easy and simple way for people to get around a complicated city," Hanna said.
Bike Share is more immune to the construction and congestion affecting motorists and transit riders in the city, and Hanna says growing frustrations with cars and TTC delays could be encouraging ridership.
The recent addition of bikes and stations around the city could have something to do with it too.
Toronto Parking Authority (TPA), which oversees Bike Share Toronto, has been expanding services as part of a four-year growth plan that ends next year. Hanna says the service is on pace to hit its goals of 10,000 bikes, 2,000 of them electric, and 1,000 stations across all 25 city wards by the end of 2025.
Alison Stewart says she's already seeing a difference. The director of advocacy for Cycle Toronto says this year is the first time she's been able to use Bike Share to get across town to southwest Scarborough.
"Last year, that wasn't an option," Stewart said.
Growing ridership reflects a "latent demand" for people who've wanted to bike in Toronto, but couldn't easily access Bike Share, she says. She calls Bike Share Toronto's growth over the past decade a success story, and would like to see further investment in expanding the service outside the downtown core and electrifying more bicycles.
"When you build it, they will come," Stewart said.
TPA also began offering more affordable fares to low-income Torontonians and people in community housing this year, which Stewart says has likely made Bike Share more accessible to more people.
In that spirit, she says she'd also like Bike Share to become part of the city's one fare program, which allows for free transfers between TTC and GO Transit.
Hanna says there are no concrete details yet on how the service will expand beyond 2025, but he expects ridership numbers to keep growing through the decade and Bike Share Toronto is already struggling to keep up with demand.
When Stephanie Gamble watched her mother model the first dress she made, smiling wide and walking an imaginary runway, she knew that was what she wanted to keep doing in her life.
'Tis the season for cuddling on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate and watching holiday movies. And for people in B.C.'s Interior, that can increasingly mean seeing their home communities on display.
Every year, snowy owls spread their wings and migrate down to the Prairies, where they enjoy access to plenty of rodent prey in vast open spaces.
This month has been a busy stretch at the Upper Room Food Bank in Charlottetown.
N.W.T. Education Minister Caitlin Cleveland says she has received the final report from an independent investigation into education bodies in the Dehcho region.
P.E.I.’s auditor general says he’s concerned and disappointed that the projected deficit has doubled what government initially estimated it would be — and he's urging the province to balance its budget.
A man found not criminally responsible for stabbing five people to death at a Calgary house party is getting more freedoms but not an absolute discharge.
A man has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting death of a Toronto mother outside a supervised consumption site in Leslieville.
Russian olive trees — sometimes known as silver berry or oleaster — are small, ornamental plants with silvery leaves and black bark, and small yellow flowers and silver fruit that look like miniature olives. They’re pretty, but they’re a problem.
The Yukon Legislative Assembly’s fall sitting ended on Thursday after the territorial government introduced and passed a supplementary budget.
A Canadian military counter-intelligence operative, who stands accused of passing sensitive information to Ukraine, was involved in an investigation into allegations that a leading Canadian defence journalist was a longtime Russian asset.
An Alberta panel aimed at finding ways the province can strengthen its autonomy has offered up seven recommendations, including options for referendum topics.
People won't be able to travel along B.C.'s Highway 3 without significant delays and detours over the holiday season, says the Ministry of Transportation.