This week Toronto officially launches Bixi, the city-wide bike-sharing
program. The
Toronto Star profiles four "Bixi believers", the Torontonians who will be the first to take advantage of the more than 1,000 bikes at 80 locations now available to cyclists across the city.
"They are the believers -- the bicyclists that believe a bike-sharing
program will work in Toronto, in spite of the city's lack of physically
separated bike lanes and a relatively small launch area. The program
has worked in other cities, after all."
"Protti, 29, and Watts, 28, like to keep things portable -- no mortgage, no car, no bikes to squeeze into their rented apartment. She's Italian, he's from Australia. By the time they arrived here two
years ago, the couple had already lived in Vancouver and Montreal. They have tried Bixi in Melbourne and Montreal and signed up here as soon as the snow melted.Both expect to use Bixi every day, even though they will have to walk
or take transit to the nearest bike station from their home near Bloor
and Christie."
"In Montreal, where there is a network of physically separated bike lanes, Bixi works like a dream, said Protti."
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Toronto Star