Hundreds of electric bikes have been added to the Bike Share Toronto network as part of a one-year pilot project.
The 300 pedal assist bikes can reach a top speed of 25 kilometres an hour and are capable of travelling up to 70 kilometres on a single charge.
They can be docked at any of Bike Share Toronto’s 625 stations but will need to be relocated to one of 10 charging stations once their batteries are drained, something that Bike Share Toronto staff will be able to keep track of remotely.
“I am very proud of the fact that we are prepared to pilot things, all kinds of things, and then look at the results. People are critical of that sometimes but I think it is the proper way to make decisions,” Mayor John Tory said of the pilot program during a press conference at a Bike Share Toronto station in North York on Wednesday morning. “Following the year-long pilot we will explore the expansion of e-bikes into more parts of the network if that seems to be justified.”
The e-bike pilot program is part of a previously announced $11.25 million expansion of the Bike Share Toronto network that also included the addition of 1,850 bicycles and 160 new stations.
Speaking with reporters, Tory called the investment “quite modest in terms of the ability that it provides people to have other transportation options to get around the city quickly, cleanly and conveniently.”
“Bike Share and the expansion of Bike Share has provided people with alternative ways to get around and especially in the wake of the pandemic I think it is important to provide people with an alternative to public transit,” he said. “We hope people become more and more confident in all the measures we are taking to keep transit safe, including mandatory face coverings, but while people are sorting some of that out we can provide this and some of the bike lanes and other things we are doing as a way of ensuring they have ways to get around the city.”
Bike Share Toronto charges members an annual fee and then allows them to check out bicycles for 30-minute increments from any of its stations.
While the network was largely limited to the downtown core when the city took over the service from its bankrupt owners back in 2013 it has grown considerably since then and now covers 20 of the 25 wards in the city.
Tory also said on Wednesday that the service recently experienced its busiest weekend ever with a total of 42,500 individual rides recorded on Aug. 8 and 9. He said that membership sales are also up 76 per cent so far in 2020.
