Saving SoBi: Hamilton will pay to keep bike-share network on the road
Hamilton will pay to keep its endangered bike-share program alive long-term.
Councillors voted Friday to put up $486,000 in annual operating cash to support the former SoBi bike network that nearly crashed and burned at the start of the pandemic when operator Uber abandoned its contract with the city.
At that time, council narrowly rejected a municipal rescue plan - but a non-profit operator and community donors stepped up to fundraise enough cash to keep bicycle wheels on the road temporarily.
Now is the time to put the popular but cash-strapped service on a sustainable path," said Mayor Fred Eisenberger. We cannot continue to operate this system from crisis to crisis," he said, adding municipal funding could also give the bike-share operator the financial stability needed to look at expansion.
The fleet of around 900 bikes was providing upwards of 300,000 rental rides a year before the pandemic - but mostly in a limited lower-city service area between the edge of Dundas and Ottawa Street.
The former SoBi service is now run by non-profit group Hamilton Bike Share Inc., which last year scored sponsorship cash from Cogeco and a donation of used bikes from the U.S. city of Portland.
The group has done a good job with limited resources, said city transportation planning director Brian Hollingworth, but the service still faces an annual shortfall. We can't starve them and expect them to be there next year," he said.
Councillors in Friday's budget meeting voted 10-2 to put up annual operating cash and direct city staff to negotiate a contract extension with Hamilton Bike Share through 2025.
Not everyone wanted to go along for the ride.
Councillors Tom Jackson and Lloyd Ferguson expressed concern about the impact on the 2022 city budget, which is on track to hike taxes for the average homeowner by about 2.8 per cent.)
But numerous residents and organizations have reached out to council in recent weeks urging permanent funding for the rental bike service, including the Royal Botanical Gardens in a letter considered Friday.
The conservation agency urged expansion of the network to the RBG Rock Garden on York Boulevard, where bike-share users already often" leave bicycles by mistake. We fully support the view that Bike Share is a form of public transit for the community," reads the letter.
Matthew Van Dongen is a transportation and environment reporter at for The Spectator. mvandongen@thespec.com