Need to get around Montreal? Jump on a Bixi Bike!
These public bikes are a brilliant idea. All you need to do to hire a bike is swipe your credit card. You get a little receipt with a code on it. Next you just choose any bike, enter the code and you’re off riding. The bikes are brilliant. Sturdy and well maintained. Not once in my time here have I encountered a damaged or clunky bike.
The way the model works is that you pay $5 to have access to the Bixi’s for a day (on a casual basis, cheaper for montly and yearly subscriptions) and you can ride the Bixi where ever you like, for how ever long you like with a scaling pricing structure for longer lengths of time. The best part? If you take a bike back to ANY base station within 30 minutes of grabbing one it costs you NOTHING. You can do this all day just taking a bike, riding where you want to go and leaving it. Such a brilliant idea. There are a ridiculous amount of stations and bikes, so you’re never far from a bixi station and they are carefully positioned to utilise high traffic routes but they cover the smaller streets as well.
As a rider I dig the Bixi’s. They are great for the environment, comfortable and best of all they are technically advanced. Check out their website which has stats on how far the bikes have ridden, maps for phones and account management. I freaking love Bixi!