Bring Us Bixi!

So my good friend Jeff over at Keep Your Coins I Want Change just brought this to my attention, and I felt it deserved a mention here at Environmilitant, as well as everywhere else we can possibly talk about it.

Recently the French government implemented a fantastic new green transit innovation in some of their major cities, including Paris. You ready for this? May we introduce the novel concept of BICYCLES:


Or, more specifically, specialized bicycles called "Bixis" that are provided to the community in the same way ZipCars are here in Toronto. For those of us not in the know, the ZipCar is a communal vehicle you can "rent" on a day-to-day basis for a yearly signup fee. Great idea, especially for friends of mine who are musicians requiring cargo space to move gear to and from gigs, but there's still the whole carbon emission issue. Bixi is basically the same idea, except in bicycle form. Fantastic idea, right?

Right, and Toronto tried it once before under the name Yellow Bike Share Program, which initially met with rave reviews and then promptly folded due to lack of funding. Instead, the city is transferring all sorts of funds to the TTC to build a light rail system including (wait for it) a subway extension to York University (because we haven't been hearing about that dog-and-pony show for the last thirty years). Frankly, I think our city would be better served picking up this Bixi idea at least in the interim, because we know good and damn well that the TTC will drag its feet on "Transit City" for the next few forseeable decades. I mean, even Washington has picked up the idea, and we all know their prevailing feelings on the French (anybody remember Freedom Fries? I do!)

Yet another good idea that's going to get trumped unless we do something about it. Email your local member of provincial parliament and demand Bixi. We want our bicycles and we want them now!