This Fix Is A First

The other day I wrote about the obstacles , financial and logistical, that caused BCycle, Houston’s bike sharing network, to shut down.

What was not said—but was, I believe implied—was the difficulty of keeping the bikes running. When share bikes need repairs, they usually are brought to the share network’s central office or shop. That, of course, adds significantly to the amount of time the bike is out of service, especially if the problem needing repair develops in a part of the city far from headquarters.

Photo by Dave Sidaway for the Montreal Gazette 

One bike share program aims to remedy that problem. Bixi, Montréal’s bike share program, is trying what it believes to be a “first,” at least in North America. Yesterday, it opened its first “Carrefour Bixi”: a mini-bike repair shop connected to a larger docking station. It’s located at Parc La Fontaine, where Bixi is especially popular because of its proximity to both the city’s popular tourist attractions and its central business district.

Bixi plans to open several more Carrefours in other areas where Bixi is popular. Those stations will mainly handle small repairs like flat tires or brake and gear adjustments, which account for the majority of repairs.  More serious fixes will continue to be done at Bixi headquarters.