Hamilton bike share program will get public money

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Published February 25, 2022 at 11:49 pm

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Those familiar blue bicycles’ future on Hamilton streets is more secure after a city council vote on Friday.

The city’s elected leadership voted in a budget meeting Friday to contribute more than $300,000 per year to Hamilton’s bike share program through to the end of 2025. The City of Hamilton will sign a new contract with Hamilton Bike Share Inc., the not-for-profit that runs the program. The new contract will also see the city put public money toward connectivity fees ($130,000 per year) for the bikes, which some 26,000 riders in Hamilton can unlock with a smartphone app. The contact will see the city contribute $54,000 per year to HBSI’s Everyone Rides initiative, which subsidizes memberships for lower-income residents.

Those contributions will be pro-rated for the final eight months of this year, which will add about $324,000 to the 2022 operating budget.

The committee vote was 10-2. It will be ratified next month.

The new funding does not cover expansion of the network, which runs east to west from Ottawa Street to Dundas. Ward 1 Coun. Maureen Wilson noted that stable support for Hamilton Bike Share Inc., which nearly died in mid-2020 is integral to addressing affordability issues in Hamilton, as well as keeping the door open for future expansion.

“If we want to talk about the impact of taxation on the financial health of families, we have to not only talk about housing costs, but we also have to talk transportation costs,” Wilson said. “We know that a car costs $10,000 per year to run. So in our efforts to attact young employers and employees here, and assist in our poverty reduction measures, if we can assist people in having a sustainable, safe way in which to get around… that is a wise investment and one that will help working people.

“I’ve also heard from my colleagues that they’re interested in expanding the service to their areas,” she added. “That can’t happen if it does not exist.”

Mayor Fred Eisenberger and Couns. Wilson, Jason Farr (Ward 2), Brenda Johnson (11), Sam Merulla (4), Nrinder Nann (3) Esther Pauls (7), Maria Pearson (10), Russ Powers (5) and Arlene Vanderbeek voted in favour. Couns. Lloyd Ferguson (12) and Tom Jackson (6) voted against the funding.

The debate and vote on Friday came in the context of discussion about the 2022 operating budget. The current draft of the budget is 2.8 per cent higher over 2021, albeit in a Canadian economy whose 5.1% inflation rate is at a 30-year high.

Both Jackson and Ferguson said they were concerned about adding to the budgetary challenges, not the principle of the program. Jackson noted the city has other budget pressures stemming from likely increased labour costs, due to commitments to improving living wages and student wages for summer employees.

“We have those two other budget pressures that might take us up back north (above a) 2.8-per-cent increase,” he said. “I’m not averse to it, but I just need to know where these other two items, living wage and student wage, might take us.”

Hamilton Bike Share Inc. launched in 2015, and has a fleet of about 900 bicycles. The bicycles are commonly called ‘SoBi bikes’ since the program was originally owned by Social Bicycles LLC, which was a division of Uber. However, Uber pulled out of that contract two years ago, which led to the network’s financial instability.

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