BIXI Montréal is calling on its fans to increase availability at some stations and ease congestion at others. The organization has just set up a program that allows users to move bikes from one location to another, in exchange for rewards.
Dubbed “AMI BIXI,” the project was announced to bike-sharing users in an email earlier this week, which said the initiative is “an environmentally friendly way to rebalance the BIXI network by increasing the availability of bikes and docking points without resorting to trucks.”
“The key to its success? It’s you,” adds the management, which invites any member, seasonal or monthly, to help “by taking a bike from a full station or returning a bike to an empty station.”
In return, users get points that can then be exchanged for rewards. For example, with 10 points, we get a free 30-minute ride on an electric bike. And with 40 points, the app will provide us with four free rides to use at the desired time.
To participate, simply go to the BIXI mobile app, click on your profile, then on the red “AMI BIXI” banner. A registration process will then appear to join the program and start accumulating points.
On its website, BIXI specifies that the icons of participating stations will have a number and an arrow on the app’s map. An arrow pointing up will indicate that you need to rent a bike and a down arrow will indicate that you need to return a bike to the station to collect points. As a general rule, each station can earn between 1 and 4 points, depending on the urgency of the need.
Victim of its popularity
For some time now, the problem of bike-sharing stations that are too empty or too full has been worrying municipal authorities in Montreal, with BIXI falling victim to its growing popularity.
Taking into account the whole of 2023, the organization’s bikes were used by 576,000 cyclists, a jump of 31%. More than 11 million trips were made, with several days with more than 70,000 trips. These figures were recorded while for the first time, bikes were available all winter at 150 stations.
Last fall, The Press had revealed that BIXI would be equipping itself with “megastations” starting this year to tackle the recurring problem of empty or inaccessible stations in certain areas. Hubs containing up to 400 docking points should theoretically appear in 2024 in the city centre of the metropolis.
“The project is going quite well, we just have to be patient. These are stations that will take up a lot of space, so obtaining permits takes a lot of time. We have to follow the steps, but there will be announcements soon,” said BIXI Montréal general manager Christian Vermette in April.