A proposal to bring a bike share program to Windsor had a stick placed in its tires by city council.
Councillors voted Monday night against a plan to approve a city-wide bike share program and issue a request for proposals for a package consisting of a feasibility review, a business plan, marketing analysis and preliminary station locations, at the cost of $70,000 plus HST.
Lori Newton, executive director of Bike Windsor-Essex, says the idea was for multiple bicycle hubs to be placed along bike trails all over the city, contending that a downtown-only approach would not work.
"It's not a small something on Riverside Drive for a handful of tourists, that would fail," says Newton. "It's the greater piece. It's the network. It's looking at the entire broad network of transportation for the city."
The bike share program would have been based on similar ones currently operational in Hamilton and Detroit. City councillors Hilary Payne and Paul Borrelli threw their support behind the Windsor proposal.
The voting down of the proposal does not mean the idea is dead, though. Newton says additional legwork is being done to see how well a city-wide system could suit Windsor.
"We will wait a little bit longer," says Newton. "It sounds like we'll be waiting at least until the Active Transportation Plan is completed, which will be in about a year-and-a-half. Hopefully, that will bring with it a recommendation to bring in a bike share."
Newton says any bike share program in Windsor would be run by a for-profit firm, which would require dedicated mechanics, educators and people willing to man the docking stations 24 hours a day.
Bike shares are considered a form of public transportation. Riders pay a fee to collect a bicycle from a docking station and return it when they're done riding. The principle is similar to paying a bus fare.