{"id":32445,"date":"2012-08-01T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2012-08-01T14:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=32445"},"modified":"2012-08-01T08:33:21","modified_gmt":"2012-08-01T12:33:21","slug":"double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/","title":{"rendered":"Double standard holding back bike-share while car-sharing expands"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last week, Tyler Hamilton wrote a good column in the Toronto Star on the rise of car-sharing companies in Toronto. Entitled \u201cNot owning a car in T.O. has never been easier<\/a>,\u201d Hamilton described how there are now three car-share companies in Toronto \u2014 ZipCar, AutoShare and Car2Go \u2014 that together have over 1000 vehicles at 550 locations around the city. To put this in perspective, that\u2019s more shared cars than Bixi bikes and almost seven times more car-share locations than Bixi stations.<\/p>\n

For an extra $45 over the cost of an annual membership in any of the three companies, Hamilton points out that members can get access to vehicles from all three companies. This includes the new pay-as-you-drive Car2Go vehicles, a fleet of 250 Smart Fortwo cars that can be picked up and dropped off in any City-owned Green P parking lot south of Eglinton between Jane and Victoria Park, don\u2019t require advanced booking and can be taken one-way.<\/p>\n

Car2Go is therefore something altogether different from the previously existing car-share systems. As Hamilton writes:<\/p>\n

Kevin McLaughlin, founder and president of AutoShare, prefers to think of Car2Go as a \u2018self-driving taxi\u2019 service and not true car-sharing. \u2018By far their (Car2Go\u2019s) biggest impact, at least at the beginning, will be on taxis, Bixi (bike sharing), walking and even transit.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The new Car2Go service, argues McLaughlin, is so convenient that its competition isn\u2019t other car-sharing companies but public transportation systems; namely, Bixi and the TTC.<\/p>\n

Following the simple test, \u201cif it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck,\u201d a unified car-share membership that includes Car2Go, I would argue, is essentially a public transportation system.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one major problem with this argument. For at least the last 90 years, all forms of public or semi-public forms of mobility in Toronto have been either licensed, franchised or owned by the City or the Province. This includes Bixi, which is technically a \u201cmunicipal capital facility<\/a>\u201d with a ten-year contract to operate in Toronto, similar to how in 1891 the Toronto Railway Company was granted a 30-year franchise to operate a street railway. As far as I can tell, the car-share companies have no such municipal relationship aside from purchasing parking permits with the City.\u00a0 In Paris, Autolib parallels Velib in its relationship<\/a> to the government. Berlin\u2019s electric car and bicycle network is linked to the city\u2019s public transportation system.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t to say that the rise of private car-share companies is bad. If anything it shows that there is a latent demand for more transportation options that the existing public systems aren\u2019t meeting which it is attempting to meet. But why was car-sharing allowed to go the private route while bicycle-sharing was implemented publicly?<\/p>\n

As a result, car-sharing companies have been rapidly expanding while Bixi\u2019s growth has been stymied in political gridlock. \u00a0Since ZipCar\u2019s Toronto launch in 2006, car-share vehicles in the city have grown by at least a factor of 12 from 80 cars to over 1000 (including Car2Go)<\/a>. Had Bixi grown at a similar rate, today we would have had the 3000 bikes and 300 stations originally planned by City Council.<\/p>\n

Of course, that assumes bike-share is as popular and potentially as profitable as car-sharing. This gets at the root of the double standard underpinning this tale of two systems. Bixi was approached as a traditional transit system, a public service that would require a subsidy to be successful and that the municipality would therefore have to control to guard itself against escalating costs. Car-sharing, on the other had, was seen as akin to private car rental \u2014 a benefit to be enjoyed by those who can afford it and that can be left to the market where it will succeed or fail.<\/p>\n

In hindsight, there\u2019s no reason why car-sharing, a service more likely to reduce car use and compete with the TTC’s public transport monopoly, wasn\u2019t municipally subsidized or owned. In contrast, Bixi may not have needed a subsidy to succeed (New York City\u2019s system isn\u2019t getting one<\/a>) and might have expanded faster had it not been controlled by the City. If keeping Bixi affordable was driving public involvement, a subsidy could just as easily have been given to a company to expand based on the number of riders who signed up or been targeted to help certain groups buy memberships through refunds or discounts (i.e. student passes).<\/p>\n

The tragedy of it all is that despite the City\u2019s best intentions, old associations are allowing almost free reign to new auto-oriented transportation systems while bicycle-based systems remain constrained. This isn\u2019t a call to sell off Bixi or for the City to pull a\u00a01921<\/a> on the car-sharing companies. Rather, it\u2019s to acknowledge that a double standard is still being applied to the way bikes and cars are perceived by public policy, and this is obstructing our ability to provide public services that shouldn\u2019t be politically polarized issues in the first place.<\/p>\n

photo by wyliepoon<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, Tyler Hamilton wrote a good column in the Toronto Star on the rise of car-sharing companies in Toronto. Entitled \u201cNot owning a car in T.O. has never been easier,\u201d Hamilton described how there are now three car-share companies in Toronto \u2014 ZipCar, AutoShare and Car2Go \u2014 that together have over 1000 vehicles atContinue reading “Double standard holding back bike-share while car-sharing expands”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[20722,8993,532,8546,20716,20721,15273,519,20718,20719,20717,15271,12931,20579,756,6485,20723,8977,564,470,475,6667,20720,6361,1836,20581,339,19,9033,341,11898,2445,391,4213,13663],"class_list":["post-32445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bikes","tag-auto-oriented-transportation-systems","tag-autoshare","tag-berlin","tag-bicycle-network","tag-bike-share-while-car-sharing","tag-car-rental","tag-car-share","tag-car-use","tag-car-share-locations","tag-car-share-membership","tag-car-share-systems","tag-car-share-vehicles","tag-car-sharing","tag-car2go","tag-city-council","tag-electric-car","tag-jane-park","tag-kevin-mclaughlin","tag-new-york-city","tag-paris","tag-president","tag-public-services","tag-public-systems","tag-public-transportation-system","tag-public-transportation-systems","tag-smart-fortwo","tag-the-toronto-star","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-railway-company","tag-toronto-star","tag-transportation-options","tag-tyler-hamilton","tag-usd","tag-victoria-park","tag-zipcar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDouble standard holding back bike-share while car-sharing expands - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Double standard holding back bike-share while car-sharing expands - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week, Tyler Hamilton wrote a good column in the Toronto Star on the rise of car-sharing companies in Toronto. Entitled \u201cNot owning a car in T.O. has never been easier,\u201d Hamilton described how there are now three car-share companies in Toronto \u2014 ZipCar, AutoShare and Car2Go \u2014 that together have over 1000 vehicles atContinue reading "Double standard holding back bike-share while car-sharing expands"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-01T14:00:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/08\/bixi-photo-600x400.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jake Schabas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jake Schabas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/\",\"name\":\"Double standard holding back bike-share while car-sharing expands - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/08\/bixi-photo-600x400.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-01T14:00:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/787924a448d867d13cb2a446dd615f0e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/08\/bixi-photo-600x400.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/08\/bixi-photo-600x400.jpeg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Double standard holding back bike-share while car-sharing expands\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/787924a448d867d13cb2a446dd615f0e\",\"name\":\"Jake Schabas\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/767188a3b1d28ead8defca8d096ba92f?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/767188a3b1d28ead8defca8d096ba92f?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jake Schabas\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/jakeschabas\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Double standard holding back bike-share while car-sharing expands - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Double standard holding back bike-share while car-sharing expands - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"Last week, Tyler Hamilton wrote a good column in the Toronto Star on the rise of car-sharing companies in Toronto. Entitled \u201cNot owning a car in T.O. has never been easier,\u201d Hamilton described how there are now three car-share companies in Toronto \u2014 ZipCar, AutoShare and Car2Go \u2014 that together have over 1000 vehicles atContinue reading \"Double standard holding back bike-share while car-sharing expands\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2012-08-01T14:00:07+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/08\/bixi-photo-600x400.jpeg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Jake Schabas","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jake Schabas","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/","name":"Double standard holding back bike-share while car-sharing expands - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/08\/bixi-photo-600x400.jpeg","datePublished":"2012-08-01T14:00:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/787924a448d867d13cb2a446dd615f0e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/08\/bixi-photo-600x400.jpeg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/08\/bixi-photo-600x400.jpeg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/01\/double-standard-holding-back-bike-share-while-car-sharing-expands\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Double standard holding back bike-share while car-sharing expands"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/787924a448d867d13cb2a446dd615f0e","name":"Jake Schabas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/767188a3b1d28ead8defca8d096ba92f?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/767188a3b1d28ead8defca8d096ba92f?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Jake Schabas"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.spacing.ca"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/jakeschabas\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4071"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32445"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32450,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32445\/revisions\/32450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}