Port Moody may be ready to reconsider an e-bike sharing program, says a city councillor.
On Tuesday, Oct. 17, Coun. Diana Dilworth suggested the recent completion of separated bike lanes along Guildford Way in Coquitlam and Port Moody's own plan to extend those lanes means the time could be right to reexamine the opportunity to make shared e-bikes available to residents.
A proposal in 2020 to participate in a provincially-sponsored program for e-scooters was rejected by council citing safety concerns and worries about the micro-mobility devices being left scattered haphazardly around the city.
Jeff Moi, Port Moody's general manager of engineering and operations, said times have changed and the services have evolved since then, as has acceptance by consumers.
He said an e-scooter program recently introduced in Coquitlam has proved successful and there could be an opportunity for the city to work with its neighbours to the east on some sort of regional effort.
Dilworth said while she still has concerns about the safety of e-scooters, e-bikes could prove easier to manage.
Moi said the city hasn't been approached recently about e-bike shares but, he added, they "are something we could accommodate in Port Moody."
In 2018, a company called U-Bicycle introduced more than 26 grey and lime green push bikes at nine locations around the city. Registered users needed to open an account with a $49 deposit and could then access the bikes with a QR code at a cost of $1 for every 30 minutes of use.
When they reached their destination, they could just park them as long as they didn’t impede pedestrians or traffic. The bikes were tracked by GPS and local agents rounded them up and performed maintenance.
The company also placed bikes in Port Coquitlam.
But the service quickly faltered as its bikes were left scattered around the city and fell into disrepair.
More recently the Evo car share program placed several of its new e-bikes outside the Site B community space on Murray Street as part of a pilot project for its members. They pay an unlock fee of $1.25, then 35 cents a minute or $12,99 an hour.
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