Photo credit – https://twitter.com/RideCannondale/status/657242682478186496

Sri Lanka seems to be hellbent on demonizing  the Canadian version of the ethnic issue. While that is worth an entire  debate, we could still follow and learn from Canada with regards to their approach of sustainable Transportation. In a country where Oil and Gas is available in plenty and is a source of income, Canada has found many ways to minimize its dependency on the usage of fossil fuel. This is where the story of Bixi begins.

Bixi is an outstanding model of sharing one of the centuries old eco friendly transport systems. Surely not the horse cart but an invention of many inventors from Karl von Drais to Pierre Lallement to  Pierre Michaux and  Ernest Michaux. As you have guessed, it is the human powered bicycle  or the pedal cycle, or  the bike or  the push-bike or simply the cycle. Irrespective of what it is called, what the Canadians have done with it is what’s intriguing. Although  Bicycle sharing is available in many parts of  Canada, what will be discussed in this article is the Quebec experience,.

In the lovely city of Montreal and a few other neighbourhoods such as Laval, Longueuil, Boucherville, Westmount, Ville Mont-Royal and Montréal-Est during the Canadian summers, you will not miss cycle stands or docks known as Bixi stations. Almost in every neighbourhood, close to metro stations, universities and a host of public places you are guaranteed to have a Bixi station that is 800 in numbers with a collection of 10,000 bikes. There will be two types of bikes. The usual paddling ones and a semi electric ones which require a safety helmet.You have few membership options. If you are a tourist on a short vacation, you could purchase a one way pass or a monthly pass or a seasonal pass valid for 6 months depending on the duration of your stay. You could purchase this at the station itself manually or if you are digital nomad it’s just a matter of downloading the app. Then all you have to do is to use the passcode provided to unlock one of the bikes in the station and start the ride. The maximum allowed time per ride is 45  minutes. If your ride  takes longer than 45 minutes , you could either continue and pay extra which doesn’t make much sense or you could park the bike in an available station and take another one to continue. The app is so convenient and sophisticated that it will help the cyclist to find stations with free spots when parking and also assist in finding a bike when you are ready to ride. 

The brilliant thing about Montreal and Canada in general is the availability of an unbelievably long dedicated network of cycle tracks. In Canada cyclists and pedestrians are considered vulnerable communities and you are guaranteed to get priority and safety while crossing busy lanes or intersections. 

Due to the convenience, sophistication  and safety millions of cycle rides are recorded annually. All those rides would have been a car drive or a bus ride otherwise. Naturally this serves many purposes. Reduction of  carbon emission due to the reduction of fossil fuel usage, improved air quality with less pollution and a nation with improved health since cycling is undoubtedly a great sport. Citizens do not need to invest on a new bike or to maintain one or worry about parking after a ride. The whole community shares the burden of the entire system thus making it a brilliantly sustainable system.

In a country like Sri Lanka where we have to spend millions of foreign reserves to purchase fossil fuels, the Bixi could come handy. We will not only save our much needed currency reserves but also reduce the air pollution, traffic congestion and most importantly address the chronic diabetes issue raging in the country. A healthy community will help to reduce the health expenditure to considerable levels. Sri Lanka will have to find an investor to bring down a similar system or invent its own one as well as develop a proper cycling infrastructure such as tracks. Most importantly the state should guarantee and ensure the safety of cyclists by bringing new laws to identify the cyclists and pedestrians as vulnerable users so that the motorists will be forced to be more vigilant about the safety of such communities. We could all argue about the Canadian political decisions over a cup of tea but there is absolutely no harm in admiring and adopting Canadian systems that benefit all of us.