3 Compelling Reasons For a Bike-Share Program in Your City

3 Compelling Reasons For a Bike-Share Program in Your City

This spring the City of Montreal rolled out its bike-share program. There are 271 Bixi stations located throughout Montreal. You simply take a bike at your starting point and drop it off at a station that is closest to your destination. You can find all rates and membership fees posted on the Bixi site.

Although there have been more than a few reports of problems with broken lock mechanisms at bike stations and thefts, the program has been extremely successful.

Effective July 22, 2009, the Bixi system had 7,671 members and 63,403 occasional users who had cycled enough kilometres to go around the world 57 times.

Because of Bixi's resounding success, the system has implemented Phase II ahead of schedule, expanding into Montreal's neighbouring boroughs. To give you a better idea of the success of the Bixi and its impact on the environment, take a look at these three stats that are continually updated on the website under the Bixi Effect:

To date, effective August 2, 2009,

The total reduction in green house gas emissions: 762,710 kg (1,681,486 lbs)
This stat is calculated using Transport Canada's April 2008 Urban Transportation Emissions Calculator. The primary input is the distance travelled in kilometres.

The total savings in terms of litres of gas: 212,184 litres (56,053 US gallons)
This is calculated according to the Corporate Average Fuel Economy norms for tourist vehicles based on an average gas consumption of 8.5 litres /100 km.

The total distance travelled (km) using the Bixi in Montreal: 3,031,199 km (1,883,500 miles)
This is calculated using an average speed of 12 km/h (Source: Vélo Québec).

These are three compelling reasons that you might use in proposing a bike-share program in your city. I will give an update of these three vital statistics later in the cycling season.

Sources:
Transport Canada
Environment Canada
Bixi

Related posts:
City Cycling: Why Renting Beats Owning
A Review of Montreal's Bixi Rental Bike

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Eating Locally: Vegetables Year Round

Eating Locally: Vegetables Year Round

No surprise to anyone, fresh produce can be expensive for a good part of the year because of the sheer distance it travels before reaching our plates.

And we pay for it in more ways than one. Those avocados from Florida, cauliflower from California and kiwis from New Zealand use a lot of fossil fuels to be shipped and hauled to our dinner tables.

Eating locally is next to impossible in the winter unless you like root vegetables. In the past, my husband has repeatedly suggested frozen vegetables, but I have some pretty grim childhood memories of rubbery or mushy frozen peas and carrots.

However, once I learned that frozen produce had more nutrients than the fresh variety shipped here from warmer climates, I was willing to give it a try. Frozen produce is picked at peak ripeness when it has all its nutrients, whereas its California counterpart is picked and shipped before ever reaching that point. In addition, these veggies further lose their nutrients on their trip north.

I also learned that a Quebec engineer has dramatically improved the freezing process. Frozen vegetables are picked and frozen within a two-hour period. And more good news—-a lot of the veggies come from the Richelieu Valley, a 45-minute drive from Montreal, so we can still eat locally.

Obviously, all of this means nothing if the end product is tasteless. Well, much to my surprise, these frozen veggies exceeded my expectations. Not only was the taste better than the fresh variety available in the winter months, but the consistency was vegetable-like.

I found only two drawbacks. There was no organic line, and the re-sealable bag did not have a recycling symbol or number on it.

But an organic line may not be necessary after all.

According to David Suzuki’s Green Guide, in the interest of reducing green house gas emissions, we should choose local conventionally grown produce over the organically grown variety that is shipped over long distances. Remember, there are only 5 vegetables on the EWG`s Dirty Dozen, and we're not about to buy frozen lettuce, celery or kale.

As for sweet bell peppers, I buy a large basket of the local organic variety at the end of September, and cut and freeze them for the winter. I guess we can do the same with carrots.

It's now possible to eat a variety of local vegetables year round.

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