{"id":5846,"date":"2026-04-15T06:53:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T06:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/5846\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T06:53:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T06:53:50","slug":"bringing-bike-sharing-back-to-ottawa-will-cost-10m-study-says-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/5846\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing bike-sharing back to Ottawa will cost $10M, study says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bringing bike-sharing back to Ottawa will cost up to $10 million, according to a report commissioned by the city.<\/p>\n

Ottawa’s last pay-and-go bike racks disappeared in 2018<\/a> when Miami-based Cyclehop pulled its VeloGo bikes from the capital, the last in a series of similar but short-lived bike-share ventures.<\/p>\n

E-scooters, which don’t need to be returned to a docking station, have dominated the local landscape<\/a> ever since.<\/p>\n

Capital ward Coun. Shawn Menard has been lobbying since 2023 to get the bikes rolling again, and recently shared the results of a feasibility study by consultant Mobycon on his website.<\/p>\n

The study recommends 1,200 bikes at 115 docking station across central Ottawa and Gatineau, and says annual ridership could climb to 450,000.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A feasibility study by the consulting company Mobycon recommends an initial service area of 30 square kilometres covering both Ottawa and Gatineau. (Mobycon)<\/p>\n

Up-front capital costs could range from $9 million to $10 million, with additional annual costs ranging from $450,000 to $2.2 million. More work is needed to develop a funding strategy, according to a city memo.<\/p>\n

Menard called those cost estimates “actually fairly cheap” in comparison to other transportation expenses the city deals with.<\/p>\n

“We’ve spent $7 billion on light rail, we’ve spent so many hundreds of millions every single year on roads,” he said.<\/p>\n

He suggested the cost could be shared between the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau and the National Capital Commission, with climate grants possibly covering part of it.<\/p>\n

“There are lots of partners that I think want this. We’d have to figure out who pays what,” he said.”<\/p>\n

Too long to wait, advocate says<\/p>\n

Menard noted that earlier bike-share programs in Ottawa were geared toward tourists rather than residents looking for a convenient and environmentally friendly way to get around the city centre.<\/p>\n

Florence Lehmann, a board member of the cycling advocacy group Bike Ottawa, welcomed the study and likes that it includes such busy hubs as universities and government centres.<\/p>\n

“We now have something concrete that talks about a way to start a bike-share program that should work and attract people,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Florence<\/p>\n

Florence Lehmann with Bike Ottawa says she welcomes the study, but wants the city to speed up its timeline. (Radio-Canada)<\/p>\n

The city’s public works and infrastructure committee will discuss the study on April 23. According to the city memo, the matter could be brought to a vote by mid-2027.<\/p>\n

Lehmann, whose group has also been advocating to return bike-sharing to the capital, said that’s too long to wait.<\/p>\n

“We asked them to start the bike-share system next year, not wait for another report,” she said. “That would probably mean 2028 before we get anything.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bringing bike-sharing back to Ottawa will cost up to $10 million, according to a report commissioned by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3453,3454,3456,61,3455],"class_list":["post-5846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-bike-racks","tag-feasibility-study","tag-gatineau","tag-ottawa","tag-shawn-menard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}