Hamilton's bike share program will continue until at least next February

Hamilton's bike share program will stay alive until at least next February after some last-minute efforts raised enough money to operate it.

After a heated and divisive tie vote last week, city council reconsidered on Wednesday and voted unanimously to keep the SoBi program going — this time without local tax dollars.

The city expects to draft an agreement next week with the not-for-profit Hamilton Bike Share Inc. (HBSI), and the transition will begin shortly after that. In the meantime, the bicycles aren't functional.

But the vote saved a public bicycle program that has 26,000 members, including 600 who have signed up since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, three councillors hoped to use capital dollars reserved for their own wards to hire HBSI, but eight of 16 council members said they didn't want to put tax dollars into it.

This new effort will use $100,000 donated from the McNally Charitable Foundation, and money from IBI Group, LiUNA, the Royal Connaught, Effort Trust, Roxborough Park Developments and Urbansolutions, plus other donated dollars, including $70,000 from an HBSI online crowdfunding campaign.

Coun. Sam Merulla (Ward 4, east end), who voted against it last week, moved this week that council reconsider it. He's always been a fan of bike share, he said, but the city pledged not to put local tax dollars into it.

"That means something," he said. "Zero means zero."

Merulla, like other councillors, credited Jason Farr (Ward 2, downtown) with rounding up some of the money. 

"Folks, that's all we were asking for," said Judi Partridge (Ward 15, Flamborough) of the effort not costing tax dollars. Last week, she'd also objected to HBSI taking over the contract without it going to tender. 

Terry Whitehead (Ward 14, west Mountain), who also voted against the motion last week, accused some councillors of being "senseless" and "spiteful." Around the council table, he said, "some are talkers and some are doers." 

Nrinder Nann (Ward 3, central lower city), who introduced last week's motion, took exception to that characterization. All councillors and their staff work hard, she said, and those comments only deepen divisions on council.

"The narrative I want to challenge right now, that is being really carefully put out for public consumption, is that there are doers and non-doers around the council table," she said. "I think it's really disrespectful."

"Can we stop with the nonsense, please?"

The Hamilton bike share issue dates back to 2014, when the city used a $1.6 million Metrolinx grant to buy the bicycles and stations. It signed a contract with Brooklyn-based Social Bicycles LLC to operate the program, which subcontracted that work to the locally run HBSI. 

In 2018, Social Bicycles became Jump Mobility, and not long after, Uber bought Jump. Uber took over bike share operations last May, but HBSI stayed on to do the Everyone Rides Initiative, a provincially funded program that offers low-cost memberships and accessible trikes.

The city signed a one-year contract with Uber in February, but in May, Uber said it was walking away because of economic hardships created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

HBSI gave council a cost summary on June 1, saying it needed $400,050 to run the program until next February. During that time, the city will search for a third-party operator.

In a letter to council, Graham McNally from the McNally Charitable Foundation warned the city it would likely have to put in some money eventually.

"Our study of successful bike share programs across Canada and around the world clearly demonstrate that they demand a true partnership between local government, business, members and the community in order to succeed and be sustainable over the long haul," it said. 

"While municipal finances are challenging under present circumstances, inevitably there will be a need for some ongoing subsidy from the city."

Hamilton lawyer Ian Brisbin, who donated $5,000, would like to see the program ultimately funded like the transit system — in other words, by the city.

"The city is where the responsibility lies," he said. At the end of the day, "I hope we're able to step back and give the program the respect and the budget that it deserves."