VeloGO a no go in Ottawa-Gatineau this summer

Ottawa-Gatineau will be without a major bike sharing service this summer after the company that operates VeloGO confirmed it's pulling out of the capital.

In a brief telephone conversation with Radio-Canada, an official with CycleHop, the Miami-based company that owns and operates VeloGO, declined to explain why its bikes won't be available here, but said it hopes to return in the future.

The cities of Ottawa and Gatineau also confirmed the service won't be back this summer, but the City of Gatineau told Radio-Canada it only found that out Friday.

The service launched with a brief preview in 2014, then operated in Ottawa-Gatineau for the next four summers. The company said it had about 300 bikes in the capital, and had plans to increase its fleet to about 500.

It began with a "hub" model where riders rented bikes at a per-minute rate, then return them to stations scattered throughout the core.

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Last year, the company switched to a different model where riders using a GPS-enabled app could pick up and drop off the bikes practically anywhere, similar to bike- and scooter-sharing services in other major cities.

Money left on app

Some VeloGO users told Radio-Canada this week that they still had money left on their app from last year.

I was a bit surprised, and I want to know if we'll be reimbursed.- Nicolas Thibodeau

"I was a bit surprised, and I want to know if we'll be reimbursed," said Nicolas Thibodeau in French.

Daniel Varin, president of cycling advocacy group Action vélo Outaouais, said a thriving bike-sharing service can be part of a public transit network.

"They can be part of multi-modal solutions to our [traffic] problems," Varin said in French. "We want to give people different [transportation] choices."

The landlord of VeloGO's Carruthers Avenue offices told Radio-Canada he didn't know if the company is renewing its lease.

VeloGO replaced Bixi, a bike-sharing service run by the National Capital Commission from 2011 to 2013 before it was sold.

There are still businesses that rent bikes in Ottawa-Gatineau, but they don't offer the same number of locations, nor the same kind of app-based payment system.

VeloGO bikes are still available in other cities including Vancouver, which signed a five-year contract with the company.