Centretown residents could see more and more purple bicycles on their streets when the weather warms up.
RightBike, a community bicycle-sharing program, received a grant and is gaining support to expand its reach across Ottawa.
Ottawa’s Better Neighbourhoods program rewarded three small-scale community projects, including RightBike, with $30,000 each for their efforts in making the city a better place to live.
The funds will be administered during the year to help the projects grow.
RightBike is operated through the Causeway Work Centre.
It is focused on offering training and employment and other opportunities to some of Ottawa's underprivileged and disabled residents.
Don Palmer, executive director at Causeway, says the RightBike effort will rely on widespread adoption of the project.
“We’re going to try to get into four neighbourhoods by the end of December (2014) and set up eight new bike stations,” says Palmer. These stations are pick-up and drop-off points where users can rent and return the bikes, and they’re exploring both private and public locations.
“That’s where we need help from parks and recreation, the city transport department and from the councillors because there’s all kinds of bylaws in terms of city streets and parks,” says Palmer.
He notes collaboration with the University of Ottawa as a big potential draw for users. Palmer says this is a realistic goal for RightBike in the near future.
The fleet is at around 65 bicycles now and Palmer estimates 15 more will be in use soon depending on where they can set up hubs.
“Hopefully the community in Centretown will respond because that’s one of our major links,” he says.
Kitchissippi, Rideau-Vanier and Somerset wards are all targets for expansion in the near future. That would create a much wider area than is covered now.
McNabb Park Recreation Centre, Centretown Community Health Centre and CycleSalvation at Bronson and Gladstone avenues, are all potential hub locations within the Centretown area.
“There’s such limited parking in Centretown and such demand for that parking that using this system could be very helpful,” says Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes.
“It allows people to conveniently use bicycles, encourages bicycle use and gets people out of their cars.
"There’ll be a couple stations, I’m hoping, in the Somerset ward this year. It helps with peoples’ health, and it’s such a good program to help with employment,” says Holmes.
Holmes was at a meeting with the RightBike organizers on Feb. 10 to begin discussing specifically where the city’s money for the project will go.
“As RightBike grows, which it certainly looks like it will, and as we get bicycles out to more parts of the city, the faster it grows the better,” she says.
The pick-up and drop-off points are maintained by staff at the businesses they occupy, so this relies heavily on volunteerism and collaboration, says Shane Norris of RightBike.
“These are just local businesses wanting to do something positive for their community around cycling and they really do help us,” says Norris.
Mountain Equipment Co-op, Kunstadt Sports and Cyclelogic are among the partners who have already donated space and time to the program in its first two years of operation.
“As long as there’s interest in the communities to keep the project running, then yeah, it will keep running.”
The program grew from three stations in Westboro and Wellington West in 2012 to seven last year, tripling its ridership, while expanding eastward into the Glebe.
A full season of access costs $60, but last year the $5 one-day and $20 three-day passes were more popular.
According to a user survey, more than 20 per cent of riders were visitors from outside of Canada.
“We’re trying to address different challenges, both environmental, economic and employment, and cycling seems to be a good conduit to address those issues,” he says.
Integration with OC Transpo stations is another viable goal for RightBike’s future.
“We’re going to work at that through the course of the year as well,” says Palmer.
“It’s something we said we wanted to do and the Better Neighbourhood groups are supportive of that.”
The other two recipients of Better Neighbourhood grants were the Bayshore Park Community Garden Working Group, which hopes to build an outdoor community oven, and the Stittsville Rotary Club, which is building a "Peace Park."