Everywhere you go, there they are! With over 24,000 riders daily, BIXI is Montreal’s answer to the New York City yellow cab. It’s a bike sharing system so firmly established and ubiquitous, it’s hard to imagine a time when cars were king and the idea of sharing was inconceivable.
It seems like only yesterday that the first bicycle sharing network in North America was launched, in 2009. With their striking design and charming simplicity, BIXI bikes quickly gained a following, a number that’s grown to over a quarter-million unique users today.
So, while bicycle culture was slowly making inroads in Quebec, and citizens were becoming more and more concerned by automobile congestion, the risks to health posed by a sedentary lifestyle, and the real threat of climate change, BIXI arrived on the scene with a timely solution that addressed all three issues in one elegant package.
Practical, economical and sustainable, BIXI bike sharing and its logistical systems were developed from the ground up by creative people native to this city with Montreal’s specific culture and climate in mind.
Seven years later, their efforts have not gone unnoticed. In 2008, BIXI was ranked 19th among inventions of the year by Time magazine. It won Gold for best product of 2009 in the energy and sustainable development category at the Edison Best New Product Awards, as well as Bronze at the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) in the transportation category. Since then, we’ve continued to expand and optimize our operations in line with continued growth in users.
During your visit to our BIXI Montréal offices, you’ll note how we’ve organized our departments along operational lines: repair, customer service, distribution and other key moving parts. You will also get a firsthand look at the workings of our system in the field… and even get to take a test ride!
