{"id":34866,"date":"2024-07-25T17:29:49","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T21:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=34866"},"modified":"2024-08-01T10:13:25","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T14:13:25","slug":"bike-share-program-explored-by-aurora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/bike-share-program-explored-by-aurora\/","title":{"rendered":"Bike share program explored by Aurora"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As Cycle Aurora encourages residents to get out to explore the community on bikes this summer, municipal staff are looking at potential ways to get even more people up on two wheels and where they need to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feasibility of a new bike share program for Aurora is currently being examined by Town Staff after Council authorized moving forward with exploring potential partnerships to make it a reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This latest step follows a Council vote in spring to look at the merits of a program overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a report to lawmakers by Michael Bat, Traffic and Transportation Analyst for the Town, municipalities have begun to implement shared micro-mobility programs \u201cto promote cycling as a viable travel option and contribute to broader climate, health and economic goals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShared micro-mobility devices encompass all shared-use fleets of small, fully, or partially human-powered vehicles that could be rented through a mobile app or kiosk by residents or visitors of a municipality,\u201d said Bat in the report. \u201cSome examples include manual bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYork Region completed a bike share feasibility study in 2019, which recommended local municipalities take the lead in implementing bike share programs in their municipalities and York Region provide support where required,\u201d Bat continued, speaking to staff\u2019s recommendation for Council to proceed with issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to gauge vendor interest and partnerships. \u201cThe purpose of undertaking the RFI process is to gather further information, including a more detailed implementation plan and associated funding scenarios from prospective private bike share providers to determine the feasibility of a bike share program for the Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnder the model under exploration, the bike share program would be privately-owned and operated with oversight from the Town, which will minimize the Town\u2019s financial risk exposure. Under this program all associated direct operating and capital costs would be borne by the third-party operator(s).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahead of Council\u2019s vote to proceed with the RFI process, Ward 2 Councillor Rachel Gilliland questioned whether this was the best use of time by municipal staff. She said a similar program in London, ON, was \u201cnot considered successful\u201d because they lacked in infrastructure that encourages active transportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, she said, could prove to be the case in Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel the Town is not ready for this and the Region has decided they have no interest in taking this on,\u201d she said. \u201cI felt if this was going to be a ride-share program, it should be a regional project [because people will be crossing over municipalities] and bikes would be left everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The benefits of moving ahead with the recommended report, according to Director of Planning Marco Ramunno, was to seek interest from vendors and explore various delivery models and programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs part of our Active Transportation Master Plan, we had [consultants] assist on completing a bike share study. They made some recommendations and part of their recommendations are that we should actually explore partnerships with third party providers\u2026. [Then] we can report back to Council in the fall on any interest we receive and really explore those models for partnerships to actually [see] whether we can implement such a partner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if a partner is found, replied the Councillor, infrastructure could still prove to be an issue if that isn\u2019t already part of the conversation with potential vendors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the Active Transportation Study, consultants looked at the program through this lens and Ramunno said they are recommending any resulting program be rolled out in stages, and three phases of 30 potential bike stations have already been identified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But all that, he said, was at a \u201chigh level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe point here is to drill down and explore the models and how we can deliver such a program and having a third party provide such a program,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The identified sites for potential bike stations include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John West Way and Hollidge<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Town Hall<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wellington Street and John West Way<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wellington Street and Industrial Parkway (Servicing the GO Station)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yonge and Church Streets (Servicing the Aurora Public Library)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yonge and Edward Streets<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yonge and Kennedy Streets<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora Community Centre<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yonge Street and Orchard Heights<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. John\u2019s Sideroad and Bayview Avenue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conover and Borealis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora Family Leisure Complex<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wellington Street and Bayview Avenue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wellington Street and Mavrinac Boulevard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Town Park<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yonge and Allaura<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yonge and Aurora Heights<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yonge and Bloomington<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yonge and Butternut Ridge<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yonge and Industrial Parkway South<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norm Weller Park<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Confederation Park<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industrial Parkway South and Engelhard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Jones Trail and Stone Road<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bayview Avenue and Stone Road<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDonald and Haida<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orchard Heights<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora Carpool Lot (at Wellington and Highway 404)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hartwell Way<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Jones Trail and St. John\u2019s Sideroad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Locations, note the Feasibility Study, have been chosen to improve accessibility to \u201cmajor destinations, employment, and community services in the Town for people who may not have access to or may prefer not to use a private automobile; proximity to transit stations to make bike shares options for the first and\/or last mile of the transit trip; and encouraging locals and visitors to explore the Town.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChoosing the service area depends on considerations of a variety of factors, including demand, land use and cost,\u201d reads the study. \u201cIt is recommended to base the service area in high-density parts of a municipality with mixed land uses to create convenient connections between a significant set of origin and destination points to potentially attract more people to use bike share. To ensure reliable coverage, a municipality should aim for a generally uniform density of bike share stations, commonly targeting to place a station within a 300 m to 500 m diameter buffer of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the same time, it is important to consider capturing lower-density areas, where underserved populations may rely on active modes of travel and transit and would greatly benefit from improved connectivity to the transportation system via bike share. Therefore, a few stations may be placed outside of dense coverage areas based on land use, existing infrastructure, and community needs. Regardless of the chosen station density, all stations within the service area should be within a reasonable walking distance (e.g. within three to five minutes of walking) of each other and of key origins and destinations to provide users with a convenient and reliable way to travel from [or] to anywhere in the municipality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Cycle Aurora encourages residents to get out to explore the community on bikes this summer, municipal staff are looking at potential ways to get even more people up on two wheels and where they need to go. The feasibility of a new bike share program for Aurora is currently being examined by Town Staff […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-94m","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 06:43:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}