Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Bixi bamboozle to cost Toronto millions

Seemed like a good idea on paper. Bike kiosks every few blocks where green-minded citizens could rent a bike whenever the mood seized them.

Apparently the mood doesn't seize them nearly often enough. Either that or there's a lot of Torontonians talking the green talk but not following through by pedaling the green bike.

The good news is that Toronto looks like it might be able to limit its losses to somewhere in the $5 million range. When I wrote about Bixi's Montreal "Schwindle" a year and a half ago, those folks were on the hook for over a hundred million!

I think the difference is due to the absence of all those intermediaries that they have in Montreal; you know, those Italian guys who have a finger in all City of Montreal contracts and pedal around with hundreds of thousands of dollars in their socks.

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