MSU-organized initiative offers daily 90 minute access to Hamilton Social Bikes at a reduced rate
Earlier this March, the McMaster Student Union held a referendum to include a discounted Hamilton bike share pass as a part of student fees starting in September 2024. This initiative will offer students a sustainable and affordable way to get to and around campus, with an option to opt out for those who do not wish to bike.
Following the successful bike share referendum passed by the MSU last academic year, an incidental fee of $24.50 including tax has been added to the tuition of full-time McMaster undergraduate students. This fee grants them membership to the Hamilton Bike Share program.
Students who do not opt out of the program will receive an annual bike pass, providing access to a network of publicly shared bicycles across 130 locations in Hamilton, including the seven stations located on McMaster's campus.
The pass will be accessible through the Bike Share SoBi mobile app, where students can create an account and register using their MacID information. After registering, students can use the app to unlock bikes, pay for rides, and enjoy 90 minutes of riding each day. Users will also receive a $10 credit for additional features that may incur a fee, such as locking a bicycle outside a designated station off campus.
Students who exceed the 90-minute daily limit will be charged $0.15 per minute on their account, which is the normal rate for Sobi users. The regular annual pass is priced at $192, meaning full-time undergraduate students benefit from a discount of 88.7 per cent.
The bike share initiative was driven by a group of seven students who advocated for the program on campus. In 2023, the group circulated a petition to investigate if students would support the pass and collected about 870 valid signatures. Following this, they worked to establish a memorandum of understanding between Hamilton Bike Share and the MSU.
In an interview with the Silhouette, Xin Law-Gallagher, one of the co-organizers of the program, spoke about how they raised awareness about the proposed program leading up to the referendum in March 2024. "We went around to everyone chilling in libraries, in the student centre, and in study spaces, handing out stickers and a little information card with a QR code saying, "Have you heard about this referendum?" ... the answer was always no," said Law-Gallagher.
We went around to everyone chilling in libraries, in the student centre, and in study spaces, handing out stickers and a little information card with a QR code saying, "Have you heard about this referendum?"... the answer was always no.
Xin Law-Gallagher, co-organizer, Student Bike Pass
The co-organizers mentioned that they thought the most effective methods to boost voter turnout was visiting popular classes. They contacted professors across various faculties and gave presentations at the start of each class, encouraging students to vote.
Paris Liu, another co-organizer of the bike pass, shared her motivations with The Silhouette, emphasizing her concerns about the climate crisis. "I think everyone in the group joined for different reasons … for me, it was mostly the climate crisis with seeing how urgent that was and how the transport sector in Canada contributes [to it]", said Liu.
Liu mentioned that she hopes this program will contribute to encouraging a culture of biking across Canada and increases active transportation. "I hope that [the] success [of the pass] initiates a culture of biking across Canada because in Canada, it's just not really prevalent...whereas [in] Europe, this is very normal ... to have a bike share discount pass for students in most European universities", said Liu.
On March 6 and 7, 2024, students were able to vote for or against the bike share referendum held by the MSU. A total of 4,264 of 25,714 eligible undergraduate students, approximately 17 per cent, voted. Of those who voted, 94.5 percent were in favour of creating a 12-month bike share pass at McMaster.
The referendum needed to meet a simple majority, and required a minimum voter turnout of 10 per cent for the ballots to be counted as valid. A previous referendum in 2016 failed by a narrow margin of three percent.
Michael Wooder, who is responsible for the operations and management of the MSU, spoke to the Silhouette prior to the share program's launch." "I see tremendous value in this program as it is offering yet another enhancement to student transportation options in a sustainable way. Coupled with the fact that it is based on an opt-out model … a student potentially looked at this as a win-win option if they don't care to cycle," said Wooder.
I see tremendous value in this program as it is offering yet another enhancement to student transportation options in a sustainable way. Coupled with the fact that it is based on an opt-out model…a student potentially looked at this as a win-win option if they don't care to cycle.
Michael Wooder, general manager, MSU
The new student fee will provide over $600,000 annually to Hamilton Bike Share. This will make McMaster students the largest single source of revenue for Hamilton Bike Share.
Wooder mentioned that after the referendum, Hamilton Bike Share and the MSU had been in collaboration to implement the program for all full-time students, including establishing privacy policies and data-sharing procedures with the university.
"…there is a memorandum of understanding between the MSU, [Hamilton] Bike Share, and McMaster University … that says that SoBi will maintain a minimum of 100 bicycles in service on campus at all times during classes… that doesn't limit them to only 100, but that's the operational floor," said Wooder. He added that Hamilton Bike Share will monitor student usage trends to plan to meet the growing demand for social bikes.
Wooder expressed his hope that the program will become a long-term mode of convenient and sustainable transportation.
Marketing for the bike-sharing program will begin in the coming weeks, with the opt-out option available from September 1 to September 30.
In last week's referendum, students approved an increase in MSU student fees for the implementation of the Hamilton Bike Share pass
The McMaster Students Union 2024 referdendum was open to voters from Mar. 5 to Mar. 7. This year, students voted on the implementation of the Hamilton Bike Share and the Food Accessibility Initiative.
On Mar. 8, 2024, the results of the vote were released and it was announced that the increase in fees for the Hamilton Bike Share pass was approved. However, the Food Accessibility Initiative votes were not able to be counted as the 10 per cent quorum was not met.
The Bike Share referendum had a 16 per cent voter turnout, with 94.5 per cent voting in favour of the pass. This means that for the 2024/2025 school year, students will have access to 90 minutes of bike share time per day and $22 plus tax will be added to MSU student fees.
Students will also have the option to opt out of the pass.
McMaster Students for Bike Share, the Instagram page for the pass campaign, shared their thoughts for the successful vote.
“Thank you for voting, sharing our posts and spreading the word! This achievement is the result of a collective effort and the culmination of the work we’ve put into getting this pass since the beginning of last year,” said the Students for Bike Share team in the statement on their Instagram after the results were announced.
For more information, please refer to the MSU Elections website.
There are two referendums for the introduction new student fees this week, including if the fee for Hamilton Bike Share should be added to the MSU fee for the 2024/2025 academic year
On Mar. 6 and 7, the McMaster Students Union will hold two referendums, one on the introduction the president's "soup and bread" initiative and on the introduction of an annual bike pass following the Student Representative Assembly general elections. This bike pass will be provided by Hamilton Bike Share and cost MSU members $22 plus tax. The pass will provide students with 8 months access to bike share for 90 minutes daily. Furthermore, the pass will be offered with an option for students to opt out.
This initiative has been advocated for by a student group at McMaster University. Students Rhea Saini, an Ontario Legislature Intern, and Paris Liu, fourth-year civil engineering student, had come together in their living room one night after a discussion about the current transportation systems that exist for students. They had recognized the funding issues that had been going on with the bike share. Both had agreed that a bike pass included in student fees may be something beneficial for students.
"[Hamilton Bike Share] were losing funding from the city so a student bike pass was one of the things we had thought about. A city law was the way that idea resurfaced. So Paris and I basically came together with like the two different [focuses] and started this campaign idea in our living room, which was so funny," said Saini.
David Landry and Xin Law-Gallagher, both third-year art sciences students, are other students who have been working to have the bike pass implemented. They shared that this bike pass is something that can really benefit students. They believe it can allow students an easy method to explore Hamilton.
“[Hamilton Bike Share] really adds to student life and kind of being a student Master is when you have access to a bike, especially a bike that you can leave anywhere, and to pick up anywhere, it really opens up kind of the community around McMaster,” said Law-Gallagher.
[Hamilton Bike Share] really adds to student life and kind of being a student Master is when you have access to a bike, especially a bike that you can leave anywhere, and to pick up anywhere, it really opens up kind of the community around McMaster.
Xin Law-Gallagher, McMaster bike pass advocate
Law-Gallagher shared that in this referendum, there is the option for students to opt out, which should appeal to a larger student body.
The McMaster student bike share pass advocate Kenneth Chen, a fourth-year health sciences student, expressed that the option to opt out of the member ensures accessibility. This is because they recognize that a bike pass may not be ideal for everyone and that the students should have the choice to not contribute their fees.
“I believe that sustainability should be affordable because it often is not. Right now is the time to act on this opportunity. Not only [is Hamilton Bike Share] like affordable but [also] accessible. That's one thing with the opt-out optional, it really does make it truly accessible,” said Chen.
Taskin Eera, another student in fourth year environment and society who has been working to have the bike pass implemented, expressed that if this is passed then more bikes will be provided on campus to accommodate students. They are also hoping to employ students to manage these bike stations.
“Bike share will be increasing service and also there will be there will likely be student employees to ensure that the service is kept up. And this will help promote active and sustainable transport in a cultural institutional level that isn't quite as prevailing in our sort of car-centric model that we have today,” said Eera.
Law-Gallagher and Ofure Itua, another student in fourth-year biomedical discovery & commercialization who has been working to have the bike pass implemented, argued that there is nothing for students to lose if voting in favour of including the bike share pass to the student fees.
“I'd tell them that there is literally no downside to voting yes. If you vote yes, your peers get access to a great bike pass, and you can still opt out and not pay anything. And if you vote, no, nothing happens,” said Law-Gllagher.
I'd tell them that there is literally no downside to voting yes. If you vote yes, your peers get access to a great bike pass, and you can still opt out and not pay anything. And if you vote, no, nothing happens.
Xin Law-Gallagher, McMaster bike pass advocate
To vote in favour or against this referendum, students can log in with their MacID on SimplyVoting. Voting for this referendum will be held on Mar. 6 and 7, 2024.
On March 20, Hamilton Bike Share hosted a group event called "Three years on two wheels" to celebrate their birthday.
https://www.facebook.com/TheMcMasterSilhouette/videos/10156197677045987/
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By: Kamini Persaud
Soon students will be able to take out more than just a book from Mills Library. By the end of September, pending approval from Environmental and Occupational Health Services, McMaster will be host to the Bike Library, a new initiative by the organization Start The Cycle.
Start the Cycle will be providing McMaster students with five bikes with helmets that can be borrowed on a 24 or 48 hour basis, similar to a library book. This unique share plan promotes community responsibility, universal access and the already thriving cycling culture on campus.
This not-for-profit organization was founded by two McMaster students, Charles Burke and Justin Hall, who modeled Start the Cycle after similar for-profit bicycle share projects seen across North America. Burke is completing his doctorate in transportation planning and Hall is currently a master’s candidate conducting research on active transportation and urban social geography.
The bikes themselves were donated by the two co-founders, as well as MacCycle Bike Co-op, which collected and refurbished bikes that had been abandoned on campus.
Many community partners contributed to McMaster's Bike Library, with donations such as bike locks from Dundas Canadian Tire and helmets from the City of Hamilton. Due to its community nature, there are no fees associated with the program, including in the case of lost and stolen bicycles.
This project aims to give everyone at McMaster equal access to sustainable transportation. The Bike Library plans to expand to at least ten bikes by spring 2015, and if the service is in demand they could expand to offer over 40 bikes by the end of 2015.
Start the Cycle's new Bike Library pilot project intertwines with cosmetic city changes in preparation for the Pan American games coming to Hamilton, including the new Cannon Street bike path. This new bike path will create an easy, active and innovative route between the Pan-American and Para Pan-American game venues.
Tomi Milos
Features Editor
Although cycling has long been hailed as a formidable mode of transportation for city-dwellers, most Hamiltonians can be reluctant to hop on a bicycle for fear of their safety. But the threat of grievous injury does not seem to be deterring McMaster students from gravitating towards such an affordable means of transportation, as a 2010 poll of faculty, staff, and students conducted by University Sustainability discovered. Results showed that 34% of respondents biked to campus everyday.
Maclean’s recently recognized this cycling quassi-renaissance and dubbed McMaster one of Canada’s top-five cycling schools in its annual university rankings issue. In its summation of why the school deserved the recognition, the national weekly news magazine rather vaguely said, “The school’s Sustainability Office monitors and improves biking infrastructure, bolstered by Hamilton’s increasing municipal efforts on alternative transportation.”
Seeking to understand just how McMaster has garnered such acclaim, I spoke to Kate Whalen, senior manager of University Sustainability. The Strathacona resident undertook the role in 2009 and practices what she preaches; she does not own a car and cycling is her main mode of transportation.
Whalen praised the work that the city has done saying, “McMaster is surrounded by incredible cycling infrastructure; [Hamilton was] one of, if not the very first city to have our buses outfitted with bike racks.”
She also acknowledged that certain areas of the city aren’t incredibly bike-friendly: “There are many areas of the lower city that have substantial opportunity for improvement in both road infrastructure and bicycle parking space. With its high population density and variety of land uses, the downtown area also presents some of the biggest opportunity within the city to increase walking and cycling through these improvements.”
But it remains to be said that some improvements could also be made within McMaster itself, where the bike parking options fail to meet increasing student demand. One only has to take a stroll by Gilmour Hall at noon to notice how many students have been forced to lock their bikes to the steel banisters on the stairs for lack of a free spot on a nearby rack.
Whalen maintained that University Sustainability is aware of and working to rectify the problem, indicating that the 2009 installation of a secure bike storage facility opposite Chester New Hall with the financial assistance of Metrolinx Bikelinx program as well as Cyclesafe lockers display McMaster’s “committment to providing many and various types of bicycle parking and storage.”
She highlighted the fact that University Sustainability runs an annual poll of students, faculty, and staff to determine which areas need bike racks and then pass along the information to Security and Parking Services who invest into expanding bike infrastructure.
“Through the feedback obtained through community consultation, we have been able to place new racks in all requested locations each year since 2009.”
Whalen has high hopes for the future and pointed to exciting developments for cyclists, “Most recently, investment into campus bike racks was also included in the McMaster Climate Action Plan including the addition of 600 new bike parking spaces over the next three years.”
The document indicates that 20 bike racks will be added across campus this year, with a special focus on the intramural sports facilities by the David Braley Athletic Centre.
Even with the addition of more racks, one issue that Macleans skated around is theft. 84 bikes were stolen from McMaster in the last calendar year, and 36 have already been pilfered this school year.
Ian Holley says Security Services is working on cutting down that number. The special constable investigator is a staunch promoter of cycling culture, having served as the auctioneer for MACycle’s annual bike auction. If Security Services can pinpoint a pattern occurring at a location — or better yet — a specific culprit, Holley says they’ll set up one of their own bikes to be stolen and monitor the area.
Holley asserted that the thieves might not always be students, noting that many would-be perpetrators can be drawn to the campus because, “McMaster has the biggest collection of bikes in Hamilton, and they’re generally nice ones.”
What irks Holley is that many owners of these high-end bikes are using shoddy cable-locks that are all too easy to cut.
“We see almost no theft involving good U-locks, even at our regular racks. We’ve made a big push towards educating people and saying, ‘Please use U-locks or make use of our secure storage facility.’”
The secure storage facility Holley is referring to is situated beside Chester New Hall, which he admits is not the best location for everyone. But $5 per term to lock your bike within a fenced-off structure that’s monitored by camera doesn’t seem like a hefty price to pay. When asked why there aren’t more of these facilities around campus, Holley said it’s hard to justify building more in better locations when they’re not seeing use in the one they do have.
While the cycling infrastructure at McMaster and in its immediate area seems to be on the right track, things don’t happen to be as rosy in the city’s core where cyclists aren’t afforded the same privileges.
The new bus-only lane on King Street that stretches from Mary to Dundurn Street may ensure a speedy commute for the approximately 1,500 HSR riders who traverse the corridor each hour, but the poorly planned initiative has thrown bike safety under the rug. The lane poses a problem to cyclists who risk a $65 fine for entering it, which leaves them with the choice of taking an inconvenient route, or facing the danger of becoming a part of a car-bus sandwich.
Christine Lee-Morrison, media contact for the pilot project, said, “Certainly a reserved vehicle lane is typically a safer place for a bicycle to operate; however, bicycles typically travel slower than a bus. A mixed usage situation would not allow the City fully test the acceptance and impacts of a future rapid transit scenario.”
Rather than encouraging bike riders to take parallel routes, Hamilton City Council could take a cue from London, England where the bus lanes are made available for use by both cyclists and motorcycle riders. The decision was brought about by a 2008 study conducted by Transport for London which segregated powered two-wheelers and bikes from the main traffic flow and found that bike usage actually increased.
The further trouble with the parallel bike routes is that many of them end abruptly. Although the city has spent approximately $1 million a year since 2010 on adding 35 km of bike routes as part of their master cycling plan — Shifting Gears —building a safe continuous route across the top of the North end has been neglected.
Some web-savvy Hamiltonians recognized this error and organized an online petition called Yes We Cannon whose aim it was to establish a bidirectional bike lane on Cannon Street in time for the impending 2015 Pan Am games when many would be commuting from the James North Go Station to Tim Hortons Field. The petition has amassed 2172 online signatures and was a determining factor in city councillors dedicating $600,000 in September to the instalment of a two-way bike lane between Sherman Avenue and Bay Street.
Cannon Street was the best setting for the venture since it doesn’t experience high traffic volumes, moving only 2300-2600 vehicles per lane, per day as opposed to Mohawk and Garth Streets carrying 6600-9850 vehicles per lane, per day.
Daryl Bender, project manager of Alternative Transportation for the City of Hamilton, is optimistic about the city’s efforts to revitalize the bike scene. Citing a Portland, Oregon study that suggested that better cycling infrastructure and an increase in cyclists reduces the collision rate rather than collisions themselves, Bender said,“We are not certain if the same will be the experience here in Hamilton as our cycling infrastructure increases, but it would be ideal to see the number of collisions also be reduced.”
Despite poor downtown framework and a campus plagued by bike theft, cycling culture in Hamilton and at McMaster seems to be surging forward with the persistence of a Tour
de France peloton.
Kacper Niburski / Silhouette Staff
My bike is hardly fashionable. Each time I ride the metallic mammoth, the gears remain a curious experiment long forgotten, the chain rattles back and forth like the coming of the Grim Reaper, and the seat shifts, slithers and shakes uncontrollably.
I’ve had it since I was eleven and I remember the same things it remembers. The bright sun. The blue sky. Birds singing. Cities fading. Races. Friends. Dares. Accidents. Sadness. Pain. Happiness. Smiles.
I’ve also forgotten what it has forgotten. In the cascade of time, my bike and my memories have corroded. Somewhere in between the kaleidoscope of recollections and the imaginary games of knight jousting with pool noodles, I became bigger than my bike. Mountains became hills; hills became lumps; lumps became flat fields.
I’ve grown, and with my growth, the mysticism and thrill of everyday – like the vibrancy of my bike – has been lost. Salt now licks the wounds of both each winter, and I wonder if my bike will survive until spring. I wonder if I will too.
Because nowadays when I ride, my knees buckle, I feel uncomfortable in my seat and the timelessness I once felt has been replaced with the realization that time always passes. I’m getting older and my bike is too. It, like me, is becoming a fossil that’ll one day be dug up in somebody’s garage.
Yet despite looking no different than the functionless disaster of two hula-hoops strung together, I still maze my bike to school everyday. It’s not because of what my bike has been through nor is it because I hope to rekindle that childlike majesty of freedom. Though I could argue that I still feel like I’m flying through the guileless air while I’m cycling, this wouldn’t be the truth. I just don’t have brakes anymore.
Instead, I cycle every day because besides being the most efficient, healthy mode of travel, it is incredibly accessible. Sure, I’m far from the ideal, Hollywood-esque hip cyclist; I wear sweat pants and clothes that could easily get stuck in the cranks, I drift along with no hands on my handlebars and I’m an organ donor waiting to happen. No doubt.
But in a city like Hamilton, even with such inept cyclists as myself, I feel as though biking should be the norm if only because cars seem so entirely superfluous. Bikes are the engines of invention without the need for pollution. Grant Peterson said it best: “Think of bicycles as rideable art that can just about save the world.”
I’ll grant there are geographical, topographical and economic considerations to be taken into account when deciding on bicycling. In Hamilton alone, one cannot easily cycle from the Mountain (where I live) to McMaster. But these are not good arguments against biking; in fact, they suggest the opposite. They are consequences of a city trying to backpedal in an attempt to go forward.
Hamilton has rarely had pro-bike policies. Take Main Street West or King Street West as examples. Despite being the main roads for a zoo of students, both fail to accommodate cyclists with bike lanes. Even in the core of McMaster, bike lanes are not indicated by signs but by basic suggestion. This is commonplace throughout the city. In the downtown core, a report by the city of Hamilton, “Cycling Network Strategy”, found that the most common accidents happen in those without bike lanes. More importantly, however, was the finding that people do not cycle due to a combination of lack of convenience and perceived safety concerns without bike lanes.
Certainly, these concerns are pertinent to a would-be cyclist. At the same time, however, it is worth asking whether bike lanes are the best measure for all Hamiltonians. Without a doubt, it improves cyclist’s accessibility by slowly developing a well-integrated network that is both perceived to be safer and convenient.
Yet while increasing the perception of safety, some studies have found that bike lanes make riding less safe as they follow loosely fitting vehicular policy. This forgets that reconstructing roads with segregated bike lanes removes parking lots in front of already struggling downtown businesses, which suggests an equity and economical regression for the whole community.
Unfortunately, there is no clear-cut answer in this debate. Yet even with such ambiguity, the biking culture seems to be growing in Hamilton and McMaster especially.
This is seen in the development of the Arts and Science class 3BB3, where students have the chance to investigate the political, social and economical ramifications of the bicycle. In the coming weeks, they will present a “Bike Rodeo” in front of University Hall that is meant to engage both the McMaster community and the broader city with pro-bike spirit and knowledge.
While a small accomplishment in its own right, the Rodeo is the tricycle wheels needed to put Hamilton’s cycling zeitgeist on the right track – one that even my clunky, dilapidated, jarring stead, with all it’s bumps, scratches and memories, will be able to fit into. At least, until the next winter.
