# Bike sharing around Toronto

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://paragraph.com/@brandondonnelly), 2023-07-02

bike-lanes, bike-share, e-bikes, e-scooters, mobility, queens-quay, toronto, toronto-bike-share, urbanism

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I love cycling. And I have been using Toronto's bike share system to get around over the last few weeks (both for work and personal stuff). There's no better way to get around [when the city is busy](https://brandondonnelly.com/2022/07/03/torontos-downtown-streets-broke-over-the-weekend/). But it was also a reminder that we have a lot of work to do when it comes to cycling infrastructure.

Here are a few observations:

*   The Bike Share mobile app has got to be the worst app that I have ever used. First of all, it's called PBSC. I think this was a deliberate choice so that it's impossible to remember and impossible to locate on your phone. Because once you do find it, it's an awful experience.
    
*   I struggled to make it from downtown up to midtown a few days ago. Can I blame the Bike Share bike instead of my lack of physical conditioning? I can't see the majority of people wanting to do this sort of ride. This is where e-bikes and e-scooters come in.
    
*   Many of the bikes have something wrong with them.
    
*   We don't have enough bike lanes and bike-friendly streets. I know that some you don't want to hear this. But it's the truth. There are a lot of streets in Toronto where it is terrifying to be on a bicycle. This is true even in the center of the city.
    
*   If you're not familiar with Toronto, you won't get this point. But Queens Quay is a seemingly complicated street for many people to navigate. Cycling along here in peak summer is an exercise in dodging people as they meander across the bike lane.
    
*   We need dockless bikes. I'm sure that the team is doing their best to load balance across the network, but it is often a challenge to find an available dock at the end of a trip. There are ways to do this that [avoid bikes being left everywhere](https://avc.com/2021/11/biking-in-paris/).
    
*   And while we're at it, we should also add [e-scooters to our roster](https://brandondonnelly.com/2019/07/16/my-first-dockless-scooter-ride/).
    

What would you add to this list?

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://paragraph.com/@brandondonnelly/bike-sharing-around-toronto)*