After being promised they would be consulted by city staff about plans for a new public-private bike share program, several Vancouver bike rental operators are still waiting.
Joe Kainer of English Bay Bike Rentals says that’s why he felt compelled to interrupt a city council discussion about the program this morning.
“Well the problem for me is that it’s subsidized by public money. We have seen in other cities like in Montreal stations have been set up right outside, you know, rental businesses and that’s going to hurt us. It undercuts our prices significantly. There’s a reason that we have to charge the prices we do to stay in business. We have to pay rent. We have to pay for staff. We have to pay for insurance and all these things. They’re not going to be paying licencing fees…they’re going to be getting public space to use…they’re going to be getting two million dollars from the city…and I don’t find that fair.”
Vision Vancouver councillor Heather Deal says the bike share program is going ahead, but she insists private operators will be consulted before anything happens.
“We don’t want anyone failing; we want to make sure everyone thrives. A really good comparison is the food carts. When we first started bringing the food carts out, some of the restaurant owners downtown were concerned they would provide too much competition for them. It’s actually proved quite the opposite, that the food carts are making for a thriving downtown lunch business and the restaurants are not failing at all because of it – quite the opposite.
Deal adds the program is still several months away from becoming a reality.
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