àVélo

City bike rentals soar during Festival d’été

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Although it was obvious to anyone who observed the packed bike lanes during the Festival d’été de Québec, the data now proves the city’s àVélo bike rental service was a huge success – perhaps too much so.

The Réseau de transport de la Capitale (RTC), which man- ages the service through its Capitale Mobilité subsidiary, reported last week that users of the àVélo service took some 160,415 trips during the 11-day festival, an increase of 56 per cent over last year.

The biggest single evening for àVélo use was July 8, which featured the French rap duo Bigflo et Oli on the Plains of Abraham, with more than 19,000 trips.

Officials said part of the huge increase was due to the strike by RTC maintenance workers that deprived the city of bus service for 10 of the 11 days of the festival. Another factor was the major expansion of the bike fleet as well as the growing popularity of àVélo.

Coun. Maude Mercier Larouche, the city executive committee member who serves as RTC president, said at a July 15 news conference that the “exceptional context” of the bus strike “caused significant challenges for many customers. Under these circumstances, àVélo has represented a valuable mobility solution for thousands of citizens, who have adopted it in record numbers.” With the surge of 160,000 FEQ rides, the total so far for the àVélo season that began in May is 815,000.

Mayor Bruno Marchand, an avid àVélo user himself, said, “Exceptional circumstances or not, citizens’ appetite for àVélo is undeniable. We are convinced that the service will continue to be adopted by an ever-increasing number of people. That is why we remain committed to improving the àVélo offering throughout the territory, as we have done every year since its launch.”

Besides the huge spike in àVélo usage, city officials also tracked a major increase in traffic of personal bicycles on established bike paths, notably on Chemin Sainte-Foy, known as the VivaCité corridor.

On July 8 alone, according to city information, 4,300 bikes used the path, with a total of 32,000 over the course of the festival. The temporary bike lanes on Grande Allée drew more than 34,000 users during FEQ, more than double the traffic of the previous year.

The city plans to expand its fleet of àVélo bikes from the current 1,800 to 3,300 by 2028, and double the number of stations from 165 to 330.