The international award winning bikelending program Bikeshare (which ironically enough just received another of the City of Toronto's Bicycle Friendly Business Awards last week) is in danger of shutting down if they can't get enough funding by the new year.

In the last five years the program has put 243 bikes on the road, with 16 hubs across the city and over 2000 members. The program also has a mandate to reach out and serve Toronto ’s underprivileged community...

"We’ve won awards year after year from the city of Toronto , and have supporters across Canada and the world, but sadly this has not translated into a reliable source of funding" said Maogosha Pyjor, BikeShare’s Project Manager...

Cycling has the potential to help alleviate many of this city’s problems, everything from smog and traffic congestion to reducing Greenhouse gas emissions and promoting a healthier lifestyle. BikeShare has come to be recognized as one the best cycling programs in the world and we’d like nothing more than to keep it going.

The most direct way to help keep Bikeshare going is to donate to them directly, information is online, or email them at bikeshare@communitybicyclenetwork.org, or call them at 416-504-2918.

Please note that you'll get a charitable receipt for donations of $25 or more, which will help you out at tax time in April.

Indirect ways to help? Contact your city councillor (or all city councillors) and your candidates for council and ask them to support Bikeshare. The health and expansion of a community bikelending service like Bikeshare can dramatically improve the safety of roads and the air we breathe in Toronto. They'll listen to you. It's election time and if they get one email from a constituent, they'll figure (rightly so) that a lot more of their constituents have similar concerns.

I also suspect that if bikes were everywhere in Toronto, we'd see a lot less theft, a nd a lot less automobile / pedestrian / cyclist accidents and fatalities - as has been the experience in other cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen as they have made people-friendly transportation planning paramount.

Post a Comment

0 Comment(s) so far: