5 - Montreal, Bixi

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The inspiration for London's Barclays Cycle Hire scheme, the Montreal's Bixi system was launched in May 2009 and was then copied by Toronto and Ottawa a couple of years later.

Just like Copenhagen's Bycylken, the Bixi bikes are only available between April and November, although unlike in Denmark, there would simply be too much snow and the sub-zero temperatures would be too low to cycle in the winter.

The Bixis do however have lamps so cycling at night is still an option. The bikes, whose name comes simply from the marriage of the words 'bike' and 'taxi', are available for periods of 24 hours (CAD$7) or 72 hours (CAD$15) and, like many of the other systems, the first half an hour is free with charges for every 30-minute interval: CAD$1.75, CAD$3.50 and CAD$7 thereafter. If you are in Montreal as a family however, you should know that you can only put a maximum of two bikes onto any one debit or credit card so make sure you have a sufficient number of serviceable cards.

There's no doubt that if you use the Bixi to visit everything Montreal has to offer you'll certainly get some exercise as the city has some pretty steep hills. But it is a safe and pleasant place to ride and what's more all of the 411 docking stations' components go into sleep mode when they are not in use!

Visit the Bixi website for more information.

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