Montreal’s popular bike-sharing service BIXI launched in Sherbrooke, Que. on Friday. BIXI is the region’s first bike-sharing platform, launching with 255 bikes, with the vast majority of them (80 per cent) being electric. Stations were launched at key locations, including transportation hubs, educational institutions like the Université de Sherbrooke, as well as parks and other commercial areas. “This service enhances our sustainable transportation options and makes our downtown even more attractive by facilitating access to businesses, contributing to the local economy,” said Sherbrooke Mayor Évelyne Beaudin in a news release. “With electric bikes, even our hilly terrain becomes more welcoming! And this is just the beginning, with our cycling network constantly improving to make Sherbrooke even more welcoming for cyclists, both local and from elsewhere.” The Quebec government provided $1.1 million in funding for the launch through the Financial Assistance Program for the Development of Self-Service Bike Sharing. BIXI expanding to more cities this year The Sherbrooke launch comes ahead of a BIXI expansion to more cities in Quebec later this year, including Saint-Eustache and Deux-Montagnes on Montreal’s North Shore. The bike-sharing service will also launch in Saint-Lambert on the South Shore. The 2025 expansion will bring the total number of partner cities to 13, the number of bikes in service to 12,600, and the number of stations to more than 1,000. BIXI currently operates in Montreal, Westmount, Mount-Royal, Montreal East, Longueuil, Laval, Boucherville, Terrebonne, and Sainte-Julie. During the Montreal public transit strike last month, users set a new record after making more than 80,000 trips per day during seven of the nine strike days. On June 11, the bike-sharing company recorded more than 95,000 trips. Each of those seven days surpassed the busiest day in 2024, when more than 79,000 trips were a record at the time.
