Vancouver rolling out bike sharing program in June

Bicycles are lined up as the public bike-sharing system BIXI is launched in Toronto, Tuesday, May 3, 2011. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Pat Hewitt)

Vancouver will have the largest “Smart Bike” program in North America with the launch of its bike sharing program this summer.

The city has signed a five-year agreement with CycleHop, which will run the program. Vancouver is paying $5-million for the program launch and five years of operation.

The program will launch its first phase with 1,000 bikes and 100 stations in June, and eventually have 1,500 bikes with 150 stations.

The first phase of the rollout will include the downtown peninsula to 16th Avenue, between Arbutus and Main streets. The second phase will extend the area to Macdonald Street and Commercial Drive.

The system will use “Smart Bike” technology, which allows the bicycles to be locked and unlocked electronically through a payment kiosk.

Members will be able to access bikes by scanning or swiping a membership or transit card.

Helmets will be available at no additional cost to the rider, according to the city.

CycleHop already runs bike share systems in Phoenix, Beverly Hills, Ottawa, Santa Monica, Tampa, Orlando, Cleveland and Louisville.

It’s still unclear how much it will cost to use the shared bikes.

This is the city’s second foray into the world of bike shares.

It was supposed to launch a program with Bixi in 2014, but the program was halted over the company’s financial woes.

That project planned to start with 250 GPS-enabled bikes, with only 25 stations.