Farewell BIXI

When BIXI started a few years ago I wondered what all the fuss was about. When I started to work downtown I saw all kinds of people riding around and I thought they were kind of annoying speeding by me on their bikes. It was really strange after living in the suburbs for the past six years to work downtown and to have my whole city re-arranged with these highways bike paths with flocks of people on their bikes.

Last year I decided to make activity part of my day rather than going to the gym or my basement to do a work out tape. It all began with taking my own bike to the train every morning during my morning commute.

I  realized much to my delight that I loved riding my bike as an adult as much as I did as a teenager or young adult (I used to be a bike courier in my twenties). I felt so FREE! SO much more in touch with nature and the world and young and nimble again. I love how on a really really hot day you still get a breeze when you ride a bike. I just love how mobile it makes you and how far you can go in so little time. It just brings me a feeling of such ELATION!  + it burns more calories than walking.

So... at one point last May I got the bright idea to get a subscription to BIXI for my walk to work from the train and I joined the "annoying" ranks of BIXI users. It was a revelation! It opened up a new world for me. I was able to run errands on my lunch hour. Bring my husband the lunch he forgot since he had a working lunch that day and was unable to meet me at lunch time. Soon I was finding all kinds of reasons to take it to a friend's house or to go meet my daughter for dinner after work.

Unfortunately for me the season ended yesterday. You are still able to get a bike at some stations but many of the stations just had a sad flashing yellow light because the station had been DE-activated. So it is risky to take one because you may not be able to bring it back anywhere. For the Winter season BYE BYE BIXI. I miss you acutely already.