Starting this fall, UBC students will be able to e-bike to campus through the Mobi e-bike sharing service.
Mobi and UBC will install five e-bike stations on campus this fall with an aim to increase this number to ten by the summer of 2024. Each station has a capacity for around 20 e-bikes and students can dock and undock these bikes at any of these stations or the various other Mobi E-bike stations in Vancouver.
UBC students can get the annual e-bike pass at a 50 per cent discount for $149. This plan would include unlimited 60 minute rides on both e-bikes and classic bikes. There are a variety of other plans that Mobi offers for UBC students at reduced rates.
In this partnership between Mobi and UBC, UBC provides Mobi with space for stations along with funding some of the installation, hardscape changes and station electrification costs.
According to Adam Hyslop, the manager of transportation planning at UBC, UBC financed this program through $500,000 from the BC Active Transportation Infrastructure grant program and $113,000 from TransLink's Bicycle Infrastructure and Capital Cost Share program.
Hyslop added the aim of the initiative is to integrate the city of Vancouver with UBC campus.
"We have a pretty successful on-campus bike-share program with HOPR. [However], that really serves the first and last mile trips to and from the bus loop and trips within campus ... but isn't [facilitating] commuter trips or trips by residents on-campus to get off-campus,” said Hyslop.
“Recognising the hills and distances involved to and from campus, we think that e-bikes' side of the equation is really critical.”
This initiative is a part of UBC’s plan to encourage and enable more sustainable transportation choices for the UBC community.
“Supporting the expansion of the Mobi bike share program to [the UBC] campus has been identified in a number of our plans including the transportation plans in 2014, and more recently, the Climate Action Plan in 2021,” said Hyslop
“As we look [towards the coming] decades, we want to do everything we can to support the campus community in making sustainable choices that contribute to achieving climate action and sustainable transportation targets."
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