Bike Share Toronto expands to meet growing demand

By Nadine Alsaghir

Students say Bike Share Toronto’s March plan to add 200 e-bikes and 750 regular bikes must be matched with safer streets and better bike quality.

Zain Fayaz, a first-year civil engineering student at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), said biking is his most practical option. “If I wanted to prioritize speed and health, biking made the most sense for me as an able-bodied man,” he said. 

Fayaz  emphasized the convenience of Bike Share Toronto due to the proximity of stations near his home and campus. 

The service had a 40 per cent increase in individual riders in 2025 compared to 2024, according to its annual operating plan.

Fayaz said e-bikes which are faster than regular ones become more important on streets like Dundas, which he calls “incredibly dangerous for cyclists” because of streetcar tracks and cars passing closely.

Albert Koehl, executive director of Community Bikeways, said the lack of a connected network can make people feel it’s unreliable. 

“The network is still not in place, so there’s still lots of gaps and…many people will say, ‘Well, I can’t get from my home to TMU’,” he said. 

Koehl suggested integrating Bike Share Toronto with Presto would be more practical.

New federal funding for TTC

By Meriem Nour

The federal government is investing $183 million in the City of Toronto to help improve the city’s transit system. 

The funding comes through the Canada Community-Building Fund (CCBF), which supports infrastructure projects across the country.

For many commuter students at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), improvements can’t come soon enough.

Zainab Kashif, a commuter student at TMU said coming to campus takes her about an hour and 15 minutes using GO Transit and the TTC subway.

“[Delays] affect my commute, because if there’s a delay, then I’m obviously late to class, and…if the TTC is like down entirely, then I have to either walk to campus, which is like  25 minutes [long], or if  the weather is really bad or something, then I end up having to spend money on Uber,” she said. 

Kashif believes safety and cleanliness should be the TTC’s top priorities.

In a March 19 statement, Jamal Myers, chair of the TTC board, said stable funding is essential for the system’s future. 

“We know that functional public transit is essential for growth, freedom of movement and reducing congestion on our roads,” Myers said.