Just under 2,500 people have used the new Evolve E-bike Share program in the Comox Valley in the first 190 days, according to a report discussed at the Comox Valley Regional District board table on Dec. 10.

The program was created in May of 2024, as a pilot project to get more people out using bikes as their primary method of transportation. During the launch, 75 e-bikes were deployed in 20 areas of the regional district, with more slated to come later in the summer. The goal of the project was to help the valley reach its greenhouse gas emission targets, and to bring about a "change in how we focus on transportation," a staff report from 2022 says.

"Private automobile transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gasses in the Comox Valley," said Manager of Transit and Facilities Mike Zbarsky during the Dec. 10 meeting. "It's also the second largest annual household expense. That's why it's very important, and why we've included in in our regional growth strategy in a number of ways, including some mode share targets in the combined cycling and pedestrian mode.

"That mode share target was 20 per cent by 2030 from a baseline of nine per cent in 2006," Zbarsky continued. "As of the 2021 census, we've basically made no dent in that, unfortunately. So that kind of shines a light on the need to do some different things."

During the meeting a presentation was made by David Holzer and Leanne Buhler from BCAA and the Evolve program. The presentation, which came just over six months into the program, showed that Comox Valley residents and visitors made on average 13 trips per day on the bikes. Just over 1,100 people used the service, with a median distance of about 4.8 km per trip. By comparison, Statistics Canada says that over half (55 per cent) of commutes made in a car are less than ten kilometres, and about one third of trips are under five kilometres.

"This is not short," said Holzer. "This is quite a ride people are taking, and it's taking them about 25 to 26 minutes to do it. These are great indicators for us, and it shows that people are warming up to adopting the program."

Comox has been more actively adopting the program than Courtenay, but the most active locations are Mansfield Drive in Courtenay, and along the Courtenay riverway. Those are followed by the Pearl Ellis Gallery, where Evolve took over an unused bus shelter.

In total, three of the bikes were vandalized in some way, and only 16 were left outside of their designated parking areas.

"People are treating the system really well," Holzer said.

Half of the people questioned by BCAA said that if the bikes hadn't been available, they would have used a car to do the same trip. Over half of the users (57 per cent) said that the program has improved their quality of life. Also, most of the users (80 per cent) used the program more than once.

"In these early days a lot of people's first trip doesn't actually isn't solving a transportation purpose," Holzer said. "They just want to try it out, see what it's like, get used to it and that's totally fine with us. We saw quite a bit of round trips, especially in the first three months, but since then we've seen that number kind of continue to drop lower and lower and lower. So people are now using it to get from one place to another."

There have been 55 people who have purchased a monthly subscription for $10, with a per-minute rate of $0.10 per minute. By comparison, a similar e-bike could cost around $2,000.

For the next steps, Evolve is planning on setting up drop stations in different parts of the community, including the Crown Isle Resort, the Comox Valley Airport, and North Island College, as well as into Cumberland. Other goals include a discounted rate for disadvantaged members of the community, as well as adding e-scooters to the program. 

"E-scooters are actually really driving mode shift ... a recent report said they're eight times more popular than the bikes that they have," Holzer said.

Holzer also emphasized the economic benefit of the program, saying that "one of the things that micro-mobility does is makes it easier to get to parts of the city."

"43 per cent of our users said they made a purchase after using our service," he added.