Hamilton City Council will vote in April on a request for increased funding from Hamilton’s non-profit bike share operator.
Hamilton Bike Share Inc. is asking Council to increase its annual funding by nearly 50 percent.
If approved, HSBI will receive $744,000 annually, an increase of $258,000 from the current $486,000 allocation.
HSBI’s 2025 funding was included in the budget that Council adopted in February.
The $486,000 amount was set in early 2022 and is not indexed to inflation.
On December 4, 2024, City Councillors debated HBSI’s request and voted to ask HBSI to provide its financial statements to the Council.
HBSI stated it is willing to share its financial statements with the Council confidentially in closed session.
In 2020, HBSI told Hamilton City Council that operating a minimal bike share system costs approximately $45,000 monthly.
The First Ten Years
Hamilton’s bike share launched precisely ten years ago on March 20, 2015.
The program’s start-up cost of $1.6-million was funded by a Metrolinx grant. The City of Hamilton owns bicycles and other capital assets, and the City is responsible for continuing capital costs.
Initially operated by Social Bicycles Inc., Uber operated the bike share for many years after it purchased Social Bicycles.
In May 2020, Uber suddenly announced it was shutting down Hamilton’s bike share and ceasing operations on June 1.
A few weeks later, on May 28, a motion for the City to fund HBSI and permit the new non-profit to take over bike share operations failed on a 8-8 tie vote.
In the hours following the vote, HBSI announced a $100,000 pledge from the Patrick J. McNally Charitable Foundation. Other donors came forth, and a GoFundMe campaign raised over $70,000.
The City Council voted again, this time approving HBSI as the operator. The system was relaunched on June 30.
Over the past five years, HSBI has operated the system without significant incidents.
Recent Developments: McMaster Student Fee Revenue and Unionization
In March 2023, the City of Hamilton implemented fees requiring e-scooter rental companies to provide compensation to bike share. E-scooter operators must pay an annual fee of $60 per device, plus $0.05 per trip, to HBSI.
In September 2024, McMaster’s 26,000 full-time undergraduate students began paying a mandatory $24.50 fee for bike share membership.
In December 2024, bike share’s 23 non-management employees unionized, joining the Service Employees International Union.
This week, McMaster’s graduate students passed a referendum to add a mandatory Bike Share fee in September 2025.
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Published: March 20, 2025
Last updated: March 20, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
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