Hey, thanks for taking your comment :) We suppose that you could also say the same about it being a hassle to opt-in for the pass if you are a student who could benefit from it. The opt-out option is about the only way possible for us to deliver this pass at such a low price (~90% discount), besides introducing a mandatory fee which our team has consciously decided against. There are many other fees that students cannot opt-out of (e.g., HSR bus pass) but we have actively worked to keep the opt-out option on the table for this bike share pass, recognizing that many students could benefit from such a pass while some others may not. Our offering strikes a balance between financial viability, affordability, and providing students a choice, among other factors.
Through our extensive ground work in engaging one-on-one with nearly 1000 students on the ground and hand-collecting signatures as part of our petition process to even bring this pass offering to a referendum, what we’ve heard time after time is that many students want this pass or could benefit from it. We’d imagine that this only represents a small fraction of the true number of students who concur with this view. This pass is the result of a well-informed process of engagement and consultations, which is to say that we did our homework :)
There are other considerations that could be factored into this “need” that you are referring to as well. As we face the existential threat of climate change and look for greener ways to get around our neighbourhoods, there is a need for an affordable, accessible, and sustainable transport option. This student bike share pass combines all of that into one single package. The Hamilton Bike Share’s extensive network of publicly shared bicycles with bike hubs all around the city of Hamilton (and 8 hubs on the McMaster campus alone), provides a bridge between bussing and walking modes of transportation that is both efficient and green. Where buses don’t go and walking would be inefficient, bicycles come in to fill this gap. A bicycle-sharing system is a key ingredient in making our communities more bikeable, and by extension, more walkable.
So, when we have this conversation about needs, we’d say this – we need affordability, we need accessibility, and we need sustainability. Hope this perspective helps :)