Hamilton Bike Share offering free rides promo on Election Day

There might be no such thing as a free lunch, but voters in Hamilton can pedal to the polls for free on the city’s bike-share network on Election Day.

Hamilton Bike Share is offering a promo code that riders can use to cover the cost of their trip to cast a ballot on Monday. The code is RIDETOVOTE2022. The initiative requires signing up on the Bike Share app, but the discount is also available to those who have are not among the more than 30,000 residents of the city who are on the network.

Ride to the Polls this Monday: it's on us! Riders can redeem the promo code RIDETOVOTE2022 to cover the cost of their trip to cast their ballot in #HamOnt. pic.twitter.com/u1H94doq7w

— Hamilton Bike Share (@HamOntBikeShare) October 18, 2022

The bike share system has more than 900 smart bikes across over 25 square kilometres of downtown Hamilton, the Westdale and Dundas areas. In the first month of summer alone, riders travelled nearly 51,000 km, which is more than the circumference of Earth. On a given weekday, over 500 people were using the bikes at around 5 p.m., the peak of the evening rush hour.

Just two years ago, Hamilton Bike Share was nearly cancelled after Uber walked away from its operating contract and city council voted down a proposal for the municipality to fund it. A public appeal saved the bike network, though, and its operations are now funded by user revenues, sponsorship, donations, and contributions from the City of Hamilton.