VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Would you hop on one of the bikes from Vancouver’s upcoming bike share program?

SFU researchers are doing a study aimed at finding that out, asking questions like, “How often you cycle?”

The city’s bike share program is still in the planning stages and won’t kick in until next year. It’ll work just like the car share program — you pay to hop on a bike and it takes you on a one-way trip.

SFU Health Sciences Professor Meghan Winters is doing a before and after study to find out how you get around the city and to gauge the program’s impact on health and transportation in Vancouver.

Cities that have this program tend to increase cycling by up to two per cent, but no one knows if that will be the case here.

“People have said there’s sort of this one to two per cent increase in the per cent of trips made by bicycles once you put public bikes shares into place,” says Winters.

“[Vancouver] is a rainy city and a hilly city and there’s going to be complications associated with this helmet law because it hasn’t been in place in other cities, where a public bike share has been in place.”

Vancouverites will be asked about their cycling patterns in the next couple of months, with follow up questions a year later in the fall of 2013.