NABSA’s 2025 Conference Returns to Montreal

It’s time to start making plans to join BBSP and fellow shared micromobility colleagues at the upcoming North American Bikeshare and Scootershare Association Conference.

October in Montreal means peak foliage, fall festivals, and this year, the annual North American Bikeshare and Scootershare Association (NABSA) Conference. Hosted by BIXI Montréal, the city’s nonprofit bike share system and the first in North America, NABSA returns to Montreal for its 10th annual conference from October 15–17, 2025.

The conference brings together transportation practitioners, operators, and equipment and service providers to convene, share, and learn from one another.

“I enjoy the conference because it provides an opportunity for cross-sector collaboration and knowledge sharing. Those hallway conversations, those over-a-meal conversations that I don’t even hear about,” says Laura Mallonee, membership and engagement director at NABSA. “I’m happy that NABSA can create that opportunity for those conversations to happen.”

This year’s conference will be a full-circle moment for some attendees. One of NABSA’s first conferences was in Montreal, a time when BIXI was operational for about eight years. In 2017, BIXI had 6,250 bikes and 540 docking stations in Montreal and two other cities. Now, BIXI boasts a year-round network of more than 11,000 bikes (2,000 weather-adapted bikes) at more than 1,000 stations in all 19 boroughs of the city, as well as other cities outside of Montreal with an expansion on the horizon. By the end of 2025, the network will include 12,600 bicycles at 1,080 stations in 13 cities. 

NABSA 2017 in Montreal, photos courtesy of NABSA

“The last time NABSA was in Montreal was in 2017, so ever since that time, BIXI has grown a lot. We’re happy to show how we’ve grown and how we managed to create such an amazing thing with BIXI in Montreal,” says Clémence Giroux-Tremblay, BIXI’s public relations coordinator. “We’re happy that people get to see all the bikes everywhere in the city, and how we innovated to make sure people have access to those bikes.”

The conference theme, Momentum: The Power of Shared Micromobility, reflects the industry’s current state as shared micromobility continues to rise in popularity and is fitting for BIXI as they undergo this momentous expansion in their 17th year of operation as the first North American bike share system.

“This year, the name captures the idea of shared micromobility moving forward; its resilience, while also including the tagline that captures the power of shared micromobility to help build more equitable, environmentally sustainable, and resilient transportation ecosystems,” says Mallonee. “Plus, the power of electrification is a hot topic and theme in shared micromobility, and I’m anticipating that we’ll see content related to electrification.”

Alongside topics about electrification and resiliency, NABSA will have data-rich breakout sessions featuring shared micromobility pilots and equity programs. These sessions will discuss funding and how to prioritize equity while maintaining a sustainable system.

NABSA 2024 in Philadelphia, photo courtesy of NABSA

“I expect funding will be a theme throughout, because we’ve seen that as a topic people are more comfortable talking about,” says Mallonee. “Based on the political climate, I think we’ll be talking about different policy and advocacy strategies across the three countries that NABSA represents.”

These breakout sessions will occur on the second and third days of the conference. Stay tuned on NABSA’s website for mobile workshop sign ups, which are happening on the first day. This year, the Closing Social will look a little different from years past. NABSA is taking attendees from the hotel venue to BIXI’s headquarters where they can enjoy local treats during a warehouse tour and learn from the BIXI team that has been hard at work for nearly two decades. Giroux-Tremblay shared that she is excited to have conversations and hear feedback from attendees on their experience using BIXI throughout their time in Montreal.

“We reached 13 million trips in 2024, so we’re hoping to continue our growth and expansion. We’re in 13 cities this year,” says Giroux-Tremblay. “We hope to present a system that has growth in neighborhoods and many cities, not just Montreal. We expanded because we wanted to give bikes to people who really need them and create something different.”

According to Giroux-Tremblay, BIXI is currently collaborating with the city on an initiative to make the system more accessible to low-income residents while expanding. Additionally, the system partners with local organizations to ensure the expansion addresses people’s concerns and questions.

To register and stay in the loop on conference updates, visit nabsa.net/conference/2025conference. Additionally, NABSA offers some conference scholarships for those who meet the eligibility criteria, including “city, advocacy group, or community-based organization staff or volunteers focusing on shared micromobility (bikeshare, shared e-scooters, biking infrastructure, etc.) and equity, or others focusing on the intersection of social justice and transportation as part of their primary work.” Click here for more information.

BBSP looks forward to seeing fellow shared micomobility colleagues this fall in Montreal!

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The Better Bike Share Partnership is funded by The JPB Foundation as a collaboration between the City of Philadelphia, the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), and the PeopleForBikes Foundation to build equitable and replicable bike share systems. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Have a question or a story idea? Email odochi@peopleforbikes.org.