Local bike-sharing organization Nice Ride Minnesota is working with Motivate, the largest bike share operator in North America, to bring dockless bikes and other transportation upgrades to Minneapolis. The announcement comes the same day that ride-sharing giant Lyft completed its acquisition of Motivate.
Starting Monday, Lyft-owned Motivate will take over operations of nonprofit Nice Ride, though the organization will retain all of its staff in Minnesota. The new partnership will bring dockless bikes to Minnesota for the first time. By the end of the summer 1,500 dockless bikes are expected to hit Minneapolis streets.
Over the last year, dozens of cities across the country have adopted new dockless bike programs – though not all have been successful. Cities like Seattle, Dallas and Washington, D.C. have struggled with the initial rollout of dockless bikes, facing issues like theft, destruction or vandalism. Without clear locations to drop the bikes, they were littered all over some cities, with a few even winding up in a river.
After seeing how other cities struggled with dockless bikes, Nice Ride wanted to be mindful about bringing this new technology to the Twin Cities, General Manager Melissa Summers told Minne Inno. Ultimately, Nice Ride decided on a "hybrid" program that allows the organization to maintain its current docked bike-sharing program while adding 500 virtual drop off zones for the new dockless bikes. Nice Ride is currently working the the City of Minneapolis to determine where exactly these zones will be located.
The dockless bikes will be equipped with GPS technology that will not require bikes to be parked at traditional bike-sharing stations. These bikes are less expensive to maintain than the docked variety, which Nice Ride has been operating since its launch in 2010.
Nice Ride unveiled its plans to bring dockless bikes to the Twin Cities late last year. The organization is now working with the City of Minneapolis, the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Parks and urban planning leaders to bring dockless bikes to the city. For now, dockless will be limited to Minneapolis. Nice Ride also operates in St. Paul, but earlier this year, the city hit the brakes on plans to bring dockless bikes to St. Paul.
Motivate is one of the largest bike share operators in North America. The company now has operations in New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C. and the Bay Area. Lyft said that in 2017, 80 percent of all bike-sharing trips in the country were powered by Motivate, but it's likely that Motivate's marketshare has fallen slightly as companies like Pace, Ofo and Lime have brought bike-share services to more cities across the country. None of these companies currently operate in the Twin Cities. Lyft's acquisition of Motivate comes just two months after its rival Uber acquired electric bike-sharing company Jump.
With Motivate at the helm, Nice Ride also plans to bring electric bikes (e-bikes) and a winter bike program to the Twin Cities. Summers said that next summer, the organization plans to bring another 1,500 dockless bikes to Minneapolis and begin piloting an e-bike program.
"Eventually we hope that dockless bike stations will be as ubiquitous as bus stops," Summers said.
