On Tuesday afternoon, a group of Nice Ride bikes were parked, as they always are, outside of City Hall in downtown Minneapolis. But the fleet looked a little bit different that day. To be specific, it looked twice as colorful.
Nice Ride's standard bright green bikes were now accompanied by a shiny new collection of blue bikes, some of the first from the organization's new dockless fleet.
The new blue bikes are a big deal for local bike-sharing non-profit Nice Ride Minnesota, which had been planning yesterday's offical dockless rollout for more than a year. The organization worked with the City of Minneapolis and Motivate, a New York-based bike-share operator, to develop plans for the addition of the city's first 1,500 dockless bikes.
These new bikes are equipped with GPS technology that does not require them 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.
Users can reserve either type of bike through Nice Ride’s new app (now available) which shows the location of both docking stations and dockless bikes in their area.
To manage its new fleet of blue bikes, Nice Ride is employing a "virtual parking hub" system – a notably different take on dockless bike sharing. Riders must pick up and drop off the dockless bikes at these hubs, which look like parking spaces for bikes. Their locations can be found using Nice Ride's app.
Bikes must be left at these stations. Violators will be charged $5 and repeat offenders run the risk of getting kicked off the platform.
St. Paul, Edina and Golden Valley opted for a different dockless bike-sharing program, which is operated by San Francisco-based Lime. Lime, like most other dockless bike companies, allows cyclists to leave their rides almost anywhere – as long as they aren't obstructing public walkways.
Nice Ride plans to have 200 virtual parking zones across the city by the end of the year. The organization will have a particular focus on the neighborhoods of Phillips, Seward and North Minneapolis.
"Expanding access to multimodal transit options is essential for any city that's serious about making sure that residents who can't afford cars can make it to work and mitigating climate change," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a release. "Nice Ride's expansion in Phillips, Seward and North Minneapolis also provides a more affordable transit option for communities that have historically been cut out from access to jobs and amenities. With this launch, Minneapolis is showing that it will continue leading on transit equity."
Riders can request a virtual parking zone in their neighborhood by filling out a form on Nice Ride's site.
Nice Ride plans to add an additional 1,500 dockless bikes to the system in 2019, with hopes to add 1,500 subsequently each year thereafter until 2021. The organization is also considering introducing electric bikes and winter bikes.
