On Monday, June 10, Nice Ride sent an email to members with two statements addressing its recent setbacks with dockless hubs and electric bikes. In compensation for the missed expectations, Nice Ride extended yearly memberships by 45 days.
In the first statement, Nice Ride implied that the rollout of its dockless hubs was delayed because of a short-staffed operations team, which may have had hiring challenges due to the tight labor market. Regarding electric bikes, Nice Ride said, “the operator of Nice Ride, Lyft, has paused its ebike program in three other bikeshare systems across the country. This has delayed the launch of ebikes here in Minneapolis.” Reports from San Francisco indicate that “customers complained the bikes were braking too hard.”
Photo: Nice Ride
Here are the two statements in full as sent to members:
Update on the dockless system
As of today (June 10th), we have more than 400 new hubs permitted by the City of Minneapolis. There are 97 dockless hubs currently on the street, with an additional 277 on the University of Minnesota campus. We have recently expanded our operations team to help increase the pace of installation. We’re excited to fully implement this first-of-its-kind virtual hub model that will complement our classic fleet and provide flexibility for our riders. Once the hubs are in, we’ll continue to work closely with our public partners to evaluate the dockless bike system and virtual hub model.
Update on ebikes
The operator of Nice Ride, Lyft, has paused its ebike program in three other bikeshare systems across the country. This has delayed the launch of ebikes here in Minneapolis. We are still working closely with all of our partners to bring ebikes to the system and will provide an update when we have more to share.
Lyft bought Nice Ride operator Motivate almost a year ago for a reported $250 million, which gave it access to markets including Minneapolis and seven other cities at the time.
Have you ridden a blue bike or a green bike this year? What is your pet conspiracy theory for the lack of electric bikes? Do you think 45 days’ membership is fair? Share your stories and your dreams in the comments!
Nice Ride’s dockless system is a joke. If you don’t return a bike to a dockless hub, you get charged $5. If you leave a bike next to a traditional docked hub, you get charged $5. If you go to a friend’s house, lock the bike for 10 minutes and then start a new ride, you’re charged $5. Dockless is doomed to fail if riders have to return a bike to the largely nonexistent dockless hubs only.
“Please park dockless bikes in the dockless docks, which are not docks. Docked bikes go in the docks, of course, which are not docks for dockless bikes, which are not docks, because they are dockless, you see. ”
(paraphrasing Nick Magrino…)
You are a supposed to get charged $5, but does any actually get charged? I see them parked outside of hubs so frequently that I wonder whether they actually enforce the policy.
Also, early this season, when there was basically no hubs downtown, I left one next to a docked station without getting charged.
as long as you leave them somewhere where it will get ridden again they don’t actually charge you for parking it outside of a hub. i have been going all summer parking them not in docks and have not been charged. i park every day on my way home from work at longfellow park which is not a hub. i dont want to have to walk from lake st. also you can leave them where ever you want downtown or on campus without issue.
Just give us actual dockless or scrap this system already, Nice Ride.