S.F. e-bikes get Jump start
Social Bicycles rolls out ahead of region’s big GoBike debut
The Bay Area’s first electric bike-sharing program put 100 neon-red bicycles on San Francisco streets this week, just ahead of the scheduled debut on Wednesday of the region’s big Ford GoBike project.
This will be the first e-bike program for Social Bicycles, a Brooklyn, N.Y., firm that runs bike sharing in 27 cities including Portland, Ore., and San Mateo. This week, the company is running a free e-bike demonstration in the Bayview and Mission districts. Eventually, it plans to charge $1 for 15 minutes of riding. By comparison, Ford GoBike’s single-time fee is $3 for a 30-minute trip, and its bikes are strictly humanpowered.
The electric-assisted bikes, branded Jump, require pedaling but can easily boost riders up all but the steepest hills. I rode up Broadway from the Embarcadero to Taylor, although the last block — a 21 percent grade — took some sweat and traversing.
There’s one problem for Social Bicycles’ Jump operation: It’s not permitted by the city yet.
Jump is stationless, which means all of the location and locking technology is on the bikes, so users can find and unlock them with a smartphone app. They can be locked to any bike rack, but users will get a $1 credit if they return the bike to a designated spot and charged an extra $1 if they don’t.
Eventually the company hopes to install electric charging stations around the city, but for now it’s picking them up and recharging them in a Bayview warehouse.
With traditional bike-sharing programs, including Ford GoBike, bikes must be picked up and returned to locking docking stations.
Ford GoBike is being run by Motivate, another Brooklyn company, under a 10-year contract with the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission. It replaces the much smaller Bay Area Bike Share program. Ford Motor Co. is reportedly paying $49 million over seven years for advertising and naming rights. The five participating cities — San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville — could share a slice of program revenue if they exceed certain hurdles.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance in March making it illegal to leave stationless bikes on city streets or sidewalks without a permit. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has authority to issue permits for stationless bike sharing, but it hasn’t yet developed the permit application.
Social Bicycles “would need a permit to operate in San Francisco. They should not deploy their bikes until a permit is granted,” said Paul Rose, a spokesman for the San Francisco agency. His agency “is finalizing the permit process,” Rose added. “We are working to have something done this week.”
Ironically, the agency is administering a federal grant awarded to UC Berkeley to study electric-assisted bike sharing in San Francisco.
“It’s a multiyear grant” from the Federal Highway Administration, said Rachel Finson, a research program manager with the university. “It started as a project with City CarShare,” but the researchers are now working with Social Bicycles.
The researchers want to ask people before and after they use electric bikes questions such as where they went and what mode of transportation they would have used otherwise. But the $735,000 contract ends next year, and researchers need to wrap up their data collection by Nov. 30. Hence the need to get e-bikes on the streets.
Ryan Rzepecki, CEO of Social Bicycles, said the research contract originally was going to pay for the bikes, but his company ended up paying for them. His firm designed the sturdy 70-pound bikes with drum brakes and is having them manufactured in China. They cost about $1,000 each, although he hopes that will come down as volume grows.
The company hopes to have 1,000 electric bikes in San Francisco by year end. It also plans to deploy 100 electric bikes in San Mateo, replacing the 50 regular bikes it has there.
Riders must provide their own helmets, as with the Ford GoBike program.
The launch of the Ford program includes new bikes and docking stations. It plans to have 3,750 bikes in the five cities by year end and 7,000 by the end of next year.
Motivate changed one of its pricing options after bike-rental companies catering to tourists objected to its plan to offer a one-day pass for $15, good for an unlimited number of rides of up to three hours over a 24-hour period. Rental company Blazing Saddles complained to Mayor Lee, saying that would appeal more to tourists than residents using bikes for errands and commuting.
Motivate subsequently changed its day pass to $10 for unlimited 30minute rides in a 24hour period. It also offers an annual membership for $149, good for unlimited 45 minute rides.
Blazing Saddles also rents electric-assisted bikes for $48 to $88 per day. Bruno Wanderley, the firm’s manager, said he’s not too concerned about the new Jump program horning in on the tourist trade.