Plan to fill bike racks in San Francisco with rentals is abandoned
The company is being forced to adopt a more traditional model of renting parking spaces to use as stations to access the bicycles
SAN FRANCISCO — Under pressure from the city, Chinese bike share startup Bluegogo on Monday said for now it will abandon its controversial plan to fill San Francisco’s public bike racks with bicycles for rent.
The move signals Bluegogo is trying to differentiate itself from companies like Uber that are notorious for ignoring local rules, but it’s unclear if the bike share company’s reversal will be enough to placate city leaders.
“We didn’t want to be that startup that literally shows up to the city first and then deals with all the problems later,” said Ilya Movshovich, Bluegogo’s vice president of U.S. operations.
But city leaders on Monday didn’t rush to embrace the bike share company.
“Unfortunately, the city still has more questions than answers from Bluegogo around their true intentions,” San Francisco Supervisor Mark Farrell wrote Monday in an emailed statement. “The city looks forward to meeting and working in good faith with Bluegogo to understand their business model and plans more clearly, and how they plan to comply with all City regulations before any expansion.”
Chinese Bluegogo had expected to launch its bike share service in San Francisco on Monday, unveiling a unique model that would have allowed users to leave the bicycles at any public bike rack when they were finished riding, instead of returning them to specific docking stations. But San Francisco city supervisors last week threatened to impound Bluegogo’s bikes if it followed through with the launch, citing fears that abandoned bikes would clutter city streets and become a nuisance.
So for now, Bluegogo will resemble traditional bike share services such as Bay Area Bike Share, which already operates in San Francisco and San Jose. Bluegogo has rented out several parking spaces from private businesses to use as stations, and riders will be required to return the bicycles to those approved locations, Movshovich said Monday.
The service is not live yet, but Movshovich expects to launch this week. He wouldn’t say how many bikes will roll out on city streets.
Movshovich said city officials, who called his company a “rogue” bike share opera-
tor, have a misconception of how the service will work. He said he has left messages with the mayor’s office and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and intends to schedule a meeting soon so he can explain the stationless idea and hopefully get approval for the original business plan.
Movshovich made the announcement Monday morning in a parking lot at Howard and Steuart streets in San Francisco, standing in front of 10 Bluegogo bikes lined up in two parking spots that soon will become one of the company’s rental stations.
He pointed out the solar panels that power the bicycles’ headlights and GPS systems, showed off the technology that keeps the bikes’ back wheels locked when not in use, and demonstrated how riders can unlock bikes using a QR code and their smartphone. And Movshovich showcased the bicycles’ anti-theft system — when he picked up a locked bike and carried it a few steps, the bike began to beep, sounding like a truck backing up.
Movshovich acknowledge that the alarm may not prevent all thefts in a city notorious for stolen bikes. But Bluegogo has tried to make the bikes unattractive targets. Criminals would need special tools to detach the bikes’ wheels, he said — a standard screwdriver won’t do the job — and the bikes are made from custom parts that can’t be used by illegal “chop shops.”
If a bicycle is stolen, GPS trackers can help police quickly locate the bike and the thief.