Bike Share

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mister.shoes
Wells Fargo Center
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Joined: November 26th, 2012, 10:22 am

Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby mister.shoes » June 23rd, 2013, 10:03 pm

This is pretty awesome, I must say. Who's going to start this here with Nice Ride bikes?

http://jalopnik.com/soulcycle-for-the-h ... -542918251
The problem with being an introvert online is that no one knows you're just hanging out and listening.

planetxan
Block E
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Joined: June 23rd, 2013, 8:04 pm

Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby planetxan » June 25th, 2013, 2:22 pm

When Niceride launched the daily pass it did seem kind of expensive to me. Except if you compare it to the price of renting a bike from a shop, then it looks super cheap. Citibike in NYC just launched with annual passes for $95 and daily passes for $9.95.

While it's cool to see Niceride is covering operating costs with user fees and sponsorships the NYC bikeshare is not planning on any public subsidy for capital costs or operations.
Keep in mind, they are called CitiBike because of CitiBank, whose CEO makes enough money in the time it takes to wipe his butt after, ah, reading the WSJ, to cover the cost of running the system for an entire year. Also, their fares are higher because they have a 45 min limit rather than 30 because of the longer distances to get anywhere in NYC.
I'd like to see Nice Ride add a one time use fee of something like 1 or 2 dollars rather than just having a 6 dollar all day pass and an annual pass. The 6 dollars is too much for someone who will only need the bike for one quick ride where that same person would probably be willing to pay a buck or 2.
This seems reasonable. It is similar to bus fare - $2 (ave) for 2 1/2 hours of use, $6 for 24 hours. I do think they are encouraging subscriptions for locals and daily for visitors, either from out of town or from the burbs.

I think it would be nice, and convenient, if they offered a yearly subscription that included bike use for the 7 months that the bikes are out, and then a transit pass on a GoTo card, like a college semester pass, for the 5 months that the bikes are not out. It could be a deep discount, like the semester pass, but only available to Nice Ride subscribers.

A College pass is $175 per semester (about 5 months), which when added to the $65 Nice Ride annual pass comes to $240, or $20 per month. Not a bad deal. And for raining days, you could just add some money onto the transit card, for those occasional bus trips until the pass kicks in in November.

fehler
Rice Park
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Joined: July 30th, 2012, 8:33 am

Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby fehler » July 24th, 2013, 3:32 pm


matt91486
Nicollet Mall
Posts: 132
Joined: December 28th, 2012, 5:28 pm

Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby matt91486 » July 24th, 2013, 6:24 pm

I've filled a few options in, primarily in my neck of the woods (naturally). Generally so far the suggestions seem relatively on target, but I'm hoping that wherever they pick, the planners expand in the same direction enough so that there is a decent enough coverage area that ridership increases.

bubzki2
Foshay Tower
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Joined: September 19th, 2012, 5:38 pm
Location: Snelling-Hamline

Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby bubzki2 » October 17th, 2013, 2:10 pm

I recently got a 12-mo. subscription to this service. I had tried once before to do a 24-hr sub but the machine defeated me. With the RFID card, it's just a breeze. The iPhone app is spot on (including a 30-min countdown and a station locator showing your current location). The bikes are really quite slow, partially because the fat tires are usually running something like 25 psi. Riding at night is a bit dangerous as the headlight (dynamo) is really more of a wide-throw "seen" light than a true "see" light, despite the LED/Dynamo mix.

My biggest gripe is probably station placement (Target Field?? Midtown Greenway??) and the 30-min time limit. 30 mins on a standard bike gets you most places, but these bikes are heavy and low-end geared (3-sp. internal) and you really do have to pop on/off the racks to get across the city. Frankly, I'm still not sure to whom these bikes are being marketed, though. It's just too expensive for a single to-from trip.

Overall, I love these bikes, though.

twincitizen
Moderator
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Location: Standish-Ericsson

Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby twincitizen » October 17th, 2013, 2:39 pm

The Target Field thing really bothers me, but it must be Target Field keeping them off the premises. I've been bitching to Nice Ride about that since 2011.

Not sure if you saw this on the previous page, but there's this sort-of non-public document that provides a lot of insight to station placement, different "types" of stations, etc. https://www.niceridemn.org/_asset/lps5db/

bubzki2
Foshay Tower
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Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby bubzki2 » October 17th, 2013, 3:21 pm

Actually, my thought was that there would be a huge influx before games, creating a huge confusion among first-time riders, who then would get flustered and give up on the system. I think those little pickups would be running overtime to keep up with demand. Still - take a section in a parking ramp and add a few hundred docks - maybe down by the Motorcycle parking? I'm sure they could make it work.

Viktor Vaughn
Target Field
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Joined: July 10th, 2012, 6:37 pm

Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby Viktor Vaughn » October 17th, 2013, 3:40 pm

Niceride gets around that problem by valet parking Nicerides at large events. You can check your bike into the rack, and then a Niceride employee pulls it back out with an admin key. Then they have a huge cache of Nicerides for people to take after the event is done.

Does this make sense to do routinely for Twins games? I don't know.

Mdcastle
Wells Fargo Center
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Joined: March 23rd, 2013, 8:28 am
Location: Bloomington, MN

Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby Mdcastle » October 19th, 2013, 10:04 am

I do kind of wish bike sharing programs would make it feasible to go on longer trips, and maybe even have reciprocal agreements with other programs. I thought it would be nice to rent a bicycle in Chicago to ride along the lakefront, but it's too much hassle to create a membership and too expensive to rent it for anything more than a short trip. I presume the reason the company I work for sponsors Nice Ride is ostensibly to create health benefits even if they're really just interested in the advertising, but it seems a two hour trip is going to create a lot more health benefits than a 15 minute one.

Blue Cross also has bicycles for employees on it's corporate campus, but you have to enroll in the program instead of just getting on a bike, and two of the buildings are in walking distance from each other, and the third is across four lanes of Highway 13.

bubzki2
Foshay Tower
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Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby bubzki2 » October 28th, 2013, 7:25 am

http://www.startribune.com/local/229475001.html

Bemidji? Not a clear article, but it sounds like Rochester is really the next true expansion city.

John21
Rice Park
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Location: 38th Street Station

Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby John21 » November 2nd, 2013, 1:35 pm


twincitizen
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Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby twincitizen » November 3rd, 2013, 9:04 pm

Definitely not happening next year, but Richfield and Bloomington got a mention too! Nice!

It seems imperative to do more expansion in south-south Minneapolis before jumping all the way down to Richfield. The current system only goes down to M'haha Pkwy/46th-ish and it's already pretty sparse by that point. Actually it's still pretty damn sparse south of Lake Street. They'll need to do some filling in at 50th, 54th, 60th before jumping over Hwy 62. I have no idea where you put stations in Bloomington, besides at the LRT stations for people to explore the Minnesota River valley or something. Inside the MOA perhaps? (kidding of course)

As far as Richfield bike infrastructure goes, Bloomington Ave just got actual bike lanes and Portland Ave is sorta bikeable due to the 4:3 conversion giving it wide shoulders south of 68th. 76th Street has excellent bike lanes, slow/low traffic AND a multi-use sidepath, thanks to M'haha Creek Watershed District. Unfortunately Nicollet, Lyndale, Penn, and Xerxes/York (the streets on which to extend the network over the crosstown) are all VERY hostile to bikes. They're all 4-lane undivided roads with 35MPH speed limits and 40-45MPH actual speeds. 66th Street (Richfield's "main street") is just as hostile. 66th Street is slated for full reconstruction in 2016-17 and it's going to be a tough battle to secure bike lanes across the entire city.

twinkess
Target Field
Posts: 543
Joined: November 26th, 2012, 10:46 am

Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby twinkess » November 4th, 2013, 8:31 am

Question: do we know if nice ride turns a profit? Would love for it to hang around

gpete
Union Depot
Posts: 330
Joined: June 8th, 2012, 9:33 am
Location: Seward, Mpls

Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby gpete » November 4th, 2013, 10:06 am

NiceRide is operated as a non-profit, so they will never "turn a profit," per se.

Here's their annual report for 2013. https://www.niceridemn.org/_asset/fy64t ... rt_web.pdf

A quick look-through shows they are generating enough revenue (from subscriptions, fees, sponsorships, and grants) to cover their expenses.

Tom H.
US Bank Plaza
Posts: 605
Joined: September 4th, 2012, 5:23 am

Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby Tom H. » November 4th, 2013, 10:43 am

I'm assuming 'station sponsorship' is pretty much equivalent to advertising revenues, in which case the total 'subsidy' (grants+misc.) was only about $31k out of a $1M budget in 2012 (this is operations ONLY; capital budget is separate), so this is pretty much break-even just on business revenues alone. Cost-effectiveness for NiceRide is through the roof; it remains to be seen how well this translates into the inner suburbs and greater Minnesota.

twinkess
Target Field
Posts: 543
Joined: November 26th, 2012, 10:46 am

Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby twinkess » November 5th, 2013, 12:01 pm

NiceRide is operated as a non-profit, so they will never "turn a profit," per se.

Here's their annual report for 2013. https://www.niceridemn.org/_asset/fy64t ... rt_web.pdf

A quick look-through shows they are generating enough revenue (from subscriptions, fees, sponsorships, and grants) to cover their expenses.
Ah silly me. Yes of course non-profit. Thanks for correcting me and answering my question.

ECtransplant
US Bank Plaza
Posts: 711
Joined: June 1st, 2012, 9:56 am

Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby ECtransplant » December 8th, 2013, 3:00 pm

How problematic could this be?


https://www.niceridemn.org/news/2013/10 ... eport_2013

"Nice Ride purchases equipment and back-end software services through Public Bike System Company (PBSC), a non-profit corporation based in Montreal. There has been recent news about PBSC’s financial challenges, disputes with its software subcontractor and plans to restructure. Nice Ride values its relationship with PBSC and is optimistic that PBSC will restructure successfully. Nice Ride is also taking steps to continue to provide great service and keep pace with software developments. For this reason, Nice Ride provided to PBSC a notice of material breach of the 2010 Bike System Purchase Agreement between Nice Ride and PBSC. Nice Ride is working with PBSC to assure that the concerns raised in this notice are addressed in the pending PBSC restructuring. We are confident that 2014 will bring exciting developments in bike sharing and Nice Ride will continue to be a leader."

kirby96
Union Depot
Posts: 335
Joined: June 4th, 2012, 11:30 am

Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby kirby96 » December 8th, 2013, 8:43 pm

Non-profits can be profitable. If the profits are unrelated to their core mission, however they may be taxable. What they can't do is distribute profits. If Nice Ride makes a profit on renting bikes, selling station sponsorships, etc.. they are probably in no danger of losing tax-exempt status. Basically, the profits have to be kept in the organization.

mulad
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Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby mulad » December 11th, 2013, 11:49 am

Here's an interesting planning document for bike-share systems in general. In the performance metrics section which starts around page 40, Minneapolis doesn't stack up very well. That's partly due to our system's low station density (there's a strong correlation between station density and per-capita number of trips).

http://www.itdp.org/documents/ITDP_Bike ... _Guide.pdf

mulad
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Re: Nice Ride Minnesota

Postby mulad » April 4th, 2014, 6:24 pm

Some new pricing options this year: https://www.niceridemn.org/pricing/

Members who carry Nice Ride keys are now able to have free trips for up to 60 minutes, while people who buy passes at stations still start getting charged extra after 30 minutes (the way things used to be for everyone).

There are two main membership levels (ordered through the website): A 365-day membership for $65 (or a student variant for $55), or a new pay-as-you-go plan for $15 per 30-day period. It looks like the pay-as-you-go plan goes dormant after 30 days, but automatically reactivates when the key for the account gets inserted at a station.

The pass holder options (purchased at stations) also have two levels: Again, a 30-day pass is available for $15, but it doesn't automatically reactivate, and I presume you don't get any sort of key (probably need to insert your credit card and go through the menu screens every time). 24-hour passes are still available for $6.

Costs do escalate pretty quickly after going past the 30- or 60-minute limits, particularly after you go past the 90-minute mark per trip. The cost is supposed to be capped at $65 per day. Folks who want to use bikes for long multi-hour or multi-day rides are still encouraged to rent from local shops instead.

Hopefully these $15 monthly memberships/passes will lower some of the psychological barriers folks have had for trying Nice Ride.


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