Nice Ride Minnesota

[Tom H.]

Surprised there wasn't a topic for this yet - anyway, it sounds like Nice Ride is in a $2M financial hole after losing its sponsorship from Blue Cross Blue Shield. Surely this relatively small funding gap can be filled to continue this service?

https://www.startribune.com/nice-rides- ... 600230785/

[MNdible]

Per the article, the system (including scooters) was used 533,000 times in 2021, which was a record. Meaning that the sponsorship alone represents an almost $4 per ride subsidy.

If they find another private sponsor, that's fantastic. But I'm not really sure this is something the city ought to step up and fund.

[Tom H.]

I admittedly haven't used the system personally, but I have always thought that it has a certain "cool factor" / "tourist chic" feel to it that may be worth funding solely from a city reputation perspective (although $2m is *real money* to fund something as esoteric as that). It should also be mentioned that money spent bolstering cycling has positive externalities, in almost the exact opposite ways that car/highway funding has negative externalities.

[John21]

https://urbanmsp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1 ... re#p154839
I use it, but not as much as I used to. The green bikes are pretty terrible. Hope they find a sponsor and St Paul.

[icelake]

I use nice rides a few times a month and consider it a vital part of our transportation system. Sometimes I’ll walk to lunch and ride home or hop on a bike after getting off the light rail. I’ve hoped that the number of stations and bikes would continue to increase. I’ve also used similar bike share systems when visiting other cities. I’ll be disappointed if it turns out that the model was not sustainable.


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