Dockless Bike-Share

Update 6/8/18, 12:30 PM: The city's dockless bike-share permit requirements state, "Vendors are required to submit data to the City’s Department of Transportation... on the 1st of every month, starting on June 1."  However, Dave Reed, the expansion manager for Zagster, which owns Pace, noted that per the city's more recent instructions to vendors, the first round of data for all vendors is to be submitted by June 11.

Due to the fact that the pilot is only six months long, annual memberships aren't an option yet, but Pace is selling monthly passes.

The dockless bike-share discussion continued with a conversion with host Judy Hsu.

Combining the Divvy and DoBi zones on a map also shows which parts of the Far South Side got left out of the pilot, and how Divvy station density affects the usefulness of the system.

Chicago's South Side dockless bike-share pilot is starting to shift into high gear, with yesterday's release of 50 LimeBike electric cycles with wheel locks, and 50 non-electric Pace bikes (from Zagster) with built-in cable locks, plus today's deployment of 50 Ofo non-electric, wheel-lock bikes. And word is that Jump Mobility will soon be releasing a fleet of electric bikes with built-in U-locks.

But will the narrow parameters of the city's DoBi pilot program doom the fleets to fail?

Brandon Bordenkircher and Riley L. O’Neil from Twelve Tone Consulting, who previously published a study of DoBi regulations in various cities, give Chicago's guidelines a thumbs-up.

Active Trans director Ron Burke weighs in on whether the coverage area and the "lock-to" rule makes sense.

CDOT explains why they're requiring "lock-to" bikes after July 1. But why aren't they allowing bikes to be checked out near the Lakefront Trail?