I’m ambivalent about Minneapolis’ new bike share system, Nice Ride Minnesota; here’s why:
We decided to try the system out last Sunday evening. As for the bikes themselves, we found them to be pleasant, easy rides. Although they are probably about 3-4 times as heavy and bulky as our daily transportation (single speed city bikes), I can certainly understand why these rentals have to be practically bomb proof and idiot proof, and they pretty much are. They are three-speed manuals that almost feel like a small motorcycle (it’s a lot of bike); you’re not going to be racing any messengers, but you can certainly get a nice breeze blowing through your hair and that nice feeling of pedal-borne freedom.
The bikes are also rolling advertisements, and very effective ones at that. We joked that we should be on the Nice Ride payroll; in a little over 90 minutes on the street we explained the rental system to at least seven people who stopped us to ask about it all over Northeast, St. Anthony Main, and Stone Arch Bridge. “Excuse me, I’ve seen those all over downtown. What’s the deal?” The people that stopped us were members of almost every age, race, and apparent tax bracket. I also got a big kick out of using the bike’s bell to solicit grins from passersby—when I caught somebody staring, I would stare back for a couple of seconds, and then ring the bell while cracking a smile. Worked every time.
So we had a pretty fun time and it was, indeed a nice ride. But the system’s kinks were apparent, and I’m not sure I’m totally on board yet.
A lot of it has to do with pricing and the point of sale interaction at the kiosks. To understand why, you have to understand this:
The interaction with the kiosk was confusing at points. Paying for and taking a bike out was basically fine and relatively easy (we did so at the kiosk across from the Lunds on Central). Our main problem was with how to take a bike back out for a second trip once it had been docked.
After tooling around for awhile we decided to dock the bikes near Pracna and stop in for a drink. We were basically done at that point and were planning to walk back to my apartment, but I wanted to get the full experience and make sure I’d be able to take a bike back out if I wanted to within my 24-hour subscription. I assumed that using the original unlocking code I was issued would release a bike for me to use; after punching it in on several docks, I realized this was not the case. We were befuddled. We were given no instructions upon renting the bikes about how to do this, and could find none on the kiosk now. Had I actually needed to get another bike out to get to another destination, I probably would’ve been calling customer service at this point (there’s a phone number on every kiosk and every bike, but it was past 11 p.m.). On a whim—and over my objection—my girlfriend swiped her card again, and the screen offering a new code popped up, allowing her to get another (or the same) bike out again. I was afraid she might accidentally get charged a second time or something, but she didn’t.
So after basically poking and prodding and guessing, we figured it out, and I wonder if other users might be as lucky as we were to stumble across the solution quickly, and as reluctant as I was to swipe their card again. Now, I can see why this approach makes the most sense—if all it took to unlock a bike was a code on a slip of paper, people who found a discarded code slip might be able to grab a bike for free, and strand another daily subscriber—but I think there need to be some more specific instructions for folks who are 24-hour users that want to take a bike out after their first trip; especially since these are most likely the people who need the most guidance at point of purchase: tourists and infrequent or first-time users who haven’t carefully studied the Nice Ride website.
I’m also not so sure about about the pricing system. Nice Ride’s perfectly rational explanation for the precipitously increasing trip fees is that they are needed to keep the bikes in circulation by encouraging users to return them to the kiosk rather than park them at their destination. On the other hand, I feel like the 90-plus minute ride we took Sunday night around Northeast and along the river is exactly the kind of ride we proud Minneapolitans would like to imagine out-of-town visitors making—feeling empowered to get out and really explore our great biking city on two wheels.
The problem is that the system severely penalizes them for doing so. (E.g., having a bike out for four hours would cost $39.50+tax.) I was aware of the trip fees, but apparently my girlfriend was less sure about how they worked—when we docked the bikes I wasn’t all that surprised to see that my $5 24-hour subscription had ballooned to something like $20, but she was quite discouraged. She was under the impression that the $5 was all she would have to pay, and I wouldn’t be surprised if first-time users get the same impression in the beginning, and suffer the same sticker shock when they finish their ride and dock their bike. I shared this with the folks at Nice Ride, and apparently the assumption is that, indeed, people will find the system counter-intuitive at first, but once enough people are exposed to it, it will seem simple to everybody. I guess that is if people aren’t so cheesed off by their first encounter that they decide not to use it again. I suggested a “touring rate” could be implemented—whereby a user could choose between a $5 24-hour subscription with trip fees, or a $15-$20 rate which would allow unlimited rides within the 24 hours. I was assured that such an offer would require 10 times as many bicycles because the average rider would ride for one hour and keep the bike for 12 hours. Time will tell, I guess.
Overall I was fairly satisfied with the system, my girlfriend less so. She did not expect to spend as much money on the ride, and add to that the fact that the $250 pre-authorization that was placed on her debit card will hold up those funds for about a week, and she said she doesn’t think she’ll use it again any time soon, except maybe in an emergency. As for me, I’ve got family coming to town over the 4th of July weekend, and I may propose we take the Nice Ride bikes out on the town—especially since I now feel like I can deftly avoid the trip fee pitfalls. But I’ll probably also warn my visitors about that the $250 pre-authorization—they can either choose to use their debit card and place a hold on that money in their checking account, or use their credit card to rent a bike for 5 bucks. And of course, I’ll ride my own bike, for free.
There are other, bigger concerns with the system that are worth raising, like the fact that North Minneapolis apparently did not get a single kiosk in the initial roll out.
I would love to hear others’ thoughts, especially those who have also taken one of those green bikes for a spin.
