Competing Bike Share Companies Launch Services In South San Francisco
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Two bike share companies that feature dockless parking both launched their services in South San Francisco Tuesday, as the bike share industry continues to roll out new options.
San Francisco-based Spin unveiled its South San Francisco service Tuesday with 125 GPS-enabled, self-locking bikes on the heels of its pilot program using a fleet of 10 bikes in Mountain View.
Spin, which also launched in Seattle earlier this year, plans to expand to 5oo bicycles in South City.
Meanwhile, San Mateo-based LimeBike also unveiled its service in South City, promising to roll out 300 lime-green bicycles by next week.
A third dockless bike share company, Social Bicycles has already launched services in San Mateo, San Ramon and San Francisco, among other U.S. and Canadian cities.
The services all feature smartphone apps and the ability to lock and unlock the bicycles remotely.
Unlike the Ford GoBike program recently launched in cities throughout the Bay Area, the companies do not require customers to park at stations or docks, which allows them to price their rides cheaper than those featuring docking stations.
A similar dockless bicycle program, Bluegogo, received criticism from city officials in San Francisco earlier this year over concerns that the company planned to dump bikes on city streets, obstructing public sidewalks.
Social Bicycles has rolled out 100 electric bikes in San Francisco in a test program as it seeks approval from the city for a larger service.
Currently Ford's GoBike holds exclusively rights to bike share services in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. LimeBike, Spin and Social Bicycles have each applied with San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to roll out dockless bike share service.
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