Bikeshare growth has waxed and waned over the years. The impact of systems vary greatly today in terms of cost, coverage, equipment availability, and compatibility. Uytae Lee of About Here digs into what sets apart North American bikeshare systems.
Seattle’s scootershare and bikeshare program continues to boom, setting a new ridership record in 2025. At the same time, the program could be at risk of falling victim to its own popularity, with increasing calls to beef up regulations, particularly on scooters.
Seattle bikeshare and scootershare companies clocked 6.3 million rides in 2024, up 28% over 2023 and a record high. The momentum has continued in the first quarter of 2025, with ridership up 76% over the first quarter of 2024. If this pace is maintained, Seattle is on track to exceed 10 million ride
Seattle’s popular bike and scootershare programs have been kept out of major Seattle parks. Could a change be on the horizon?
Lime is riding high, as other micromobility operators retool or pull out of Seattle. Seattle’s dockless bikeshare and scootershare program continues to boom, collectively reaching a new high of nearly five million rides in 2023. That works out to more than 13,000 rides per day. The Seattle Department
With prices dropping and a state rebate coming soon, e-bike sales are booming. Here are tips for those looking to hop on the e-cargo wagon. E-bikes are having a moment in Seattle and beyond. Prices are dropping, sales are climbing, and more and more people are discovering that electric-assisted bicycles
This Thursday, the King County Board of Health will vote on a proposed repeal of the county’s helmet law for cyclists as well as a companion resolution that affirms helmet use, encourages other jurisdictions to repeal helmet laws, and supports broader measures that ensure the cyclists’ safety. While Washington
After five months in the Seattle market, GIG Car Share is expanding the homearea for its vehicles. The expansion increases the homearea from 13 square miles to 23 square miles. New areas include Ballard, Columbia City, Green Lake, Mount Baker, Phinney Ridge, and parts of Madrona and Leschi. An additional
On Wednesday, Lime launched their first 500 shareable e-scooters in Seattle to accompany their relaunch of around 500 bikes in June. This launch is a part of Seattle’s scootershare pilot program, which was greenlit by the city council last week. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) also selected Wheels
Scootershare finally got the go ahead on Monday as the Seattle City Council voted eight-to-one to approve a pilot program. Transportation Chair Alex Pedersen was the only no vote on the legislation, which permits scooters on streets, bike lanes, and recreational trails, but prohibits riding them on most sidewalks. The
Today Lime Bikes announced it had relaunched bikeshare with about 500 bikes, making Seattle the second city where Lime has relaunched bikes. The bikes are available only through the Uber app currently, but Lime plans to relaunch its own app down the road to provide another rental option. The fleet
Seattle once again finds itself without bikeshare. On Friday, Uber pulled the plug on its JUMP app after hitching its bike wagon to its competitor Lime in a deal worth $170 million. The Uber-led investment was not quite enough to pose a majority stake in Lime, which was recently valued
JUMP is the only bikeshare operator left standing in Seattle in 2020. Although the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has permitted more than 10,000 bikeshare bikes in the city, JUMP’s estimated 3,500 e-assist bikes are the sum total for now, after Lime suspended its bikeshare program at
Update: Despite earlier denials, Lime announced December 24th that it was closing down its bikeshare in Seattle and pulling all its bikes by December 31st. Lime said it will return in the spring with scooters. Lime Bikes dominated the first year of dockless bikeshare in Seattle, but the second year
Meet Veemo, an electric assist vehicle that advertises itself as “bike share meets car share.” From a legal and technical standpoint, Veemo is an electric assist tricycle, or e-trike, but Veemo also includes an enclosure to shield riders from the elements that makes it resemble the tiny car super nerd
Excitement over Mayor Durkan’s change of heart on scooter sharing created a festive atmosphere at a recent Seattle City Council event; however, details remain to be worked out before a scooter share pilot can be rolled out across Seattle. Just one day after Mayor Jenny Durkan announced her plans
Our own Senior Editor and Vision Zero reporter, Ryan Packer, made a recent guest appearance on Wheeltalk Seattle to talk all things bike.
While the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has a “New Mobility Playbook” touting trendy transportation options, it doesn’t have a e-scooter program. We got a hint at why in Mayor Jenny Durkan’s comments at Civic Cocktail last week. “No helmet, no experience; it goes 18 miles per hour,
The Seattle City Council had an outsized agenda on Monday passing wide-ranging transportation and housing legislation. Banner legislation to set out a timeline for building the Basic Bike Network in the Center City and a permanent private bikeshare permit program made it out of the chamber, though with some last-minute
I really, really love bike share. They aren’t always where I need them but they are so convenient when they are. They save me from worrying about locking my bike up. From worrying about putting my bike on a bus bike rack (often full, always annoying). From having to
Seattle’s dockless bikeshare program–with three privately-run operators so far–recently celebrated its first anniversary. One year in, Lime is clearly leading the pack. With buzz building and largely rave reviews, users had taken 1.4 million bikeshare rides across the three companies by July 1st. One million were
Seattle hopes to have a permanent permit program in place by August 31st for private bikeshare. The permanent program would would lift the cap on the number of bikes to 20,000, impose street use fees on bikeshare companies operating in the city, and add new regulatory requirements for the
The Urbanist has been inquiring about 2018 bikeshare ridership figures for months. As the deadline approaches for a permanent bikeshare permit to be approved by city council, information on how often bikes were getting used recently was hard to come by. On Wednesday, Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) finally dropped
A few weeks ago, a group opposed to adding bike lanes to a North Seattle arterial tweeted out, “Single mothers don’t commute to work on bikes. Privileged #techbros do…” Of course, they got pummeled by hundreds of single moms (and dads) who do indeed bike to work every day.
Today at 2pm, the Seattle City Council will hear a report from the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) on the status of free-floating bikeshare, as the department prepares to begin work on new legislation that will make the pilot program permanent. The report starts with a brief overview of free-floating
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) released a few bikeshare data morsels to the Pedestrian Advisory Board last week. Seatte’s system of privately-operated free-floating bikeshare continued to post solid numbers in the “Mid-Pilot Check-in.” Buoyed by free ride promotions, the five-month-long pilot program has surpassed the million mile mark
Seattle privately-run bikeshare pilot is widely heralded: it’s cheaper, shinier, and more widespread and flexible. There’s just one catch. Besides being better than Pronto Cycle Share was, private bikeshare hasn’t accomplished much yet. After pulling the plug on Pronto Cycle Share in the midst of a planned
The Seattle Department of Transportation offers some important guidance on where and where not park private bikeshare bikes on sidewalks.
Last week, Chinese bikeshare company Ofo became the third private bikeshare operator to be given the green light to join the pilot phase of Seattle’s new era in bike share, with the Texas-based operator VBikes apparently coming quickly on Ofo’s heels in the next week or so. That
After weeks of speculation, the Seattle City Council appears to be rushing to put together a framework that could allow private bikeshare operators to get their bikes onto Seattle’s streets by the height of peak tourist season. Tom Fucoloro at the Seattle Bike Blog has been covering this story
Seattle’s bikeshare program (Pronto) is no more, but before the system was dismantled over the weekend, our Senior Editor Ryan Packer did a ride-along with KUOW staff on Friday. KUOW’s Matt Martin interviewed Packer on his last ride to work in Downtown from his Capitol Hill residence–one
Today marks an unusual day in Seattle: we are shutting down an entire mode of transportation. Two and a half years after Pronto! Cycle Share launched in Downtown Seattle, Capitol Hill, and the University District with 50 stations and 500 bikes, operations will cease at midnight tonight after the Seattle
Here’s what I know about cycling, based on stuff Seattle people say: * Without good cycling infrastructure, the only people who’ll venture out on a bike are spandex-encased No Fear types. * Even they won’t cycle in the rain. Taichung is a city of 2.75 million (a little
On Friday afternoon, staff at the Seattle Department of Transportation working on a plan to expand Seattle’s bikeshare program and make it successful had the rug pulled out from under them. In typical Murray Administration fashion, the news came at 5:00 pm, with the press release titled “City
While Seattle’s bikeshare system is heading to the grave at the behest of Mayor Ed Murray, New York City’s bikeshare system is innovating new safety features for riders. New York City knows that bikeshare is an essential component of a modern city.
In late breaking news Friday, Mayor Ed Murray announced that he has decided to end bikeshare in Seattle. The City had been working toward a temporary shutdown of Pronto in late March until a new system operated by Bewegen could be relaunched. The new bikeshare system was intended to be
Streetfilms highlights the multi-modal success of Vancouver, BC.
After going through a request for proposals process to determine which firm will handle the expansion of bikeshare in Seattle scheduled for Summer of 2017, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has announced that the preferred firm right now is the Quebec-based Bewegen. SDOT chose Bewegen over the current bikeshare
On Wednesday, Pronto Cycle Share announced at the last minute that they were relocating two stations immediately. Word had been filtering down through various sources that the University of Washington light rail station would be getting a station sometime in August, but not expected was the relocation of a station
This past weekend The Seattle Times broke the news that Motivate, the current operator of Pronto bike share, is right now coming in second place in the City’s process for requesting proposals for the expansion of the system, currently scheduled to take place next summer. Coming in first is
This summer both Portland and Vancouver, B.C. follow on Seattle’s heels in launching a citywide bikeshare program. Oddly enough, they both ended up rolling out during the same week, with Portland’s system having been turned on this past Tuesday and Vancouver the following day. Vancouver, however, is