Hundreds of red, “dockless” electronic bikes appeared on the streets of San Diego and Seattle on Monday, the latest cities in which Uber introduced its e-bike program, Jump. The expansion comes days after Uber began rolling out the bike-sharing service across Los Angeles.
The San Francisco-based ride-hailing giant acquired Jump Bikes, a Brooklyn e-bike sharing service, in April.
In recent months, San Diegans have seen a rainbow of bikes and scooters dot its roads and walkways. Companies including Lime, which recently moved its headquarters to San Francisco, and China’s Ofo compete for market dominance. Bird, the Santa Monica e-scooter company started by Travis VanderZanden, who did stints at both Uber and archrival Lyft, also has a presence in San Diego.
Lime is also in Seattle; so were Ofo and Spin, a bike-sharing company owned by Ford Motor Company, but both recently exited, citing the cost of city permitting.
Before Uber acquired Jump, the two companies partnered to allow people in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. to use Uber’s ride-hailing app to find and rent Jump bikes, too. Its bright red cycles are now available in a dozen cities, available via the Uber and Jump mobile apps, according to a prepared statement from the company Monday. However, the statement didn’t list Seattle, where Jump also reportedly launched.
Uber said it has brought 300 bikes to San Diego and made them available across 28 square miles of the region. The service area is slated to expand to 95 square miles by year’s end, the company said.
In both San Diego and Seattle, riders must pay $1 to unlock a Jump bike, plus 10 cents per minute of use. (Pricing for the service varies by city.) Uber is offering riders up to five free, 30-minute trips daily through Dec. 9 in San Diego and Dec. 12 in Seattle. The bikes must be locked to a fixed object in a public space at the end of each ride, or the company will charge the most recent user $25.
In California, in addition to San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, the service is also available in Sacramento, Santa Monica, and Santa Cruz. Last month, Uber said it would double its fleet of 250 Jump bikes in San Francisco in response to robust ridership during its pilot there. The company also said that demand had prompted it to more than double its service area for Jump bikes in Sacramento.
In addition to Seattle and several California cities, Jump bikes are also available in Austin, TX; Chicago; Denver; New York City, Providence, RI; and Washington, D.C. The service also offers e-scooters in Austin, Santa Monica, and Los Angeles.
