urbanMSP

Posted: **July 14th, 2015, 3:50 pm**

Being able to transfer your FOB to different cities sounds cool, but I don't see much gain for the local operator. They can gather a lot of the data you're talking about from your credit card, and that system is already in place.

If the bike share operators want to capture visitors, their resources are better spent making sure there are docking stations, near places where visitors want to go. However, at the end of the day, bike-share is a service intended to be utilized by locals.

Posted: **July 20th, 2015, 3:01 pm**

https://www.niceridemn.org/news/2015/07 ... ide_system

New stations were announced.

Nicollet Island

SE 3rd Ave & University Ave SE

2nd Street SE & 5th Ave SE

22nd Ave NE & California Street NE

24th Ave NE & University Ave NE

18th Ave Trail & 2nd Street NE

Washington Ave N & Cedar Lake Trail

3rd Street NE & Lowry Ave NE

5th Street NE & 1st Ave NE

1st Ave N & 2nd Street N

3rd Street N & 8th Ave N

5th Ave N & 4th Street N

Sanford Hall

Weisman Art Museum

Hennepin Ave & S Washington Ave

5th Street NE & 3rd Ave NE

5th Street S & Nicollet Mall

Groveland Ave & Clifton Place

8th Street S & 2nd Ave S

Delaware St SE & 26th Ave SE

Generally they seem to make sense given the proximity to the river restriction. A couple of them weren't places I would have thought about.

Posted: **July 20th, 2015, 3:21 pm**

Good to see one right by the Nicollet LRT station. It would be nice if the one that used to be at 4th and Hennepin, but was removed to make way for the hotel construction, could have been just put across the street instead of disappeared.

Posted: **July 21st, 2015, 10:07 am**

On one hand, I want to say I support expanding & densifying the station network in NE, but on the other hand there is no way the stations at 2200 California & 2400 University get more use than stations would at 38th & Nicollet or 38th & Chicago

Posted: **July 21st, 2015, 10:37 am**

On one hand, I want to say I support expanding & densifying the station network in NE, but on the other hand there is no way the stations at 2200 California & 2400 University get more use than stations would at 38th & Nicollet or 38th & Chicago

I agree on 38th & Nicollet, but there aren't any stations within a mile of 38th & Chicago. So it'd be out on a little island, which might make it less likely to be used.

Posted: **July 27th, 2015, 2:57 pm**

Some good reasons Nice Ride comes in handy if you already own a bike:

http://bit.ly/1h0zWBP

Posted: **July 27th, 2015, 3:48 pm**

The one-way trip aspect is really underrated in my opinion. I own a bike but I've used Nice Ride as like a cheaper version of Uber when I can.

Posted: **July 27th, 2015, 4:07 pm**

I generally ride to work in the morning because it's faster, but then bus home due to mental exhaustion/not wanting to sweat in dress clothes.

Posted: **September 16th, 2015, 8:55 am**

This is late notice on the forum, but better late than never:

Streets.mn and Nice Ride Minnesota are collaborating to gather insight and recommendations from the community in order to help guide how the system will grow in the future. There will be a Happy Hour and Kickoff Presentation event tonight from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the McKnight Foundation in downtown Minneapolis, which is near the Mill City Museum Guthrie Theater.

McKnight Foundation
710 2nd St S, Suite 400
Minneapolis, MN 55401
5:30 - 7:30 pm

Here's a link to the announcement on the main streets.mn website: https://streets.mn/2015/09/01/streets-mn ... e-project/

There's also a Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/808674655915770/

As part of this effort, we are looking for writers willing to dig into Nice Ride station data and provide some analysis in posts for our site, and Nice Ride is offering a free one-year membership plus other goodies for people who make these posts. Take a look at the streets.mn announcement and contact Bill Lindeke if you'd like to participate.

Posted: **March 15th, 2016, 8:07 am**

2016 update:

It's time to dust off your Nice Ride key and get ready to ride. The Nice Ride team will begin installing stations on March 21st. Look for the bikes to hit the streets in the first week of April.

A few changes you should know about:
As a Nice Ride member, you’ll continue to get unlimited 60 minute rides. The cost for a 1-year membership will increase to $75. If you have a 30-day Pay-as-you-go membership, you’ll pay $18 when you start a new month of riding. Usage fees for rides longer than 60 minutes will be set at $4 per half hour for all memberships. Nice Ride remains one of the nation's lowest priced bike share systems. These changes will allow us to continue to provide the great service our riders deserve.

Nice Ride walk-up customers will have two new options this year: pay a flat $4 per half hour, or buy a 3-day pass for $10. 3-Day pass-holders can take unlimited 30 minute rides. Longer rides will incur fees.

New stations
In mid-summer, we plan to install eight new stations on the University of Minnesota campus, in Dinkytown, and Stadium Village. Station locations for the 2016 season are being finalized now. Keep an eye on the station map for location changes and station availability.

Some new station locations include:
• The Seward Co-op Friendship Store on 38th Street & Clinton Avenue South
• The St. Paul Riverfront at Shepard Road & North Sibley Street
• The North Minneapolis Greenway Demonstration near North 36th Avenue & Irving Avenue North

I'm personally excited about the new Seward location, but it doesn't seem very practical from a system and usage standpoint. I'll probably be one of five people that will use that station with regularity. It's well known that in order for bike share systems to get lots of use, station density is crucial. It's unfortunate that Nice Ride continues to add token stations outside of their general service area, rather than growing out incrementally (adding stations at Lake/35th/38th & Nicollet and at Painter Park before placing a lonely station at 38th & Clinton would make more sense) and filling gaps in their existing service area (people living at 24th & Pleasant or 18th & 3rd Ave shouldn't have to walk 5 blocks to get to a station).

Posted: **March 15th, 2016, 8:39 am**

Maybe we need to follow the example of Seattle, which just yesterday took over Pronto (their local bikeshare) and plans a massive expansion.

Posted: **March 15th, 2016, 9:36 am**

I thought the biggest reason for lack of expansion was difficulty finding a supplier to make new bikes and bike stations? Given the recent bankruptcy in the industry. Is that no longer an issue?

Posted: **March 15th, 2016, 12:41 pm**

Without other infill stations to strengthen the network (Nicollet & 35th, Grand & 38th, etc.) the 38th & Clinton station just looks like an indirect subsidy to Seward Co-op. If the store is providing a large portion of the funding, then great! But otherwise no, it doesn't make sense at all from a network standpoint.

Posted: **March 15th, 2016, 1:10 pm**

Having a station next to a co-op is a big plus. Believe it or not taking a nice ride bike to a grocery store is a huge benefit for users. I always take Nice ride to get groceries at Uptown Cub. Though I wish Nice Ride sold some foldable clip-on baskets to carry two bags of groceries. It's a great way to tackle food deserts areas, even if it's still only a 3 season service. Right next door is a community center right next to the co-op and several small apartment buildings too.

Posted: **March 15th, 2016, 1:12 pm**

Some new station locations include:

That seems to imply there might be additional infill stations that just aren't explicitly listed. That's what I'm hoping, anyways...

Posted: **March 15th, 2016, 1:42 pm**

Nice Ride walk-up customers will have two new options this year: pay a flat $4 per half hour, or buy a 3-day pass for $10. 3-Day pass-holders can take unlimited 30 minute rides. Longer rides will incur fees.

-1 for the more simplistic pricing model

*Edit*
For whatever reason my plus sign shows up as a - sign... Anyway, Plus one for the new pricing model!

Posted: **March 15th, 2016, 6:55 pm**

Are the new station locations new *stations* are are they just moved from other locations? It's hard to keep track of if things are net gains or just reshuffling.

Posted: **March 16th, 2016, 12:03 am**

Are the new station locations new *stations* are are they just moved from other locations? It's hard to keep track of if things are net gains or just reshuffling.

A few of them on Nicollet Mall I would imagine would be reshuffled, like the one out front of the YWCA maybe even Hyatt Regency as well.

Posted: **March 16th, 2016, 9:49 pm**

IMHO, Nice Ride MN is well run and financially solvent. The city of Seattle taking over Pronto is because their non-profit wasn't solvent and the system was about to shut down. Cities have resources and clear accountability, but they are not very nimble and have a harder time creating partnerships. With two cities already in Nice Ride's service area, there would likely be concerns about how equitable the service is planned and managed. Seattle will certainly run into that issue since the east side is interested in expansion there.

If stations outside the core service area don't serve a critical equity consideration and have terrible use, then they should be seriously considered for relocation. If they are outside and more equitably serve the community or have reasonable ridership and are reasonably accessible to rebalance (as needed), I think it's fine. As someone who used to live south of 50th Street, I was a little frustrated that there wasn't a station within a couple miles. Probably not the priority but longer term if 38th gets stations, it'd be nice to have something down near some of the major neighborhood nodes like 48th/Chicago, 50th/Bryant, 50th/France, Linden Hills, etc. If SW LRT ever gets built, it would expand the system's reach in areas where there is indirect bus service. Anyways, I agree that some closer in infill makes sense.

Posted: **May 9th, 2017, 11:58 am**

Has anyone heard if Nice Ride has evaluated pedal-assist bike share? Seems like there is potential to get persons to ride who normally won't. http://betterbikeshare.org/2016/03/07/b ... ic-assist/

urbanMSP

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