Lime, a self-described “micromobility” company best known for providing customer rentals of bright green electric scooters through phone apps, will take over management of former competitor Jump’s business operations, according to a company announcement Thursday. The move comes after Jump’s vehicle rideshare app-controlled parent Uber led a $170 million multi-partner investment round in Lime. Going forward, users will be able to rent the bikes using both the Uber and Lime apps.
News emerging in the wake of last week’s Uber and Lime partnership announcement reported that several cities had their Jump bike rental program pulled altogether. Already, prior to the new development, the bright-red basketed electrical bikes already had become scarce in Santa Cruz due to the bikes’ potential for spread of the coronavirus among users and Jump employees.
Reached Monday, city transportation planner Claire Gallogly said she had no update on the local Jump operations, but expected to connect with Lime representatives later this week. Gallogly, who helped usher in the Jump contract and continues to spearhead city efforts to reduce single-person car trips in the city, said Lime officials have been in touch with reassurances that they do not believe Santa Cruz’s program will change. The company’s team, however, is in the process of analyzing the city’s program, she said.
The bicycles’ easy accessibility, particularly for short-distance rides, is a cornerstone of the city’s 6-month-old GO Santa Cruz program, which provides alternative transportation incentives via free or discounted rides on buses and bicycles, among other incentives, to more than 4,000 employees working in the city’s downtown core. In an April 21 report to the Santa Cruz City Council, Gallogly said Jump worked with the city to offer a first-in-the-nation program to subsidize bike rentals for downtown employees.
Uber obtained Jump from Social Bicycles in April 2018, even as Santa Cruz city officials were cementing an exclusive access agreement to launch a new bike program with docking stations scattered citywide. Locally, the Jump service has gained support from alternate-transit boosters and been eyed for expansion options elsewhere in Santa Cruz. Simultaneously, the program has stoked ire among residents and businesses, particularly those located in Santa Cruz’s highest tourist-draw areas, due to users’ often haphazard parking jobs, lack of user safety equipment and high speeds in pedestrian areas.
©2020 the Santa Cruz Sentinel (Scotts Valley, Calif.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
