Last year in November of 2017, the Town entered into a partnership with Spin to provide dock-less bicycle-sharing program. This innovative program allowed the Town to expand their transportation services and provide a new form of mobility for Miami Lakes residents, which is ideal for short distance point-to-point trips. The dock-less bike program aimed to increase transportation options by helping people move quickly about their neighborhood to connect with the larger community without using a car.
Recently, Spin notified the Town that they are changing the company's focus toward electric scooter mobility and will be ending their support for the dock-less bike sharing program on August 20th.
In order to provide continuity of service, the Town conducted independent research to identify other market participants. Research showed that several dock-less bike share providers are similarly leaving the market. The Town learned that one provider Lime has chosen to continue providing dock-less bike share service and the Town has initiated discussions with the company.
Lime is a bicycle-sharing company that operates a station-less bicycle-sharing system, which uses a mobile app for reservations like the Spin program. The Lime bicycles are green-colored bikes equipped with onboard GPS units and cellular modems. Rides cost $0.50 for every 30 minutes. Since, the Lime bicycles are station-less, they can be parked anywhere within the Town at designated landscape/furniture zones on sidewalks. Lime's ground operations team will place Lime bicycles in an orderly fashion curbed on sidewalks at least six feet wide and at/or near bike racks and bike corrals. The company will ensure that bicycles are not obstructing pedestrian or motor vehicle traffic. Lime users and the general public can report bikes obstructing the public right of way 24/7 via the website or the app. Lime will then dispatch a ground operations member to deal with bikes reported as obstructing the public right of way.
Lime Pilot Program:
As part of the pilot program, Lime will maintain an initial fleet of 150 bicycles to be available for rent over the course of the twelve-month period. The bicycles will be strategically located at key transit stations, commercial zones, and denser residential areas, where Lime bicycles may help address “last mile” transportation issues. Lime's station-less bikes make their operations flexible, so that bicycle deployment areas can be easily adjusted and distributed based on user demand and usage data.
The pilot program comes with no cost to the Town and does not require any infrastructure improvements. Under the provisions of the MOU, the Town will authorize Lime to use the public right-of-way for maintaining and operating its station-less bike-share program.
Lime will also be providing aggregated trip data to the Town, which will help Town leaders tackle mobility planning issues and get a better understanding of how constituents move around Miami Lakes.
In general, this program intends to provide broader mobility choices to Miami Lakes residents and visitors, provide better access to public transportation by addressing “first and last mile” transportation issues, and aid in reducing the number of vehicles on the road. Lastly, the program will provide users with an important component of community wellness. The placement of bikes in public spaces, provide opportunities for communities to send a message of how much value is placed on the health and wellness.