How’s this for dockless bike-share pricing: $15 for unlimited rides? Too bad though, the offer has already sold out.
Remember the fleet of nearly 100 bikes from MoBike that mysteriously vanished from The Woodlands last month? MoBike itself, it turns out, pulled them off the streets starting in October and put them in 2 self-storage rentals: one at Amazing Spaces on I-45 just north of Vision Park Blvd., and the other 5 miles down the freeway at the U-Haul Moving and Storage center near the Rayford-Sawdust Rd. exit — which the company used as a repair shop. But no announcement was made and the great bike-share vanishing was kind of mysterious. Residents who called up the township to ask where the bikes had all gone — according to The Villager’s Jeff Forward — were told that the township hadn’t received any communication from MoBike about what had happened.
Then . . . the bikes showed up on Craigslist:
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There, approximately 80 MoBike unisex commercial cruisers were offered up for $15 each. They sold out last Wednesday — according to Will Rub, the former general manager for The Woodlands fleet. But there was a catch: Because MoBike had stopped providing IT support in early October for the smartphone app that unlocks the bikes, he says, about 20 of those sold still had their rear-wheel locking mechanisms engaged. The company decided to depart from The Woodlands in July after 7 months there says Rub, as part of an as-yet unannounced nationwide pullout plan. In July, the MoBike left Washington D.C. — and in August, Dallas, where customers have received refunds for ride credits they never used.
- 2018 Mobike Cruisers – $15 [Craigslist]
- Bike-sharing company MoBike ceases operations in The Woodlands [The Woodlands Villager]
- So long, Mobike. Another bike-share company pedals out of Dallas [Dallas Morning News]
- Mobike becomes second dockless bike operator to pull out of D.C. [Washington Post]
- Previously on Swamplot: The Mysterious Disappearance of The Woodlands’ Dockless Bike Fleet; The Woodlands Beats Houston to Its Dockless Bikesharing Future
Photos: The Woodlands Township (MoBike near Hughes Landing Blvd. and Aviator Wy.); Amazing Spaces (storage facility)
Never thought about these bike-shares involving local contractors who front start-up costs – like a franchise? Is that what’s happening here?
“How’s this for dockless bike-share pricing: $15 for unlimited rides? ” That one hit Dan. Well done.
I had to spend a couple weeks in DC this past May. This orange bike (with it’s rear wheel lock engaged) was left, in the way of pedestrians, unused, on the sidewalk – for that entire time I was there.
Methinks this dockless type of rideshare concept is another opportunity for “let somebody else take care of this” as is with litter, shopping carts and unwanted dogs and cats.
Houston doesn’t have dockless scooters yet, right? After encountering them for the first time in downtown San Antonio this weekend I cannot wait until this concept fails–way too many and take up so much sidewalk just idle.