The Minneapolis bike-share program known as Nice Ride has taken its final ride.
Lyft announced Wednesday that it was suspending Nice Ride operations after losing and failing to replace the program's presenting sponsor, Blue Cross Blue Shield, late last year.
Blue Cross Blue Shield had sponsored the program since it began in 2010.
"It is a little sad, but there is a certain kind of pride and a feeling of this is something we're proud to have been part of," Nice Ride Executive Director Bill Dossett told Vineeta Sawkar Thursday during the WCCO Radio Morning News. "Nice Ride started back in 2010 and Minneapolis was the first city to really get a large, modern bike share on the street in North America."
Dossett said Nice Ride, a nonprofit, received funds through the Federal Highway Administration and Blue Cross Blue Shield. What started as an experiment blossomed into a staple for commuters citywide.
"In 2010 there were 100,000 trips taken on on the bike share system and we thought that was phenomenal," Dossett said. "Last year, if you think about e-scooters, e-bikes, and the green pedal bikes there were over 800,000 trips taken. It's just grown every year."
With growth, comes change, and that was certainly the case in the span of 13 years thanks to electric bikes and scooters
70 percent of Nice Ride trips were taken on e-scooters in 2022.
"That's the future. What the future's going to look like is charging those vehicles on the street. That's going to take some changes. Right now they're swapping those batteries every couple of days. A better system will be to have charging infrastructure at mobility hubs on the street."
Lyft says Nice Ride infrastructure will be removed as the weather begins to warm-up.