Nice Ride bikes to return to Minneapolis, but not St. Paul

Updated: 3:34 p.m. Friday | Posted: 6:40 p.m. Tuesday

Nice Ride bikes will be back on Minneapolis streets by mid-April, but the bicycle sharing service will no longer be available in St. Paul.

Nice Ride says it's expanding its service in Minneapolis, with more bike parking hubs and stations, pedal assist electric bikes and a new reduced fare membership program.

However, in a statement, Nice Ride says Minneapolis and St. Paul have "gone down different paths for shared mobility operators and Nice Ride won't be in St. Paul this riding season."

Last fall the ride-sharing company Lyft bought Motivate, the company that runs Nice Ride and other bike-sharing services around the country.

Nice Ride's move means no bike sharing services will operate in St. Paul this year. The mobility company Lime is also discontinuing its bike service but Lime's electric scooters will remain.

Nice Ride CEO Bill Dossett said Thursday that the nonprofit would like to operate in St. Paul once again. At the end of the 2018 riding season, Nice Ride removed its docks in St. Paul because the city had signed a bike sharing contract with Lime.

"Both the nonprofit and Lyft are eager to provide bike share service in St. Paul and to cities all over the metro," Dossett said.

Reuben Collins, a St. Paul city transportation engineer who oversees bike share and scooter contracts, said that the city plans to release a request for proposals in the coming weeks.

"The city of St. Paul remains committed to bike sharing services and this is a minor step back for us. But we're still hopeful and confident that we'll find a vendor for 2019."