Nice Ride Minnesota

About

Nice Ride is the Twin Cities' bike share system. Simply take a bike when you need one and return it to any station when you arrive at your destination. It's quick, easy and affordable. Ride by credit card, app, or member key anytime.

Story

Nice Ride Minnesota was formed through the Twin Cities Bike Share Project, an initiative started by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and the City of Lakes Nordic Ski Foundation in July 2008. The Project evaluated bike share systems through an RFP and developed a non-profit business plan based on a combination of public and private funding. Bike/Walk Twin Cities (a program of Transit for Livable Communities funded through the Federal Highway Administration) announced its financial support in March of 2009, responding to a major funding commitment by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Center for Prevention. Nice Ride held its first board meeting in April of 2009 and received non-profit status the following June. Funding for Phase 1 of the bike share system was secured by the end of 2009 and a staff was quickly assembled. In early 2010, we selected Public Bike System Co. (developers of the Montreal Bixi bike share system) to supply our bike share equipment. We formed relationships with two local businesses, Freewheel Bike Shop and Sieco Construction, to help us assemble and install the bike share equipment.

The bike share system became operational on June 10, 2010. Hundreds of people turned out for an inaugural ride down Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. Phase 1 of the system included 700 bikes and 65 stations throughout Minneapolis. In our first season we logged over 100,000 rides on Nice Ride bikes.

We have aggressively expanded the bike share system since 2010. In 2011 we added 51 stations and another 500 bikes. This expansion took us to in to St. Paul and more areas of Minneapolis. The 2012 expansion added 30 stations followed up by a 24 station expansion in 2013. In 2015 we added another 20 stations for a total of 190. During that same period the size of the fleet increased to over 1700 bicycles. By the end of the 2015 season, riders had taken over 1,750,000 rides on Nice Ride bikes. Much of this work was made possible with support from the National Park Service.

The creation of Nice Ride Minnesota is a remarkable story of cooperation by local professionals-all donating their time—to create something great for the Twin Cities. Each of these firms donated hundreds of hours of staff time to make Nice Ride Minnesota a reality: Dorsey & Whitney (legal), Duffy & Partners (design), Mono (marketing), Grant Thornton (accounting), Roepke (P.R.), and Clockwork (web development).

Mission

Mission:

To enhance the quality of our urban life by providing a convenient, easy-to-use bike sharing program that will provide residents and visitors a healthy, fun, different way to get around town.



Vision:

We see a bike sharing program that will permanently change the way people experience and perceive our city, as well as the way they experience and perceive transportation.

Nice Ride will create a more vibrant city, a place where people want to work, live and play.

Nice Ride will stand as a working example of how our state and cities create programs that meet critical and shared public goals.

Nice Ride will show that the benefits of alternative transportation are many and lasting. For our residents those benefits will include:

-Avoiding vehicular congestion
-Reducing our carbon footprint
-Less dependence on fossil fuels
-More efficient movement from place to place
-More opportunities for healthy physical activity
-More interesting personal experiences interacting with the city
-A growing affinity to make other changes in all modes of transportation
-A sense of civic pride