The Nice Ride Minnesota bike-share service debuted in June across a significant swath of Minneapolis: from Uptown, through downtown, to Dinkytown. But the program drew notice for two areas left out of its geographic range: St. Paul and North Minneapolis.
For North Minneapolis, that's about to change.
Last week the Minneapolis City Council approved spending $228,500 in federal Recovery Act funds to expand Nice Ride onto the city's north side. Next week, Nice Ride will hold a
public meeting to gather ideas for where to put the bikes. Next summer, Nice Ride's trademark yellow-green bikes will show up at six bike-rental stations paid for with the $230,000 allocated for North Minneapolis.
St. Paul, meanwhile, waits.
"We're ready to go if we had the money," says Bill Dossett, Nice Ride's executive director.
Dossett's attention is focused for the moment on the program's reception on campuses in Nice Ride's current range, as students return for fall classes at the University of Minnesota, Augsburg College, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and Minneapolis Community and Technical College.
He's also looking forward to next spring. If Minneapolis follows Montreal's pattern, that's when annual subscriptions will take off. Only 1,100 year passes have sold so far--a number depressed, Dossett guesses, by the misconception that annual subscriptions expire at the end of 2010.
In reality, the passes are good for a full year from day of purchase. Annual subscribers get a key and a coupon book, making them, in Dossett's estimation, "the happiest people."
Source: Bill Dossett, Nice Ride Minnesota
Writer: Chris Steller