Providence Not the Only City Jump Bikes Have Left

Providence Not the Only City Jump Bikes Have Left

After a series of violent attacks by gangs of youth, Providence and Uber company JUMP Bikes agreed to stop the service until they can work to "enhance security and responsible ridership."

Providence isn’t the only city to see Jump depart — according to the Dallas Morning News and now Governing Magazine, other U.S. cities have seen the mobile transportation company come — and go. 

“Dallas still has no idea why Uber Jump-ed out of the city's rental e-bike business,” wrote columnist Robert Wilonsky for The Dallas Morning News in June.  Wilonksy wrote: 

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It has been a couple of weeks since Uber pedaled its e-bikes out of Dallas, and still we have no idea why. At least, not officially. The official release was pretty vague. And by pretty I mean extremely. As in:

"We are winding down our JUMP bike operations in Dallas. We look forward to continuing to offer JUMP scooters. We will maintain an open dialogue with city leaders on how we can continue working together to expand transportation options and are grateful for their dedication."

Governing Magazine takes a look in “Dockless in Dallas” — “At one point, there were 18,000 rental bikes in Dallas. Now, they’re all gone” — in its September issue.

Neither publication points to the issue of violence — or misuse — as had been a problem in Providence. 

Meanwhile in Worcester, another bike-sharing company -- "ofo" -- came and left, and media there pointed to difficulties in New England's second-largest city. 

Mass Live reported that bike-sharing there is “on hold for at least another year, following city’s experiment with ofo."

“When ofo was operating in Worcester, its yellow bikes were often left strewn about sidewalks. Some were seen vandalized or being ridden with the locks cut off or disabled,” wrote Mass Live. 

City Lab reported in 2018, "Ofo is out: Just a year after launching 40,000 lemon-yellow bicycles in more than 30 different markets in the United States, the Chinese dockless bikesharing company is scaling back its operations and has laid off 70 percent of its North American operations team."

Will Bikes Return?

In Providence, city officials left the door open for the return of Jump Bikes. 

The South Providence Neighborhood Association, which had announced it has scheduled a meeting with Jump officials and the community for September, announced Thursday that Jump requested the meeting be moved to October 15, when SPNA will hold its regularly scheduled monthly meeting.