Today, a fleet of new bike shares are hitting the streets of Seattle.
Lime, which pulled its bikes from Seattle at the end of last year, has relaunched the red JUMP bikes after acquiring the fleet in May. There are 500 e-bikes around the city, available for use through the Uber app for now; they’ll be added to the Lime app eventually. It costs $1 to unlock a bike, and 36 cents per minute to use.
“Bikeshare is going to be critical to mobility in our city as COVID has reduced the capacity of our transit system,” Jonathan Hopkins, Lime Government Affairs for Pacific Northwest & Canada said in a statement. “Over the coming weeks, we will continue to work with the City of Seattle to ensure bikeshare is a critical part of our recovery and key part of our City’s efforts to create safer streets and reduce emissions.”
Lime says they’re taking extra health precautions as they relaunch, but cite guidance from the CDC that COVID-19’s primary mode of transmission is through close contact with others rather than via surface transmission. Even so, they say they plan to enhance their cleaning methods and bike disinfection.
“We are cleaning all parts of the scooter that are touched by people and we are only using products recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the Center for Biocide Chemistries list that have been approved by the EPA for use against the coronavirus,” Lime says.
Photos courtesy Lime