How to Find Shared Bikes and Scooters When Traveling
Over the past year, shared bikes have become a huge thing in my San Francisco home. I think it started with bikes that you can rent from Ford by the hour, but then quickly expanded to a billion other options, from Jump motorcycles to Bird and Lime scooters.
As a local resident with his own bike, this is all very annoying to me (especially scooters that either mow people on the sidewalk or stay in the middle of the sidewalk when people are done with them).
However, if you are traveling somewhere where you really need short-term transportation, then finding a bike to share can definitely come in handy. Figuring out what’s in stock, where you are, and where the bike docks are can be tricky at times. When you talk about bicycles and scooters that you can leave anywhere, it gets even more difficult.
Citymapper recently released an update to its app that can help you find the closest Deckles bike or electric scooter to you.
When you launched the app, you already had buttons to search for all modes of transport, as well as specific metro, train or bus lines. There is now a button for a bike that you can integrate into your “all” search, or start a search associated with a specific bike.
When you click on the “Bike” button, the app will show you every bike that is next to you. In the image below, he shows the JUMP bikes next to me that people can kindly leave everywhere, as well as the Bay Area Bike Share bikes I mentioned earlier.
By clicking on the bike rental dock, you can find out how many bikes are still available there. For Jump motorcycles, I can see what the percentage of battery power is. That way, I don’t waste my time walking to the bike that will soon run out of charge when I could walk another block and get one that is fully charged.
This feature is available in a number of major cities and can be a great way to quickly find out what’s available near you without having to download a bunch of different apps.