Nice-Ride-Five-Year-Assessment

NICE RIDE
FIVE-YEAR ASSESSMENT
& STRATEGIC PLAN

| FIVE-YEAR ASSESSMENT May 7, 2015
THANK YOU

Nice Ride staff compiled the following 5-year
assessment for a strategic planning session of
the Board of Directors held in January 2015.
In it, we have attempted to highlight key
lessons learned, some from successes and
some from mistakes. We also asked our
partners to comment on Nice Ride, our
impact, and what we can do better. From our
perspective, we see in front of us a world of
opportunity to build healthier and more
vibrant cities and towns. We hope this
history will help others seize those
opportunities too.
The final section is a summary of strategic
direction. This section is currently in draft, to
be finalized following the Annual Meeting of
the Board in April.
Bill Dossett
Executive Director
Nice Ride Minnesota

OUR 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.

OUR 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

CONTENTS
OUR STORY
HOW IT STARTED
SERVICE AREA PLANNING, EXPANSION FUNDING, & SYSTEM GROWTH/OPTIMIZATION
PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP
FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
GETTING FROM EXPERIMENT TO RELIABLE TRANSPORTATION SERVICE
Operations
Theft & Vandalism
Software & Point of Sale Technology
Customer Service Call Center
Anticipating New Technologies
BEYOND BIKE SHARE OPERATIONS
Marketing
Outreach
Equity Initiatives
Greater Minnesota
North American Bikeshare Association (NABSA)
STRATEGIC DIRECTION DRAFT FEBRUARY 2015
MISSION
URBAN SYSTEM GOALS
GREATER MINNESOTA PROGRAM
ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS

APPENDICES
2008 Nonprofit Business Plan
2009 Transit for Livable Communities Award
2009 Initial Bike Share Station Location Plan
2010 Phase 2 Map
2010 Phase 2 Plan
2011 Nice Ride on the Northside Report
2012 System Optimization Report
2013 Greater Minnesota Vision Statement
2014 UROC Research on Nice Ride Neighborhood Project
2015 Nice Ride Partner Comments for Strategic Planning

HOW IT
STARTED
Nice Ride began with a motivated mayor, a
million-dollar promise, and a public-funding
process designed to make tough decisions
fast.
In 2008 Mayor RT Rybak told Time Magazine
he would bring urban bike share to
Minneapolis. At the time, bike share was a
European amenity for big cities like Paris,
France.
Communal bicycles were not new to the
Minneapolis metro area. In the mid-1990s,
the Yellow Bike Coalition launched a first-
generation bike share system in Saint Paul.
Yet without a way to track bikes and charge
users, it was not possible to maintain a
reliable bike fleet or create a sustainable
business model.
Like yellow bike programs around the
country, this first attempt ended quickly
and did not inspire confidence. The
Yellow Bike Coalition did, bring together
Saint Paul activists who went on to
introduce thousands to active
transportation through a grassroots
initiative now called Cycles for Change.
Fortunately, not all bike share programs
are alike. Third-generation systems like
Paris’s Vélib addressed first-generation
problems through the same RFID and
database technology that controls
access to office buildings. Rather than
locking a bike anywhere around the
city, users dock bikes in automated
kiosks where other people can find
them and system operators can keep
the bikes pedaling smoothly. When a
rider checks out a bike, the system also
pairs their rental with their credit card
number, increasing user accountability.
“These bikes,” Rybak thought, “would
be different.”
Yet many community leaders
questioned the difference between
Rybak’s dream and the Yellow Bikes of
the 90s. With several people asking,

“Didn’t we already try this?” persuading the
downtown business community was a huge
challenge.
Paddling with a friend in the June 2008, City
of Lakes Tri-Loppet, Rybak had an epiphany.
A local nonprofit like the Loppet Foundation
could mobilize community energy, draw on
support from both public and private sectors,
and seize opportunities better than
government agencies and private companies
alone. Rybak decided that if Minneapolis
were to have a bike share company, a
nonprofit model would be the key to its
success. And Bill Dossett, the man paddling
next to Rybak, would be the person to lead it.
Soon after, the City of Minneapolis contracted
with the Loppet Foundation to engage the
community and explore funding
opportunities. The Loppet Foundation
contracted with Dossett, a former lawyer and
Loppet volunteer. Tasked with preparing the
nation’s first nonprofit bike share business
plan, soliciting sponsorship, and applying for
federal grants, Dossett began the Twin Cities
Bike Share Project (TCBSP).
TCBSP was a stakeholder group of bike
advocates, transportation professionals, and
bike shop owners. The group quickly came
together to consider developing technologies,
recommend a target service area, and identify
desired elements of a future system. TCBSP
held its first meeting in a space shared by the
Midtown Greenway Coalition and Freewheel
Midtown Bike Center. The Greenway
Coalition and Freewheel were eager
supporters of the bike share project at every
step of development.
At the same time, a group of downtown
professional firms committed to assist TCBSP.
Dorsey & Whitney law firm, the Duffy &
Partners design and branding firm, Roepke
Public Relations, the Roundpeg and Mono
marketing firms, and the Grant Thornton
accounting firm all provided their services on
a pro bono basis. Mark Bixby, a physician and
longtime member of the Loppet Foundation
Board, and John Munger, Executive Director
of the Loppet, provided expertise in nonprofit
governance. Mark would later become chair
of the Nice Ride Minnesota board. These
professionals put the organization on a firm
footing to solicit a title sponsorship.
In late summer 2009 Mayor Rybak hosted a
meeting of business leaders at City Hall to
pitch bike share to private-sector partners.
From the very beginning, the Center for
Prevention at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of
Minnesota was open to big ideas. Michael
Huber, a veteran of Blue Cross’ active living
programs, came to City Hall knowing more
about bike share than anyone in the room.
Huber challenged Nice Ride to create
something big, with real potential to change
the way people think about health and
BEHIND THE SCENES: In 2008 the
primary business model for bike share
was a street furniture contract.
Advertising giants JC Decaux and
ClearChannel provided bike share
equipment and maintenance in
exchange for billboard advertising
rights. Mayor Rybak was worried an
outdoor media company would not
provide the level of investment and
care a new bike share demanded.
LESSON LEARNED: Developing a
strong brand identity early on gave
potential partners faith in Nice Ride as
a professional organization even before
its official founding.

transportation. “Do that,” Huber said, “and
Blue Cross will be interested.”
Mayor Rybak invited Pat Geraghty, then CEO
of Blue Cross, to a demonstration of the
Public Bike System Company (PBSC)’s bike
share equipment. Geraghty examined the
bikes and stations in development for
Montreal’s Bixi program. He kicked the tires
and looked over plans for an 80-station
system in Minneapolis. Within days, Geraghty
committed to a $1 million title sponsorship
contingent on Nice Ride’s ability to secure
public funding for a full-scale launch.
Years earlier, former Congressman Jim
Oberstar created the Nonmotorized
Transportation Pilot Program (NTPP) for
opportunities just like this one. Most
federally-funded transportation projects
involve major construction. They take years
to bring through the planning, design, and
construction phases. Oberstar realized that
government procedures intended for major
construction made funding bike and
pedestrian initiatives difficult.
The NTPP made federal dollars available for
pilot projects in four locations, including
Minneapolis and its surrounding
communities. NTPP funds were directed
toward demonstrating how a concentrated
investment in non-motorized transportation
infrastructure and programming could quickly
lead to a shift toward active transportation.
To fulfill this mission, the federal government
gave local nonprofit, Transit for Livable
Communities (TLC), the authority to select
projects for the Minnesota pilot area.
In December 2008 the Minneapolis City
Council applied to the NTPP for $1,750,000.
If awarded, the City Council pledged to be
the fiscal agent for a nonprofit bike share
owner/operator, that didn’t yet exist.
Current Mayor Betsy Hodges spoke
loudest in support of the authorizing
resolution. Though Councilperson
Hodges represented a ward outside the
planned bike share service area, she saw
bike share as the leading edge of a
movement to create livable urban spaces.
Others on the Council were concerned
about financial risk to the city if the
nonprofit business proved unsustainable.
The final resolution mandated that the
City of Minneapolis could not be held
responsible for the bike share program’s
operating costs under any circumstances,
even if the nonprofit business failed.
The City Council’s resolution put the TLC
Board in a difficult position. A panel of
transportation and public policy experts, the
board was committed to maximizing the
impact of the limited funds entrusted to
them. The bike share program could be the
“showcase project” TLC needed to change
public opinion about non-motorized
transportation, forcing officials to accelerate
infrastructure projects delayed by red tape.

Everyone on the TLC Board viewed bike share
as a powerful tool to transform U.S. cities.
Yet some were not convinced that
Minneapolis was the right U.S. city in which to
start. The bike share’s business plan was
based on data from European metros very
different from Minneapolis. The only local
precedent was the defunct Yellow Bike
Program. If Nice Ride failed, it could be a
setback for bike share nationally and, even
negatively impact larger cities like New York.
Risking $1.75 million that could have been
used to build bike lanes or improve sidewalks
through Bike Walk Twin Cities was a tough
call. Yet the TLC Board decided to move
forward with bike share, twice.
The nonprofit business plan was built around
the idea that Nice Ride would use public
money and title sponsor dollars to buy
equipment rather than take out capital loans.
Once equipment was purchased, Nice Ride
would cover operating costs without public
support. Based on data collected from other
bike shares, Nice Ride expected bike share
sales revenue to cover 70%-80% of operating
costs, leaving station sponsorships to account
for the remaining 20%-30%.
TLC put Nice Ride’s financial sustainability to
the test right away by placing a contingency
on NTPP funding. To receive their award,
Nice Ride had to collect pre-committed
station sponsorships totaling $100,000 per
year for the first three years.
Nice Ride raised well over $100,000 for year
one. But the new nonprofit found few
partners willing to commit to a three-year
contract in the depths of the recession.
Unable to gauge Nice Ride’s viability on their
own, TLC hired an independent consultant to
review Nice Ride’s business plan. With a
favorable report, TLC removed its award
contingency and authorized Nice Ride to
proceed with procurement in December
2009. Less than a month later, Nice Ride
hired staff, selected a vendor, and became an
operating organization.
Blue Cross’s commitment to match public
contributions of capital dollars has been an
effective tool for Nice Ride to leverage public
investment. In comparison to the costs
involved in developing other modes of
transportation, the federal investment in bike
sharing is minute. Given the federal
government’s goals to reduce high costs
associated with urban traffic congestion and
the negative health impacts of sedentary
lifestyles, investment in bike share is an
obvious avenue for federal funds. Yet most
federal transportation programs, like NTPP,
require a local funding match, and cities and
counties are strapped by the high costs of
operations and infrastructure maintenance.
By fully funding the local match and
supporting a public-private partnership to
handle all operating expenses, Blue Cross
enabled Nice Ride to grow quickly, using a
larger array of funding sources than any other
bike share system in the U.S.
LESSON LEARNED: Strong private
support is critical to Nice Ride’s
success. Title sponsor Blue Cross and
Blue Shield of Minnesota gives public
and nonprofit sponsors confidence that
Nice Ride will deliver a quality service.
Nice Ride staff is able to use this
confidence as leverage to raise more
sponsorship dollars.

SERVICE AREA
PLANNING,
GROWTH, &
OPTIMIZATION
Nice Ride launched on June 10, 2010 with 300
green bikes rolling down Nicollet Mall. On
that day, questions about the Yellow Bike
Project ended. Instead it seemed everyone
wanted a bike share station in their
neighborhood or business district.
The initial bike share station location plan
was prepared by Alta Planning and Design in
2009. Nice Ride’s early goals were to
maximize social impact on public perception
of cycling, drive transportation mode shift,
and ensure financial sustainability. To meet
these objectives, the Nice Ride Board directed
Alta to choose station locations that would
maximize Nice Ride’s utility as a
transportation system. Alta chose locations
based on residential density, employment and
educational activity, and transit boarding
activity. To supplement Alta’s findings, Nice
Ride held a series of public workshops to
draw on small groups of people interested in
transportation policy. The resulting service
area centered on three locations: downtown
Minneapolis, the University of Minnesota
Minneapolis campus, and the
Wedge/Uptown.

Notably, the initial plan did not attempt to
serve bike trails or recreational destinations.
Nice Ride’s focus was on workday
transportation.
Also absent from the original system map
were stations in North Minneapolis. Within
days after the launch on June 10,
2010, Nice Ride received criticism for
not installing stations in North
Minneapolis. The Nice Ride
Board responded by inviting
community leaders to a special board
meeting in July 2010. At the meeting
the board committed to make
expansion and community
engagement in North Minneapolis an
immediate priority.
Within only a few weeks, Nice Ride
partnered with the City of Minneapolis
Department of Health and Community
Services to apply for federal funding for a
North Minneapolis expansion through a
federal stimulus program. The program,
Communities Putting Prevention to Work,
was aimed at combatting obesity
and sedentary lifestyles in low-
income communities.
Prior to the 2010 launch, staff
projected that Nice Ride
expansion would take place over
several years, eventually
expanding service into downtown
Saint Paul with the opening of the
MetroTransit Green Line in 2014.
After Nice Ride launched, Saint Paul Mayor
Chris Coleman made it clear he had a more
accelerated schedule in mind. Just a few
weeks after launch Coleman invited Blue
Cross CEO Pat Geraghty and Nice Ride
Executive Director Bill Dossett to a meeting
on University Avenue to discuss ideas for bike
share in the Central Corridor, on Grand
Avenue, and in downtown Saint Paul.
Blue Cross and was also keen to build on
momentum created by the launch. To spur
additional public sector investment, Blue
Cross committed to match public sector
capital investment in bike share equipment at
the same ratio as their initial investment—
one part private funding to two parts public
funding. The TLC Board responded by inviting
Nice Ride to reply to a solicitation for new
Bike Expansion Funding through 2014
Bike Walk Twin Cities/FHWA 2,773,000
NPS Alternative Transportation
to MNRRA
1,100,000
Central Corridor Funders
Collaborative
350,000
DHHS Communities Putting
Prevention to Work
250,000
University of Minnesota 150,000
MNDOT/FWHA 100,000
Hennepin County 90,000
Macalester College 30,000
Total Public Funding 5,043,000
Title Sponsor: Blue Cross and
Blue Shield of Minnesota
3,144,040
Total Sources of Public &
Private Funding
8,187,040
* Blue Cross provided $1.1 million additional
funds for system improvements, promotional
items, and the Greater Minnesota pilot.
Bike Expansion Funding uses through 2013
Year Stations Bikes Funds Used
2010 65 700 3,141,215
2011 51 500 2,233,511
2012 20 128 1,121,668
2013 24 228 1,021,875
Totals 170 1,556 7,518,269

NTPP projects made possible when the
federal Highway Bill was extended in 2010.
In fall 2010 Community Design Group hosted
a series of local workshops on Nice Ride
expansion. While pre-launch workshops only
drew a small group of transportation policy
advocates, 2010 workshops brought in
crowds of people who wanted bike share
stations in their neighborhoods. Community
Design Group’s engagement work resulted in
a Phase 2 Plan, including 200 potential station
locations in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The
Nice Ride Board approved the Phase 2 Plan in
December 2010 and authorized staff to move
forward to implement it to the extent that
capital funds were committed to support
expansion equipment.
The approved Phase 2 Plan Map brought two
important changes to the Nice Ride system.
First, it created a potential service area far
larger and less dense than the 2009 Alta plan,
and all existing European systems. Second,
Nice Ride’s community engagement
sessions indicated demand to add
stations near parks and other ‘attraction
points’. Staff discovered the Chain of
Lakes were viewed not just as
recreational resources, but as primary
destinations for tourist and social
activity.
These discussions in Nice Ride’s first off-
season led to a 51-station expansion in 2011.
Due to equipment supply chain challenges,
most of these stations were not installed until
after mid-summer. Usage doubled in the
second year. Yet the vast majority of
ridership increases were concentrated in
downtown Minneapolis rather than in newly
placed stations.
The 2012 season marked the beginning of
Nice Ride’s partnership with the National
Park Service. Through this partnership, Nice
Ride was able to assist the National Park
Service with their goal of increasing
alternative transportation access to and
through a 72-mile strech of riverfront called
the Mississippi National River and Recreation
Area (MNRRA). To achieve this goal, the
National Park Service awarded Nice Ride
funds from the Federal Highway
Administration and Federal Transit
Administration funds available for alternative
transportation to national parks.
The Central Corridor Funders Collaborative
and University of Minnesota also contributed
funding to fill in stations along University
Avenue (then under light-rail construction)
and on the University of Minnesota Saint Paul
Campus during the 2012 season. With the
support of Mayor Coleman, the MNRRA, and
Blue Cross, Nice Ride expanded by 30 stations
in 2012, with expansion efforts focused on
downtown Saint Paul.
The 2011 and 2012 system expansions were
hugely successful in furthering Nice Ride’s
mission to make cycling for transportation
mainstream. Dramatic expansion created
positive momentum for the bike share that
resonated with a growing back-to-the-city
The Nice Ride System by the Numbers
Year Stations Bikes Total Trips
2010 65 700 101,797
2011 116 1,200 219,740
2012 146 1,328 275,747
2013 170 1,556 310,454
2014 170 1,556 408,485
AT A GLANCE: Nice Ride’s 170 station
system covers approximately the same
land area as Vélib., Paris’s 1,400 station
system.

movement. Minnesotans took pride in Nice
Ride’s success and leadership role.
Yet Nice Ride’s 2011 and 2012 expansions
were not successful from utilization or
financial sustainability perspectives. Though
system usage continued to grow, the
downtown Minneapolis core still accounted
for the vast majority of ridership increases.
With about 60% of annual station operation
costs fixed regardless of use, many new
stations added costs without adding revenue.
These results were summarized in an
optimization report prepared by Antonio
Rosell of Community Design Group. In this
report, Rosell created a framework to
evaluate categories of station locations:
Network stations are located in high density
multi-family areas, employment centers, or
retail centers, and meet users’ daily
transportation needs. These stations
compose the majority of the Nice Ride System
and vary in ridership levels with downtown
Minneapolis stations performing best.
Attraction Point stations are located near
destinations like the Chain of Lakes,
museums, hotels, restaurants, and brew
pubs with outdoor seating. These locations
often see very heavy walk-up use on summer
nights, week-ends, and during events and
festivals. As a whole, Attraction Point
stations generate more revenue than
network stations and often serve as the
starting point for people who are
experiencing urban cycling for the first time.
Unlike network stations, Attraction Point
stations can perform well even if they are far
from other stations.
Regional Equity stations are neither placed in
high-density areas nor tourist destinations.
Instead, these stations provide system access
in historically low-income areas in
Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Residents near
equity locations tend to have less access to a
wide-range of urban resources, depend
heavily on public transportation, or
experience disproportionate incidence of
health complications. Utilization at these
locations is expected to be lower than
Network and Attraction Point locations
because residential density and commercial
activity levels are lower. The results of the
Optimization Project underscored both the
Board’s commitment to serve these areas and
the $2,500 annual operating loss Nice Ride
2014 Stations by Category
&Walk-Up Sales
Category % of Stations % of Sales
Revenue
Network 61.54% 57.28%
Attraction
Point
19.53% 36.86%
Equity 18.93% 5.86%
LESSON LEARNED: Increasing the
density of stations in a high-
performing area generally makes the
system work even better. A Network
station that is not being utilized is a
good candidate for relocation.
LESSON LEARNED: Committing to
placing stations in underserved
communities means finding alternative
sources of income to support them.
LESSON LEARNED: Placing a station
at a local destination is likely to
increase the station’s usage and
revenue, even if the station is not well
connected to the rest of the bike share
system.

must cover for each equity station.
Nice Ride currently uses Rosell’s framework
to evaluate proposals to relocate stations. In
fall 2012, the Nice Ride Board also adopted
three specific strategies resulting from
Rosell’s work:
• Approach private foundations for
operating support for Regional Equity
stations.
• Go forward with installation of
Attraction Point stations, even if
those locations are not well
connected to a dense network of
stations.
• Densify the Nice Ride system by filling
in gaps in the core areas where bike
share works well.
With these directives, Nice Ride gained
$50,000 in contributions from the McKnight
Foundation in 2013 and 2014 to offset
Regional Equity station costs. The board also
approved additional Attraction Point stations
at Lake Calhoun, Lake Nokomis, Minnehaha
Falls, and Como Lake to meet rider demand.
New stations were added to fill gaps along the
busy downtown Minneapolis Riverfront, in
one case only a block from another successful
station. All of these changes contributed
positively to both ridership and revenue in
2013 and 2014.
The primary public funding for Nice Ride’s 24
station expansion in 2013 came through the
National Park Service. The National Park
Service partnered with Nice Ride to fund
locations along the MNRRA, including the
creation of a link between the Blue Line light
rail and river destinations plus several
stations reaching far from the urban core at
locations like Fort Snelling and Webber Park.
Stations farthest from Nice Ride’s urban hub
have not generated usage similar to urban
attraction points. Low usage at these
locations raises the question whether a bike
designed for urban transportation is the right
tool for trail riding.
Additional public funding for 2013 expansion
came through Hennepin County Community
Works. These funds were targeted at stations
on Lake Street and at Blue Line stations.
In 2014, Nice Ride planned to place new
stations near the Mississippi River north of
downtown Minneapolis. Though funding for
new stations was provided by the National
Parks Service, 2014 expansion was delayed
due to supply chain problems. As a result,
this expansion will occur in the 2015 season.
BEHIND THE SCENES: In 2010 Nice Ride
signed a 5-year contract with Public Bike
System Company (PBSC). This contract
had two primary parts: an equipment
supply contract and a software-as-a-
service contract for the bike share’s back-
end operating system. PBSC sub-
contracted with 8D Technologies to provide
the second portion of this agreement, the
back-end operating system.
In 2012 PBSC terminated its joint venture
with 8D and began developing a competing
software system. In 2013 PBSC
commercialized its software system in New
York, Chicago, and San Francisco. 8D sued
PBSC for theft of trade secrets. New York
sued PBSC for deficiencies in the new
software. These claims forced PBSC into
bankruptcy in 2014.
Nice Ride has continued to purchase its
operating system from 8D throughout this
period. In 2015, Nice Ride will purchase
equipment from both 8D and a new
company, PBSC Urban Solutions, which
purchased the manufacturing assets of
PBSC through bankruptcy.

Nice Ride’s inability to expand in
the 2014 season did not stop staff
from gaining new sources of
funding. In 2014, Nice Ride
successfully obtained public funding
through the Twin Cities
Metropolitan Council, Twin Cities
Metropolitan Planning Organization
(MPO) and the traditional channels
for distribution of federal
transportation dollars for the first
time. This award, which will help
fund three stations, was made using
Transportation Demand
Management (TDM) funds in
response to Nice Ride’s application
for funds to implement system
densification goals.
Over the last five years the Nice
Ride service area has seen many
changes. In downtown
Minneapolis, key changes occurred
at or just before the 2010 launch.
Urban innovations at this time
included the completion of the 2nd
Ave and Marquette Ave
reconstructions, the reopening of
Nicollet Mall to bikes,

and the completion of the new Twins
Stadium. In more recent years, an
apartment and housing boom along
the Greenway and downtown
riverfront from 2011-2014 added
thousands of new “car-lite” residents
to the urban core.
After three years of construction, the
University of Minnesota re-emerged
in 2014 as a transit-oriented district
built around Green Line stops. While
Green Line construction was over,
cranes remained as developers built
thousands of new apartment units in
Stadium Village. In Lowertown, Saint
Paul, the opening of the Saints
Stadium in 2015 will create a weekend
and evening attraction that brings
people into Saint Paul’s core on
summer nights and week-ends.
The development of safe, welcoming
cycling infrastructure has brought
important changes to the local urban
landscape. In Minneapolis, rapid
expansion of the bike lane system
occurred in 2010-2012, spurred by
NTPP investment and the Minneapolis

Bicycle Coalition’s work. In many cases new
infrastructure created safe bike routes
through difficult barriers, crafting a network
of bike lanes and trails.
Across the river in Saint Paul, major bike
infrastructure development remains in the
planning stage. Challenging barriers like
highway bridges and one lane streets make it
difficult for cyclists to move in and out of
downtown and north-south between Green
Line stops and Grand Avenue.
In 2014, Mayor Coleman proposed a Bike
Plan for Saint Paul with transformative
potential. Nice Ride is working actively with
Saint Paul Women on Bikes, a new grass-
roots initiative formed with support from Blue
Cross, to support the Bike Plan. Nice Ride is
particularly interested in the concept of a
downtown “Loop” intended to create a
protected bike-ped facility similar to the
Indianapolis Cultural Trail. Nice Ride sees the
downtown Loop proposal as a visionary
concept, supported by business, the
hospitality industry, and cyclists, to connect
downtown employment centers, parks, and
cultural destinations.
The heat maps displayed above illustrate
differences in bike share usage and revenue
in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. In part, the
differences between system efficacy in
Minneapolis and Saint Paul are about timing.
In Minneapolis, the bike share system
launched concurrent with other investments
in transit-oriented development, downtown
vitality, and cycling infrastructure. The type
of launch conducted in Minneapolis is
referred to as a concurrent investment
approach. In that context, bike share thrived
and served its intended function as a catalyst
for cultural change. Success stories in Paris,
Washington DC, and New York City also
demonstrate the transformative impact of
concurrent, large investments in bike
infrastructure and bike share.
Nice Ride’s launch in Saint Paul was a bit
different. In Saint Paul, bike share preceded
these investments, using a leading investment
approach. Rather than drawing on existing
momentum, bike share has been employed as
tool to expand transportation options during
a difficult period in some areas of Saint Paul
when retail and entertainment businesses
were impacted by major construction. Bike
share has also been viewed as a political tool
to change conversations about protecting
parking into conversations about vitality and
livable streetscapes in Saint Paul.
Through its experiences in Saint Paul, Nice
Ride learned that the leading investment
approach is a hard way to run a business
dependent on sales revenue and station
sponsorship to cover operating costs. Nice
Ride staff also learned that using bike share as
a political tool may undermine the
transformative cultural impact of a successful
launch. While low utilization of bike share
may motivate politicians, a system operating
well below capacity does not change peoples’
perceptions of an urban area or make cycling
a mainstream activity in those places.
LESSON LEARNED: Bike share
dependent on sales revenue and
station sponsorship is most successful
when launched concurrent with
transit-oriented development and
cycling infrastructure in a vital urban
area.

PUBLIC-
PRIVATE
PARTNERSHIP
Mayor Rybak’s instinct to put ownership of
the bike share system in the hands of a
public-private partnership proved both
strategic and essential to Nice Ride’s success.
Through this model, Nice Ride has expanded,
invested more resources in outreach and
program activity, placed greater emphasis on
a continuous cycle of improvement, and
developed tools to reach people outside the
urban core. With the support of their
sponsors, Nice Ride was able to do all of this
faster than any other bike share in the
country.
From 2010 through 2013, station sponsorship
revenue covered approximately 40% of Nice

Ride’s operating costs for the urban bike
share system. With the exception of
contracts negotiated in 2009, all of these
sponsorships have been one year
commitments. The majority of Nice Ride’s
station sponsors, however, have chosen to
continue to support the bike share system in
every year of operation. These sponsors
include:
• Allina Health
• Augsburg College
• Birchwood Café
• Dero
• Dorsey & Whitney, LLP
• Freewheel Bike
• Peace Coffee
• Seward Community Co-op
• Target
• Wedge Community Co-op
Nice Ride’s sponsors make their investment
decisions based on their own goals to
encourage healthy lifestyles and urban
vitality. Most sponsors are less interested in
transportation data and more interested in
cultural impact. With the encouragement of
these sponsors, Nice Ride built a strong
outreach team dedicated to introducing
people to urban cycling and active lifestyles.
Each summer Nice Ride trains its outreach
team to lead introductory bike rides, fit
helmets, and plan great cycling routes.
Target Corporation has played a key role in
these efforts by directly funding outreach
programs in low-income neighborhoods
where cycling activity is low and negative
health impacts associated with sedentary
lifestyles are more prevalent.
More than just encouraging active lifestyles,
Nice Ride’s sponsors want to associate their
brands with a quality service. They are less
concerned with operations details and more
concerned about Nice Ride’s reputation for
providing a reliable, high-quality experience.
When Nice Ride succeeds in fulfilling these
expectations, sponsors want to build on that
success by bringing Nice Ride to more people.
In 2013 it became clear that the Nice Ride
urban system was reaching the geographic
limits of its effective service area. That season
Blue Cross encouraged Nice Ride to explore
new tools to help make active transportation
mainstream in suburban areas and small
cities.
Meanwhile, the Nice Ride Board was focused
on improving the operations and financial
sustainability of Nice Ride’s core urban
system. Nice Ride needed to find a way to
operate new programs without redirecting
funds aimed at urban bike share.
When Nice Ride staff requested additional
programming support, Blue Cross was excited
to have the chance to expand Nice Ride’s
reach in the community. These new
opportunities changed Nice Ride’s title
sponsorship relationship. Blue Cross agreed
to fund investments in Nice Ride’s
organizational capacity, improvements to
existing equipment, and capital expansion.
LESSON LEARNED: Nice Ride’s
sponsors value working with an
organization whose vision of
community, urban life, and
environmental sustainability matches
their own.
LESSON LEARNED: Nice Ride
sponsors are invested in Nice Ride’s
ability to provide high-quality user
experiences.

By re-investing, Blue Cross enabled Nice
Ride to restructure its staffing, purchase a
long-term home for its operations, and bring
the customer service call center in-house.
Blue Cross also made it possible for Nice
Ride to replace obsolete modems in
terminals, hire a technician to reduce
response times on technological problems,
and work with 8D to develop retrofit
solutions that will facilitate integration of
mobile payment and unlocking interfaces.
All of these changes positively impacted how
users experience the Nice Ride system.
Though the bikes are older than most bike
share bikes in the country, Nice Ride’s highly
trained staff and new quality assurance
procedures keep them in better condition
today than they were in 2011. Also, as some
of Nice Ride’s electronic devices are reaching
the end of their useful lives, the system’s
‘uptime’ rates are significantly higher than in
previous years. Nice Ride staff makes
replacements with the latest technologies.
Soliciting sponsorship every year is
challenging. Yet renewing sponsorships each
season forces Nice Ride to constantly
innovate and improve. Close relationships
between Nice Ride and its sponsors have
allowed Nice Ride to go on despite lagging
utilization and revenue projections all while
strengthening Nice Ride’s commitment to
encouraging a strong cycling community.
LESSON LEARNED: Investing in
yearly audits allowed Nice Ride to
meet Blue Cross’ restructuring
commitment by applying for
financing for their new building
and equipment. Accountant and
Office Manager Coreen Elwell kept
Nice Ride’s finances in order since
Nice Ride’s start, assisted by
contract CFO Barb Huibregtse in
t

FINANCIAL
SUSTAINABILITY
For Nice Ride, achieving financial
sustainability has been a careful balance of
controlling operating costs while increasing
revenue and fostering sponsor
relationships.
Nice Ride was successful in controlling costs
in its early years of operation. Cash flow
limitations forced belt tightening. Nice Ride
was housed in a closet, held compensation
low, and did not invest in tools or spare parts.
Tremendous donations of professional
services and in-kind or below-market rents
helped Nice Ride stay afloat.
In 2013 and 2014 Nice Ride intentionally
increased its investment in compensation,
space, spare parts, and tools to achieve
system improvement goals. In doing so Nice
Ride found substantial efficiencies, including
reducing costs of take-out and redeployment,
reducing overtime pay, in-sourcing the
customer service call center, increasing
capacity to make repairs locally, and sourcing
spare parts directly.
Because these investments in capacity have
paid dividends in higher utilization and
revenue in the urban system, Nice Ride
intends to continue this approach. Finding
additional cost efficiencies will be a challenge.
LESSON LEARNED: For Nice Ride,
investing in operational capacity
lead to greater organizational
efficiency.

The 2014 season marked a big step forward
for Nice Ride’s system revenue. Without any
increase in the number of stations or bikes,
sales revenue from subscriptions, passes,
and fees grew 39%—a year over year
increase of $271,000.
Many factors contributed to Nice Ride’s
success in 2014 including:
• more people moving and socializing
downtown
• a record year for Minneapolis hotel
occupancy
• the launch of Car2Go bringing
increased urban mobility and
substantial co-marketing
• successful system optimization of
Network and Attraction Point
stations
• a sales strategy that focused on
simple messaging, utilizing a free-
trial pass sponsored by Blue Cross
offering membership incentives, and
maximizing Nice Ride’s impact at
community events
• greater system realization due to
modem upgrades and improved
rebalancing
• product changes (discussed below)
Nice Ride does not know which of these
factors contributed most to its revenue
increase. The organization has, however,
learned a few things through trial and error:
• comprehension of Nice Ride products
remains a major obstacle to sales
• lingering concerns about the initial
$250 authorization hold (removed in
2011) remains an obstacle to sales
• customers increasingly favor walk-up
access over membership

Nice Ride’s title and station sponsors
play a large role in the organization’s
financial sustainability. Over its years
of operation, Nice Ride developed a
successful model to solicit and
recognize station sponsorships. Nice
Ride’s standard $10,000 station
sponsorships grant sponsors four
station posters for the duration of a
Nice Ride season.
The greatest persisting challenge in
the sponsorship program lies in
balancing senior staff time needed to
solicit new sponsors with time spent
developing and improving Nice Ride’s
outreach programming. Developing
a scalable, sustainable sponsorship
model for Nice Ride’s Neighborhood
and Greater Minnesota initiatives
present the largest challenges going
forward.

GETTING FROM
EXPERIMENT TO
RELIABLE
TRANSPORTATION
SERVICE
Continuously improving user experience with
the Nice Ride system remains one of the
largest priorities for the staff. While
rebalancers keep bikes in each station,
mechanics keep the bikes running smoothly,
and IT personnel work to improve customer
interface on the streets and on the Nice Ride
website. Of course, things don’t always work
the way the staff plans.
BIKES
The Nice Ride bikes, custom designed and
manufactured for PBSC by Cycles Devinci,
have stood the test of time far better than
staff anticipated. Nice Ride found that if the
bikes are maintained well and wear parts like
chains, seats, bungees, and grips are replaced,
bikes in service since 2010 can be expected to
continue to perform well, even being
indistinguishable from newer bikes. The
Shimano Nexus internal shifting and roller
brake system Nice Ride selected for its bikes
has also performed well and reliably.
The primary criticism of Nice Ride’s green bike
rests on its heavy weight and slow feel when
a rider is taking a longer trip in places like the
Midtown Greenway where other bikes travel
more quickly. Nice Ride anticipates that
current bike share industry restructuring will
open up the market for greater competition
for bike share bikes. Nice Ride staff is hopeful
that these changes will lead to options for
lighter bikes and a winter-specific bike.
LESSON LEARNED: When properly
maintained, Nice Ride bikes run
smoothly after five seasons of wear.

OPERATIONS
With over 35 years of experience in state park
and bicycle advocacy, Nice Ride’s first
Operations Director, Dan Breva gave local
regulating officials confidence in the new
nonprofit. In the months leading up to Nice
Ride’s first season Breva obtained permits for
all 65 stations, led Nice Ride’s first assembly
and installation project in partnership with
Jeff Siewert of Sieco Construction, and hired
the first rebalancing team.
Each of these initial operations tasks renews
every year at Nice Ride. Permitting bike share
stations is a never-ending process in cities
continuously under construction. Each permit
raises a new set of concerns with neighboring
uses and competing demands for the right of
way. Breva chose battles carefully and
cultivated a relationship with permitting
officials who viewed Nice Ride as a partner
willing to help to solve problems, not just
cause them. Breva’s careful work led to
expedited permitting procedures Nice Ride
uses today.
Unlike most large urban systems, Nice Ride
chose not to separate its rebalancing and bike
maintenance responsibilities. Nice Ride

believes it is more efficient to train the same
drivers to both rebalance and maintain the
bikes. Operations team members are
authorized to park their trucks and work on
bike and station maintenance when the
system is in balance, while monitoring the
system for stations at risk of becoming empty
or full.
Communication was the biggest challenge to
the operations team in Nice Ride’s first
season. To use their time well and avoid
unnecessary trips back to the shop,
operations team members needed up to date
information and ways to get their questions
answered. In fall 2011 IT Director Mitch Vars
and current Operations Director Ian
Nancekivell worked together to develop an
intranet communication tool and protocol for
managing non-urgent tasks and following up
on more urgent problems with
malfunctioning stations.
Instead of having a central dispatcher who
makes decisions for operations staff,
rebalancers communicate on the street,
making their own decisions in real time.
Drivers are also not given targets for the
number of bikes in any location at any time.
Nice Ride learned that better communication
tools paired with more responsibility made
employees happier and more effective.
In the future Nice Ride hopes to give its
operations team more insight into the way
their work affects customer experience, tying
incentive compensation to results that impact
customers. Nice Ride staff is currently
working through the North American
Bikeshare Association (NABSA) to create a
reliability index for this purpose.
Trucks and trailers are a big part of Nice
Ride’s work. Nice Ride was originally
outfitted with a Chevy Silverado and two
electric vehicles. The Phase II Plan’s increased
service area brought with it the need for
more endurance and towing power than an
electric vehicle could provide. At this time,
Nice Ride traded its electric vehicles for Ford
Rangers.
Snowmobile trailers provided the light weight
and low loading height desired for
rebalancing, but pulling the wide wheelbase
trailer behind a narrow vehicle was a recipe
for fender benders. We now use trailers
custom-built by Anthony Siewert. The
reduction in accidents quickly made up for
the increased trailer cost.
One of Nice Ride’s biggest challenges and
largest operation expenses is removing
stations for winter and redeploying them in
the spring. Since Nice Ride’s first season,
Sieco Construction has handled all of the
heavy equipment work for each deployment
and takeout. Each spring and fall Sieco’s
employees integrate with a team of Nice Ride
staff using forklifts to install up to 35 stations
or remove up to 42 stations per night.
With years of practice and a bike storage
facility provided by Allina Health in the middle
operations team functions most
effectively when staff is given the
skills, responsibility, and
communication tools to make on-the-
street decisions about system needs.
AT A GLANCE: Nice Ride’s stations are
composed of more than 24,000 square
feet of base plate steel weighing
almost 400 tons. If all 170 stations
were connected together, their length
would total over a mile and a half.

of Nice Ride’s service area, takeout and
deployment are more efficient than ever. But
the process is still expensive. Total costs for
redeployment and takeout in 2014 were
$161,000.
Nice Ride staff’s primary strategy to reduce
these costs is to obtain permission to store
more stations in place during the winter.
Alternatively, Nice Ride could reduce takeout
and redeployment costs by extending the
operating season for some or all of its
stations.
Nice Ride committed to evaluate winter
operations when it accepted federal funds in
2009. An initial evaluation concluded that a
winter bike share business model did not
make sense, even assuming a winter program
could be accomplished safely by installing
studded tires on Nice Ride’s bikes. Within
Nice Ride’s current season, usage rates drop
precipitously by late October leaving little
promise for winter sales. Moreover, salt
damage to Nice Ride’s bikes would severely
alter their lifespan. Currently all of Nice
Ride’s permits for right of way in the City of
Minneapolis and the City of Saint Paul require
that stations be removed by mid-November.
Nice Ride isn’t the only bike
share that has considered
winter operations. Bike share
systems in Chicago, Toronto,
Salt Lake City, and Denver now
operate year round. This
winter the University of
Minnesota asked Nice Ride to
evaluate the potential for an
extended season zone,
possibly extending use to the
beginning of the Christmas
break and restarting
operations in March.
When Nice Ride staff
presented the University’s idea
to the Nice Ride Board, the
Board decided to hold on this
opportunity until a winter-
specific bike, protected bike
lanes, and innovations in
maintaining bike share stations in snow
create more optimal conditions for a winter
bike share program.
Nice Ride does not currently distribute
helmets at stations. Instead, the Nice Ride
outreach team has distributed approximately
18,000 helmets contributed by Blue Cross and
Blue Shield of Minnesota through outreach
events across Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
With over seven hundred bike share systems
operating worldwide and over 30 million trips
taken on bike share bikes in the U.S., the
safety record of bike share has been very
good. Advocates for providing helmets at

stations or mandating helmet use have been
largely quiet.
In fall 2014 Seattle launched its bike share
system with a mandatory county-wide helmet
law in place. When plans for an automated
helmet dispenser fell through, Seattle
launched its system using temporary helmet
bins to distribute and collect helmets on the
honor system. Remarkably, the honor system
component of this program appears to be
working. After a high rate of theft in early
weeks, the majority of helmets are now being
returned to bins.
Yet the high cost of helmet collecting,
cleaning, checking, repackaging, and
redistributing raise feasibility concerns for
Nice Ride staff. The cost associated with
maintaining Seattle’s helmets may exceed the
cost of the helmets, making it hard to say if
this system will be sustainable during peak
season. Nice Ride will continue to monitor
Seattle’s experience and evaluate its helmet
distribution policies in light of those results.
THEFT & VANDALISM
When the Nice Ride Board selected a primary
vendor in 2009, they knew that Minneapolis’s
bike share must be perceived as fun,
convenient, and easy to use if it were to be
successful. On the heels of the Yellow Bike
library program of the late 1990s, the Board
also knew they must choose a platform that
would not present an easy opportunity for
thieves and vandals. Headlines in 2007 and
2008 praised Vélib’s successful ridership but
decried the system’s design—a design that
allowed for 3,000 stolen bicycles in its first
year on the streets.
Public Bike System Company (PBSC) designed
its system with an intentional focus on
durability and avoiding the problems that
plagued Vélib. Though thieves might be able
to separate the bikes from their docks with
considerable effort, the docking mechanism’s
integration into the bike’s headset would
render their frames unrideable after forced
extraction.

When Nice Ride hit the streets in 2010, staff
braced themselves for an expected $140,000
in losses due to theft and major vandalism,
but by the end of the first season Nice Ride
hadn’t seen anywhere
near these projected
losses. The only bike
unaccounted for at the
end of 2010 was
recovered in 2011.
Early incidents of
graffiti and attempts
to modify and
decorate bikes
dropped to a nuisance
level after a few
weeks. Surprisingly,
the greatest
contributor to
replacement costs has
been stations hit by
out-of-control drivers
leaving the road.
Looking back Executive
Director Bill Dossett
questions whether
PBSC’s high-security
design was worth the
added maintenance time for Nice Ride
mechanics. In hindsight it’s hard to tell
whether the system’s secure features
accounted for small incidence of theft and
vandalism, or if a lower-maintenance version
and a bit of Minnesota Nice would have kept
thieves away.
SOFTWARE & POINT OF
SALE TECHNOLOGY
Mitch Vars, Nice Ride’s IT Director, came to
the job with a unique background including
web development, interactive kiosk
development, and custom fabrication.
Executive Director Bill Dossett recalls a
moment in 2010 when the procurement,
assembly, and installation of the first 65
stations was complete and Dossett expressed
self-satisfaction. Vars laughed. “This is not a
construction project,” he said. “This is
technology. It is never complete. The cycle of
development is continuous. The electronics
we buy today are obsolete within a year.”
In 2010 and 2011, Vars worked regularly with
software developers from 8D and the
technical team from PBSC and Alta Bike Share
(now Motivate) to identify bugs, test patches,
and improve the performance of the system.
Key projects included reducing bike docking
errors and developing promotional codes and
reporting systems to tie financial results to
customer rental activity.

This early period in North American bike
share was a collaborative venture with a small
number of people involved. PBSC was literally
writing the technical manuals for assembly
and troubleshooting as this collaborative
group moved forward.
According to Dossett, if he could go back in
time and change one thing from the start-up
phase, he would have retained an expert in
payment systems in 2010. By doing that, Nice
Ride may have avoided a customer
experience fiasco created by debits cards and
a $250 authorization hold.
Before 2010, all of the bike share systems
operating in Europe and Canada required
walk-up customers to use a credit card; debit
cards in these countries were rejected. These
systems placed a $250 authorization hold on
credit cards at the time of a 24-hour
subscription purchase as a security deposit.
The hold impacted the customer’s credit limit
for a short time, but that had little impact on
consumers. Because theft was considered
the greatest risk to the program, Dossett and
Vars were not inclined to change this security
deposit. Nice Ride trusts its customers with a
bike worth $1,000. Staff wanted those
customers to know they could recover at least
$250, even if they ran off with a bike and
cancelled their card. What Dossett and Vars
didn’t know is that US card processing
procedures are substantially different than in
Europe. Debit cards, having replaced check
writing in recent years, would be accepted by
our system and used in high volume.
When Nice Ride first opened for business on
June 10th, Dossett sent young operations and
outreach employees to test the system using
their personal cards. The rentals processed
without a hitch and customer service
reversed the charges for the test. Yet a few
hours after his shift, one employee called
Dossett concerned. A restaurant had rejected
his debit card. The $250 hold Nice Ride
placed on his account earlier in the day
exceeded the available amount in his bank
account. Because every bank sets its own
rules regarding when to release an
authorization hold (usually 5-10 days), there
was nothing Nice Ride could do to fix that.
Within a few days, the Saint Paul Pioneer
Press published a story about a student
unable to buy books and food after using Nice
Ride. The problem was exacerbated by a
customer service call center located in
Montreal that did not understand the
customers’ problems. This fiasco negatively
impacted Nice Ride’s reputation and created
distrust, particularly among students and low-
income communities, that has persisted for
years.
Nice Ride initially reacted to the authorization
hold problem by reducing the hold to $50 and
putting additional notices on the terminals. In
early 2011, Nice Ride became the first system
in the country to eliminate the authorization
hold. Notably, Nice Ride never actually
collected and kept an authorization hold.
As far as staff can tell, eliminating the
authorization hold has not impacted theft
rates at all. Rather, theft generally occurs
from a misdocked bike or a stolen credit card.
The lessons Nice Ride learned from this
experience went beyond a re-evaluation of
security levels. Staff learned that payment
processing systems are a mystery to
consumers and software developers alike.
They vary by country, bank, card, and
merchant processor, and they can change.
Perhaps most important from a user
experience perspective, staff learned that the
information provided on station decals and
website FAQs is invisible to most people—
customers only read what appears on the
touchscreen as they speed-read through it.

Nice Ride’s point of sale continued to evolve
with changes in software, user agreements,
and language all aimed at making the system
easier to use and understand. For example,
Nice Ride took the word ‘free’ out of
communications about ride pricing structure
and added a screen to the user-interface
requiring the user to accept the fee schedule
before proceeding.
In 2012 and 2013, Nice Ride’s involvement in
discussions regarding the cycle of software
development abruptly ended. 8D
Technologies continued to work with Nice
Ride on software hosting and maintenance
issues, but upgrades and improvements
stopped.
PBSC and 8D, former joint collaborators,
became direct competitors and litigants in a
lawsuit 8D filed against PBSC for theft of trade
secrets. 8D refused to share upgrades with
companies under contract with PBSC, because
PBSC had full access to the operators’
interface and would
have access to any
proprietary software
developments.
Litigation ultimately
concluded with PBSC
dissolving through
bankruptcy. With this
final resolution, it
became clear that 8D’s
development work had
continued in the
interim.
8D was ready to
commercialize its first
major upgrade to its
BSS Platform, which
incorporated many of
the changes requested
years before and new
features, including a
dramatically improved touchscreen and the
capacity to dispense keys at terminals.
Nice Ride became the first bike share system
to upgrade to the BSS 4 platform in June 2014
and worked closely with 8D to test and
improve system software. Nice Ride also
chose to have 8D provide the membership
sign up and account pages for the Nice Ride
website, reducing data security concerns and
making it possible to sync these pages with
anticipated future developments.
In September 2014 Nice Ride installed the
world’s first key-dispensing kiosk in front of
the Hyatt Regency on Nicollet Mall in
LESSON LEARNED: Bike share users
only read system information
highlighted for them during the rental
and payment process.

Minneapolis. Prior to this point, riders could
check out bikes by swiping their credit card at
each station or creating an account online
and receiving a key in the mail. Now riders
can purchase a key at select kiosks,
eliminating the need to swipe a credit card at
each station they visit.
Vars’ 2010 statements to Dossett were
prophetic. The cycle of development is
continuous, and accelerating. The old
touchscreens in terminals Nice Ride
purchased in 2010 should be retrofitted with
new touchscreens
and software
upgraded to drive
those new screens.
Robust involvement
of system owners in
the cycle of
development is now
making that happen.
Fostering conditions
for that collaboration
is one of the reasons
Nice Ride was
instrumental in the
formation of the
North American
Bikeshare
Association (NABSA).
CUSTOMER SERVICE
CALL CENTER
Prior to 2013 the Nice Ride call center was run
by PBSC and housed in Montreal, Canada.
Under the direction of Melissa Summers,
Director of Customer Service and Site
Planning, the Nice Ride call center moved to
Nice Ride headquarters in Minneapolis during
operational restructuring. Having Nice Ride’s
call center in-house costs less on a net basis
than the PBSC-run contract and has
dramatically improved service for Nice Ride’s
customers. Most importantly, the local call
center is able to work directly with the
operations and outreach team to identify and
solve problems faster and with less headache
for employees and customers.
LESSON LEARNED: Nice Ride’s in-
house call center combines local
knowledge with direct access to other
Nice Ride staff to solve customer
problems quickly and effectively.

ANTICIPATING NEW
TECHNOLOGIES
In September 2014 CityLab declared the
smartphone “the most important
transportation innovation of the decade.”
Creating a world in which people choose not
to own a car is about creating a set of
alternative transportation choices that are
convenient, less damaging for the
environment, and less expensive. In the last
five years, that set of choices has grown
dramatically for many city dwellers, including
new car share, bike share, ride share, and
transportation network companies.
Over the next five years, Nice Ride staff
believes these new alternatives, and
traditional alternatives including buses,
trains, and taxis, will become better and
easier to use. We believe changes relating to
growth of smart phone use as a route
planner, digital wallet, and unlocking device
will accelerate this change. For Nice Ride,
integrating new technologies is our greatest
opportunity for growth.
When Apple introduced ApplePay in
September 2014, retailers around the world
decided that a Near Field Communication
(NFC) equipped reader is standard equipment
in their check-out lanes. Developers working
on unlocking devices for hotel rooms, office
buildings, car share cars, or bike share bikes
now know that the vast majority of phone
users will have NFC technology at their
fingertips to provide an identifying key.
Transportation-related apps, including Google
Maps, UBER, and local transit interactive
maps already account for some of the most
commonly downloaded apps. Municipal
parking is also moving toward an app-based
interface, making it possible to avoid standing
in front of a meter with frozen fingers or to
add time without leaving your meeting.
The most successful apps are the simplest.
No need for a web page. No need for a
subscription. By signing in with the digital
wallet of their choice, users don’t even have
to enter financial information. UBER is
regarded as a prime example of this kind of

app making it possible to request a ride,
watch your car arrive, and pay with one or
two screens and one click. Valuations of
UBER place the company’s worth around $40
billion.
Although the idea of integrating payment
methods has been a goal of transit agencies
and bike share companies for many years,
very little progress has been made. The
transition to mobile payments and
smartphones instead of cards and keys has
created a unique opportunity to change that.
Cities like Helsinki, London, and Los Angeles
are seizing that opportunity and pushing
forward major integration initiatives.
Transit agencies and transportation providers
are investing heavily in devices to enable real
time tracking to predict when and where a
bus will arrive. Nice Ride IT Director Mitch
Vars is currently developing an open data
protocol for bike share through the North
American Bikeshare Association (NABSA).
Open data protocols like these are putting
tracking data in the hands of app developers.
Thousands of independent transportation
apps already exist. A new generation of apps,
led by Daimler’s RideScout, aggregate data
from hundreds of local transportation
providers and combine them with a route
planning tool, making it easy for the
consumer to select from multiple
transportation modes or plan an intermodal
trip. Global companies like Daimler are
investing in these urban mobility tools
because they believe these tools will facilitate
millions of transportation transactions daily.
In addition to competing with taxis, UBER is
targeting auto retailers. UBER is amassing the
volume data that will enable it to offer riders
the choice to share the car with another rider,
reducing the price for each of them. As
alternative transportation cost comes down
and convenience and options increase, more
people will choose not to own cars.
For all of these reasons, the Nice Ride staff
believes urban mobility integration has great
potential to increase bike share usage and
positively impact the financial sustainability of
Nice Ride. Nice Ride is working at the local
and national level to push urban mobility
integration. The newest docks Nice Ride
purchases in 2015 will have NFC reading
capacity. Nice Ride staff are currently
working with 8D to explore ways to retrofit
existing bike share docks with this capacity
while collaborating with 8D and Clockwork to
explore the timing and direction of changes to
Nice Ride’s web interfaces to prepare for a
phone-based transportation world.

BEYOND
BIKE SHARE
OPERATIONS
MARKETING
In Minneapolis and Saint Paul, many urban
commuters never have to set foot outside.
From an attached garage to a parking ramp to
a skyway, some residents can get all the way
to their offices without taking a breath of
fresh air. When Nice Ride rolled onto the
streets in 2010, bike share system offered a
way for people to break out of their day to
day transportation routine.
Early marketing efforts were aimed at
presenting a unified brand presence with a
clear mission statement. With help from
Duffey & Partners design, Roundpeg
consulting, Roepke public relations, and
Mono marketing, Nice Ride successfully

pitched bike share to sponsors who identified
with Nice Ride’s core values. After system
launch, sponsor support quickly translated
into public praise. The organization’s ‘Take
Summer by the Handlebars’ motif led
residents to associate Nice Ride stations with
a bit of warm-weather fun.
Membership Initiatives
While Minnesotans were taken with Nice
Ride’s adventurous brand, convincing them to
ride a bike or sign up for a membership was
easier said than done. In 2011 Nice Ride
offered discounted annual memberships for
the first time. That spring riders signed up
more than ever before taking Nice Ride’s
number of members to around 4,000 where
membership levels stayed for the past three
years. In 2012 Nice Ride launched a
membership drive. Yet public radio airtime
and incentive prizes did not change Nice
Ride’s membership numbers.
At the end of the 2013 season Nice Ride staff
surveyed system users and discovered that
half of the people riding Nice Ride bikes didn’t
know Nice Ride offered memberships. The
next year Nice Ride created a new product: a
30 Day Pay-As-You-Go membership option.
The 30 Day membership gave users an
unlocking key without asking them to pay the
price of a year-long commitment. To bolster
the 30 Day membership’s launch, title
sponsor Blue Cross and Blue Shield of
Minnesota offered to pay for trial
memberships so riders could try out member
benefits risk free.
While 2014 saw a record number of rides, the
season’s success likely had less to do with
membership sign-ups and more to do with an
increase in Nice Ride’s local presence. Half of
Nice Rides 2013 members renewed in 2014.
Hundreds of riders signed up for 30 Day Pay-
As-You-Go memberships. Yet membership
levels continued to hover around 4,000.
Marketing Director Anthony Ongaro believes
membership numbers will grow more over
time. Yet his efforts in the coming season will
shift away from membership initiatives
toward messaging aimed at getting people on
bikes regardless of their point of entry into
the Nice Ride system.
Building on Existing Momentum
From the very first season, Nice Ride’s
marketing has been closely linked to its
outreach efforts. While the bright green bikes
provide their own visibility, presence at local
events is key to Nice Ride’s position as a
staple in the Minneapolis and Saint Paul
communities.
Early on Nice Ride staged its own beer and
music events called Nice Nites to build a
community of cyclists around the bike share
system. While Nice Nites provided a fun
space for members to mingle, planning Nice
Nites absorbed an immense amount of senior
staff time with little impact on system use.
When staff table at existing community
events, however, Nice Ride is able to reach
more people without using their own
marketing and planning resources. For
example, events like Minneapolis and Saint
Paul Open Streets bring thousands of
residents and tourists to a central location
where their main goal is to engage with
advocates and vendors and enjoy the event’s
atmosphere. At events like these Nice Ride
staff can have hundreds of conversations
about bike share in just one day with limited
organization-specific marketing to encourage
LESSON LEARNED: Membership-
focused marketing has yet to present
tangible gains for the Nice Ride. In the
2015 season Nice Ride will return to an
emotion-based campaign centered on
appealing to riders’ sense of urban
adventure.

attendance. Some of Nice Ride’s
most successful marketing in
2014 came from paid ads on
social media encouraging
viewers to visit the Nice Ride
booth at an upcoming event or
festival.
In 2014 Nice Ride had the
opportunity to connect with car
share industry leader Car2Go as
it launched in Minneapolis and
Saint Paul. Early on Ongaro saw
elements of Nice Ride’s values in
Car2Go’s brand. That summer
Nice Ride and Car2Go became
strategic partners, working
together at events and in co-
marketing campaigns that
benefited each organization.
When Nice Ride’s 30 Day Pay-As-
You-Go trial membership came
onto the market in spring 2014,
Nice Ride and Car2Go partnered
with local nonprofit HOURCAR
plus the Wedge and Seward
natural food co-ops to host
urban lifestyle events at high-
density apartment buildings in
downtown Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The
40 event initiative centered on living spaces
within a block or two of a Nice Ride station.
People who lived in selected buildings could
sign up for free Nice Ride and Car2Go
memberships while enjoying a healthy snack
from one of the co-ops.
Residents’ proximity to the Nice Ride system
made them more likely to ride. Yet the living
space initiative consumed large amounts of
staff time without proportionate gains in
usage or membership. Some events were
successful. But at others, Nice Ride Staff
struggled to get residents to sign up for a free
membership, even with incentives like custom
Banjo Brothers backpacks and packages of
Peace Coffee. This summer Nice Ride staff
will only return to the apartment
communities where outreach was most
successful while pursuing other marketing
strategies.
LESSON LEARNED: From a marketing
standpoint, Nice Ride’s outreach efforts
are most successful when staff tap into
existing resources to showcase the Nice
Ride brand at community events planned
by partner organizations.

OUTREACH
Outreach has always been
an important aspect of
Nice Ride Minnesota, but
year by year, the role of
outreach has changed.
While it continues to be
closely related to the
marketing strategy, it is
becoming more integral
to the mission of the non-
profit through expanded
programming beyond the
urban bike share system.
As another example of
the commitment to
quality that characterizes
Nice Ride, outreach is
constantly evolving in an
effort to better meet the
needs of the community
served.
At the beginning the
public needed to see that
there was something new
in town. In 2010 every
effort was made to get
people on the bikes,
create buzz, make the brand visible and pique
curiosity. On opening day 300 people rode
Nice Ride bikes down Nicollet Mall for free.
Bikes were taken to events and employers to
encourage people to just try them out. The
belief was that once a person got on the bike
and realized how fun it was, they would use
the system. Outreach was about building
excitement, with the assumption that this
excitement would drive use and sales.
The following season continued to be about
spreading the brand recognition. With annual
memberships discounted to boost sales, the
outreach team’s role was to keep fueling
public interest and desire to be a part of this
cool new organization. Nice Ride was present
at events large and small, bringing a new
game or activity each time. To ensure a warm
welcome everywhere, staff came bearing free
gifts for interested passersby. With beautiful
branding on hats, shirts, socks and posters,
Nice Ride gave away thousands of dollars of
Nice Ride gear and memberships.
A number of changes in outreach strategy
occurred in 2012. More efforts were made to
engage people long enough to teach them
how to use the bike share system. Free
branded items were used to strategically

create an audience for education as staff
asked people to answer trivia questions about
how to use the bike share. Only those who
answered correctly more than once were
rewarded.
The iconic Nice Ride helmet made its debut in
2012. Purchased with funding from Blue
Cross, almost 8,000 helmets were given out
that season at tabling events in skyways and
at festivals.
While every adult could have a helmet, Nice
Ride staff needed to fit each person’s helmet
for safety reasons. During the time between
fittings, long lines often formed. This wait
time created the opportunity for the outreach
team to have conversations with several
people in the line while fitting each helmet.
Whenever possible, event locations were
chosen near Nice Ride stations. Nice Ride in
your Neighborhood featured the Nice Ride
event tent set up near a station on a summer
evening each week; neighbors could gather,
ask questions and then be led on a short
group ride. The Nice Nites events, gatherings
for beer, music and socializing among
members, were also held that season.
In 2012, Nice Ride began sending staff
through League Cycling Instructor (LCI)
training, a certification process from the
League of American Bicyclists, with local
training sessions administered by the Bicycle
Alliance of Minnesota. Requiring at least 30
hours of training, this intensive process leads
bicyclists through classroom and on-street

training modules of the League's Smart
Cycling curriculum. Once certified, these
outreach staff lead rides on Nice Ride bikes
and are certified to teach safe cycling on their
own time in the community.
Since most of these staff are seasonal
outreach employees who may not return the
following year, there is a continuing need to
have new staff complete the training each
season. This education reflects a significant
and ongoing investment. However, the
benefits of having trained cycling instructors
who all know the same best practices and
have proven skills is a critical part of the high
quality experience expected from Nice Ride.
Staff that move on to other opportunities
continue to carry their knowledge and skills
into the community. Through 2014 Nice Ride
has had 12 staff become LCIs. Five of those
will be returning in 2015 and five more will go
through LCI training in 2015.
In the 2013 season, staff intently focused on
education. The outreach team led significantly
more station demonstration rides while the
free helmets were used to entice people to
check out bikes on a free 24 hour pass.
However, 2014 marked the most significant
shifts: first, from education to sales; second,
from urban bike share only (green bikes) to
using fleet bikes for a season to support
individuals in lifestyle changes (orange bikes).
The success of the 30 day trial proved Nice
Ride could get people to sign up as members
if we asked them to do it and made it easy
(and free). Excitement and education
continue to be necessary, but they are passive
sales strategies. Actively selling by asking
people to sign up to be members at tabling
events and asking them to buy passes at our
stations is the next step for supporting the
urban bike share.
As Nice Ride expanded its focus in 2014 to
include the Greater Minnesota Pilot (see
below) and a months-long individual support
program called Nice Ride Neighborhood (see
below), Nice Ride’s outreach efforts expanded
and will continue to do so.
The Neighborhood program will grow from
146 to 270 participants/fleet bikes in 2015.
The Neighborhood program also inspired a
similar yet distinct program that will launch in
partnership with Allina Health. The program,
called Wheel Being, will feature a fleet of
bikes that health care providers will prescribe
to their patients. Once patients receive their
bike from Nice Ride, they will become part of
a community of people choosing to make
biking a part of their lives. The Outreach Team
will be there to lead rides, teach new skills
and encourage the riders to keep pedaling.
The paid seasonal staff are not the only
people engaging in outreach, either. It is
important to recognize the volunteers that
have been a part of spreading the word about
the joys of biking and bike share from the
beginning. Throughout all of the phases of
outreach efforts, Nice Ride could not have
reached the thousands of people at more
than a hundred events per season without
the efforts of our dedicated volunteers. 43
volunteers made up Team Wheelie Nice in
2014. Nice Ride staff could not do what they
do without volunteers working right alongside
them.
successful outreach blends a highly
qualified staff with team strategies that
continuously evolve to meet people at
their individual level of knowledge
about and interest in bike share.

EQUITY INITIATIVES
Nice Ride on the North Side
Nice Ride’s expansion into North Minneapolis
was guided by a planning and community
engagement project led by Bill Smith of Biko
Associates, Inc. Smith led a series of
community meetings and focus groups to
guide bike share implementation in North
Minneapolis. Smith presented his
recommendations to the Board through a
report, entitled Nice Ride on the North Side.
The research outlined in this report led to a
greater emphasis on encouraging cycling and
introducing bike share in low-income
communities through outreach activities
described below. Equity-based outreach also
introduced Nice Ride to a number of the
community partners the organization
continues to work with today.
Nice Ride’s work in North Minneapolis has
often taken unexpected turns. An invitation
to coffee with Representative Bobby
Champion became a meeting with
transportation equity advocates and a MPR
reporter. A severe tornado shortly after
installation of the North Minneapolis
expansion changed plans from a ride with the
Mayor to a volunteer debris clean-up day.
The death of a Nice Ride member, killed by an
out of control driver while he was standing
next to a bike share station, led to a
community ride to honor his memory. With
each new obstacle, Nice Ride’s nonprofit
business model has given staff the flexibility
to make progress in an ever-changing
environment.
Community Partners Program
In 2011, Nice Ride began a program to reach
out to low-income communities in the Nice
Ride service area. Sponsored by the Target
Corporation, the program provided
discounted and free annual memberships to
social services providers able to share them
with clients. Yet merely connecting
individuals with reduced priced memberships
was not enough to encourage ridership.

With the support of the Target Corporation,
the Community Partners program has evolved
to focus on individuals whose transportation
needs match up with the service Nice Ride
provides through its urban system. Beyond
handing out memberships, the Community
Partners Program provides new riders the
training and community support necessary for
a successful introduction to urban cycling.
The program follows a process aimed at
distributing resources to persons who will
benefit from them most. First partners
identify individuals who are likely to use Nice
Ride, but may not be able to access bike share
on their own. Next Nice Ride hosts an
orientation ride near the partner’s location.
At the orientation Nice Ride staff provides an
introduction to the Nice Ride system, tips on
how to ride in traffic, and gives each rider a
helmet. At the end of each orientation riders
are given free year-long memberships to Nice
Ride and access to a computer to create a
Nice Ride account.
The Community Partners Program and its
sister initiative, the Student Scholarship
Program operate through direct partnerships
with community organizations like Emerge,
Saint Paul Public Housing, and Minneapolis
Career and Technical College (MCTC).
Nice Ride Neighborhood Pilot
The Nice Ride Neighborhood Program,
launched in 2014, grew out of a desire to
build on the success of urban bike share by
developing new tools and programs that will
encourage active transportations in
communities outside the urban core. The
program was not conceived as a low-income
program. The initial pilots, however, were
focused in North Minneapolis and in Saint
Paul’s Frogtown and East Side neighborhoods.
Like the Community Partners Program,
participants in the Nice Ride Neighborhood
Pilot were enrolled by a community clinic,
church, housing provider or other partner
with regular contact with the rider. But,
instead of receiving a reduced membership to
Nice Ride’s urban system, each participant
was lent a high-quality commuter bike with
lights, fenders, and cargo rack, branded and
painted orange to identify the program.
In exchange for using the bike, participants
agreed to attend an orientation ride and
participate in at least four Ride and Dine
events hosted by the Major Taylor Bicycling
Club of Minnesota. These events were
intended to create a supportive community
for riders while introducing them to cycling
routes in their communities.
Ride and Dine events also provided an
opportunity for Neighborhood participants to
have mechanics from Nice Ride and Free
Bikes 4 Kidz fix any issues with their bike such
as flat tires or seat adjustment to make sure
these kinds of repair and adjustment issues
did not prevent people from riding. They
could also take their bikes to local bike shops
Venture North and Cycles for Change for no-
cost service during regular business hours.
Services provided by these bike shops were
paid for through a partnership with Nice Ride
Minnesota.
At the end of the Neighborhood Program,
participants who attended four community
events and rode at least twice a week
received a $200 credit to their local bike shop
LESSON LEARNED: Reaching
underserved populations means
creating supportive, educational
programs that give new riders the
tools they need to be successful.
Merely distributing reduced price bike
share memberships is not enough to
encourage ridership in these
communities.

partner upon returning their orange
Neighborhood bike.
The University of Minnesota conducted an
extensive evaluation of the Neighborhood
pilot. Student researchers attended
Neighborhood events, worked with Nice Ride
staff, and interviewed over 90 riders at the
end of the program season in October and
November. In the Executive Summary of
their report, the University researchers
concluded that the pilot was successful in
changing individual and community
perceptions around active transportation:
The creation of a “biking community”
and “fellowship” among participants
was a critical driver of program
participation and success. Further,
NRN participants reported that the
program increased their knowledge
and use of existing biking
infrastructure (parks, trails, and bike
lanes) and provided connection to
people in their neighborhood around
bicycling. Thus, we believe the NRN
program improved the perception of
biking in the neighborhood and may
lead to neighborhood and geographic
community level increases in biking
behaviors and perceptions.
The success of this pilot program has
reinvigorated Nice Ride’s engagement with
low-income communities, particularly in
North Minneapolis, where program partners
have come forward with great ideas to
improve the program.
The Neighborhood Program’s success will also
enable Nice Ride to respond to requests for
expansion in areas outside the urban core by
providing a tool that is better suited to areas
lacking the density that is necessary for urban
bike share.
LESSON LEARNED: Expansion efforts
in new communities ought to focus on
which tools will encourage active
transportation best rather than
attempting to make urban bike share
work in low-density areas.

GREATER MINNESOTA
PROGRAM
Blue Cross engages with cities and towns
across the state on active living
initiatives. In 2012, Blue Cross began
hearing a common theme: small cities
want Nice Ride, too. Nice Ride also heard
these requests as mayors and
sustainability directors called Nice Ride
headquarters, asking how to bring bike
share to their communities.
In fall 2013 Nice Ride hired Anthony
Desnick as the Director of Greater
Minnesota Strategies. Desnick’s first task
was to meet with advocates all over
Minnesota to get their ideas on how Nice
Ride could build on its urban success
through programs in small cities. Next
Desnick drafted the Greater Minnesota
Vision Statement to guide Nice Ride’s
work outside Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
Core strategies of the vision statement
include:
• Pioneer new tools—not necessarily
urban bike share—tailored to small
cities.
• Develop Nice Ride Centers: a focal
point for cycling activity and active
living culture in small cities
• Support local bike shops by
contracting with them for operating
support.
• Encourage people to ride to and
through downtown.
Nice Ride’s first Greater Minnesota pilot
kicked off in June 2014 as a group ride on the
program’s new orange VANMOOF bikes
arrived in Bemidji. For the next four months
Bemidji residents and visitors could rent any
of the 100 bicycles from four locations around
town. Students at Bemidji State University
could also check out bikes from a special fleet

designated for coursework, group rides, or a
semester-long lease. To encourage local
cycling, the program featured free two hour
rentals for Bemidji residents between
Monday morning and Thursday
evening.
From the perspective of utilization
and establishing a replicable business
model, the results from the first year
of Bemidji’s three year pilot program
were a disappointment. Ridership
levels were low, particularly at the
Visitor’s Center and lake front park
rental locations. Revenue was very
low, in part because the web-based
reservation system caused confusion
despite its intent to be simple for
consumers and retail partners. With
over 80% of users checking out bikes
by walking up to a rental location
without a reservation, most of the
confusion over Nice Ride Bemidji’s
rental system was unnecessary.
Yet 2014 was more successful from
the perspective of Nice Ride’s mission
to help make Bemidji a ‘bike place’.
Local hotel operators and downtown
business owners, particularly the local
foods cooperative, saw the benefits of
marketing their town as a bike place. As a
result, these community leaders are
supportive of efforts to add wayfinding and
infrastructure development to make cycling
between the hotels and downtown more
intuitive. Blue Cross funded a planning
project to bring those ideas to fruition.
In its second season, Nice Ride Bemidji will
refocus its efforts on the downtown bike
center and away from some of the tourist
destinations by the Lake. Similar to Nice
Ride’s outreach efforts in the Twin Cities,
Bemidji’s outreach activities will be targeted
to maximize impact and leverage social media
and incentives.
LESSON LEARNED: To make Bemidji
a bike place, the Greater Minnesota
Pilot needs to work with community
partners to develop local ridership
through community-centered rental
locations in the heart of the town.

NORTH AMERICAN
BIKESHARE ASSOCIATION
Nice Ride took a leading role in the
formation and convening of the North
American Bikeshare Association (NABSA).
In part, this work was motivated by a desire
to restore stability and communication
about the cycle of bike share development
to an industry rocked by the bankruptcy of
its biggest vendor, Public Bike System
Company (PBSC). Beyond its original
function as a forum for collaboration, Nice
Ride staff views the industry association as
the best tool to drive forward an urban
mobility integration agenda.
At NABSA’s first annual meeting in
Pittsburgh, representatives of the Shared
Use Mobility Center, the American Public
Transit Association (APTA), RideScout, and
Car2Go opened a dialog with bike share
owners, operators, and vendors about
urban mobility integration. Nice Ride
Executive Director Bill Dossett is currently
serving on a working group of APTA on the
same subject. NABSA is hosting webinars, like
“ABCs of Payments” that will enable cities and
non-profits to engage intelligently with our
vendors and with other transportation
providers about payment system integration.
NABSA will also provide the bike share
industry with a voice in Washington on
Legislative issues as it recently signed a
memorandum of understanding (MOU) with
PeopleForBikes to collaborate on legislative
strategies common to both.

COMMENTS FROM
OUR PARTNERS
This winter Nice Ride staff reached out to
organizational partners to share their
thoughts as Nice Ride prepared its Five Year
Assessment and Strategic Plan. Partners
touched on three topics:
• Impact/social benefit: Does Nice
Ride make a noticeable difference
and how? Are we making the most
of the public and private resources
invested in Nice Ride?
• Partnership: Have we met your
expectations? What can we do
better? Are we missing
opportunities to pursue common
goals?
• Direction: What should Nice Ride do
more of, or less of, three years from
now?
As staff read through the thoughts of Nice
Ride sponsors, community partners, and local
leaders, a two themes emerged: expansion
and equity. Comments centered on those
themes are highlighted below. A complete
version of the comments Nice Ride received
are available here.

EXPANSION
If we can add more stations, those stations
should be used to “thicken” the coverage
within the existing service area, not spread
out into a broader geography.
- Peter Wagenius, Policy Director,
City of Minneapolis Office of the
Mayor
Seward Co-op would very much like to see the
Nice Ride program expand further into south
Minneapolis in order to accommodate
shoppers at our new location in the Bryant
neighborhood.
- Tom Vogel, Marketing Manager,
Seward Co-op
I am interested to see what happens with the
Bemidji campus use and the collaboration
with the college. Can we survey the students
and find out what would make them ride
more? Can we learn from what is working
and what is not in Fargo and how they are
partnering with the college and bike share
there? Can we do more to help with bike
share at other college campuses like Duluth
and Mankato. Even if Nice Ride does not run
the program can we provide advice and
assistance.
- Lisa Austin, Bicycle and
Pedestrian Planning Coordinator,
Minnesota Department of
Transportation
We would like to see “orange bike” or Social
Bicycle systems implemented in lower
traffic—yet still popular—areas such as in and
connecting between parks and towns, such as
Anoka and Hastings, in the MNRRRA.
- Ben Rasmussen, US Department
of Transportation, Volpe National
Transportation Systems Center,
Consultant to Mississippi
National River and Recreation
Area
We are looking forward to our new Wheel
Being partnership, to show our primary care
physicians that partnering with a community
organization is feasible and successful (we
hope!) and to encourage our patients to try a
new type of physical activity.
- Alison Pence, Director of
Community Engagement, West
Metro, Allina Health
EQUITY
I think the outreach work that you all do
[through the Student Scholarship Program] is
fantastic and I’ve witnessed first-hand the
value of your program!
- Kimberly Bestler, Program
Assistant and Tutor Coordinator,
TRiO/Student Support Services,
Augsburg College
There has been great progress in working on
equity issues with low-income people of color.
I would like to see more with equity in all
levels of income of people of color. I think the
partnership with Major Taylor could be
expanded to do more of this.
- Lisa Austin, Bicycle and
Pedestrian Planning Coordinator,
Minnesota Department of
Transportation
Allina Health also has a renewed focus on
Health Equity and many of our clinics have
selected ‘Optimal Diabetes Control’ amongst
our non-English speaking patients as one of
their goals for 2015 (including the
Bloomington clinic). It would be nice if NR

could include focusing on these same
populations as well….
You’ve got urban bike share down. Time to
think about how best to access the people
who aren’t being (and won’t be) served by
your current efforts.
- Alison Pence, Director of
Community Engagement, West
Metro, Allina Health
I think there is more opportunity for
partnering around expanding biking access in
low-income and to more diverse communities.
I think Nice Ride should make sure to keep
running its core business well and focus
additional efforts on breaking down barriers
to biking/Nice Ride for people who do not
regularly bike….
I do think that Nice Ride should make it a
priority to have their Board and staff better
reflect the diversity of the city. That is
especially important for meaningfully
expanding NR Neighborhood and future
programs targeted to communities of color.
- Ethan Fawley (pictured right),
Executive Director, Minneapolis
Bicycle Coalition

MISSION
• Our current mission statement is effective and captures our core values. Focusing on multiple benefits—health, vitality, and
transportation—has resonated with partners and the public and served as a guide for good decisions.
• We should make a small change to our mission statement to reflect that Nice Ride does more than bike share programs. We operate
fleets of bikes for the public good.
URBAN SYSTEM GOALS
• Our five-year experience has demonstrated that bike sharing works most effectively in urban areas. Adding stations near single-family
homes results in under-utilized stations. Adding stations near other successful stations (i.e., “densifying” the network) results in more
highly utilized stations and growth in total system usage. Future expansion of the urban system should focus on densification:
o An immediate need for densification exists in the area surrounding the University of Minnesota Minneapolis campus, which has
been transformed by light rail and transit-oriented development.
o Station expansion should closely follow high-density apartment development in the urban core.
o Our 2011 “Phase 2” Plan is outdated. We should re-engage the public to share our five-year results, re-focus urban system
expansion on the urban core, and demonstrate the new tools we are developing for other areas.
• Our operations and financial investments should focus on customer experience, quality, and reliability.
o We will expand investment in metrics, quality assurance, and incentive compensation to give employees transparency to
customer experience and motivate commitment to quality and reliability.
o Through the North American Bikeshare Association (NABSA) industry association, we will continue to learn from the successes
and mistakes of other systems, particularly focusing on winter cycling and helmet use/safety.
• We will invest in and look for opportunities to play a leadership role in urban mobility integration. Rapid growth in alternative
transportation solutions, changing consumer preferences toward urban living and away from car ownership, and adoption of smart-
phone-based payment, sign-up, and unlocking systems create a unique opportunity for urban mobility integration. To achieve its
mission and strengthen financial sustainability, Nice Ride should pursue this opportunity.
o We should optimize our product configuration and pricing to anticipate a world in which riders come to Nice Ride through smart
phone apps that aggregate transportation alternatives.

• Winter Biking
o Due to the particular challenges of our climate, freeze-thaw cycles, and heavy use of road salts, Nice Ride should remain
cautious about winter cycling in the urban system. Important changes are anticipated that may enhance feasibility, including:
development of winter-specific bicycles, installation of protected bikeways, and innovation in winter bikeways maintenance.
Nice Ride should wait for these changes before piloting a winter urban bike share program. However, Nice Ride should continue
to look for opportunities to locate stations in locations where they can remain in place year-round, particularly in a zone
surrounding the University of Minnesota in and urban parks.
GREATER MINNESOTA PROGRAM
• Small Cities/Bike Places
o Refocus on:
 Partnerships with restaurants, local food retailers, and hotels.
 Riding to and through downtown.
o Simplify user interface for customers and partners.
 Work flexibly with Bemidji State University.
 Get it right before adding cities.
o Supporting people willing to try active transportation:
 Nice Ride Neighborhood
• Continue and refine program in North Minneapolis, Frogtown, and East Saint Paul.
• Build on relationships with most-invested partners.
• Follow direction of University of Minnesota study: continue community-building and investment in quality;
create more ways for participants to succeed.
 Wheel Being
• Pilot program similar to Nice Ride Neighborhood with enrollment through physician referrals in suburban areas
 Develop business plan and prepare for growth; look to title sponsorship for capital/growth; look to program
sponsorship, grants, and individual giving for operating support.
o Continue to look for new opportunities and tools to build on success of urban bike share by making riding a bike for
transportation “mainstream” and making the connection between health and how we get around.

ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS
• Build on success as a “grass tops” public-private partnership with capacity to implement high-quality projects on schedule
o Maintain strong relationships with government partners; use Nice Ride investment to leverage public sector investment in
infrastructure and integration; time new projects to coincide with infrastructure improvements, not precede them.
o Strengthen relationships with the key sponsors who have supported Nice Ride since 2010 and whose goals are best aligned with
our mission while cultivating new sponsor relationships with firms that share our values and goals.
o Continue to vigorously support the “grass roots” efforts of key organizations, including the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition, St.
Paul Women on Bikes, and Transit for Livable Communities.
• We can and we should simultaneously invest in innovation and improving core service.
• Continue to invest in capacity-building through staff training and equipment acquisition.
• Continue to invest in national industry association as a catalyst for urban mobility integration and forum for professional development.
• Be open to partnership and restructuring opportunities as changes in urban mobility sector accelerate.

Nice-Ride-Five-Year-Assessment

Nice-Ride-Five-Year-Assessment

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