Jump bikes and scooters had become nearly ubiquitous around the city of Sacramento, but since the coronavirus, all of them have been pulled from the streets to help stop the spread. Now, some of the services may not return exactly as they were before.
Among them, Uber has recently decided to sell its red Jump bikes and scooters to competitor Lime, after the company announced it would be consolidating efforts in delivery services and Uber Eats. Uber released quarterly earnings last week — the company has lost $2.9 billion since the start of the year and has had to lay off 14% of its workforce.
Lime says it will take over Uber’s Jump bikes and scooters, and customers will still be able to rent the red Uber devices. Now though, people will be able to rent the devices through either the Uber app or through the Lime app. Lime had previously had a contract with Sacramento from 2018, but pulled its scooters from city streets earlier in 2020.
“Lime has the operational expertise and undivided focus needed to build a scaled, sustainable micromobility business,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement. “We're glad that our customers will continue to have access to bikes and scooters in both our apps because we believe micromobility is a critical part of the urban landscape, now more than ever.”
Lime has not announced when they will be resuming service in Sacramento, but Director of Government Relations at Lime Sam Sadle said the company anticipates that the demand for alternate forms of public transportation will only increase in the post-coronavirus economy.
“I think we are seeing that in the post-COVID world, there’s an apprehension over public transit and public spaces, and we hope that cities and residents really take this opportunity to provide more space for people getting around on two wheels,” Sadle said.
In a recent report, the city said it had over 2,000 rental bikes and scooters available owned by Uber Jump, Lime and Spin, and had expected that number to increase throughout the 2020 year with a new company called Bird looking at joining the market. The city made about 10 cents off of every rental, and from just June 2019 through January of this year, Sacramento residents took around a million rides.
Uber declined to comment further on this story.
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