On June 20, 2023 the City of Santa Cruz, in partnership with the University of California, Santa Cruz, launched one of the biggest e-bike-sharing programs in the United States. A new bike share project has been in the making for quite some time now. Many Santa Cruz residents may recall that the City of Santa Cruz previously had a similar e-ride-sharing partnership program with JUMP in 2018. The JUMP program, while wildly successful had a few problems with the largest being that Jump bikes were being left improperly parked in inconvenient places and that it was not generating profit. Since the contract with JUMP ended in 2020, the City has been on the lookout for a new partner.

The City’s new e-bike share program is a partnership between 6 jurisdictions in Santa Cruz and Bcycle. Bcycle offers a variety of pricing options ($7.00 for a single trip, $30.00 monthly pass, or an $150 annual pass), and must be picked up and dropped off at designated Bcycle dock stations. The program is beginning with 400 bikes and 800 docks, and will eventually grow to 660 bikes and 1320 docks countywide.

About BCycle

BCycle, a fully owned subsidiary of Trek Bicycle, is on a mission to change the world by getting more people on bikes. Headquartered in Waterloo, Wis., BCycle develops and delivers best-in-class bike share systems to cities across the country by partnering with organizations to deliver and operate community-based bike share.