More dockless scooters and bikes are coming to Cincinnati. Xavier University has contracted with to supply them.
Director of Utilities and Energy Mark Hanlon contacted the California company to get them to come to the campus. "I know they are very busy deploying on the Ohio State campus. So after that's wrapped up we hope to be the next in line," he tells WVXU.
Just like Bird and other dockless transporation, riders find these bikes using a smartphone's GPS. There will, however, be rules at Xavier. Riders can't just drop the bikes off anywhere, a common complaint about Bird's electric scooters.
According to Hanlon, bikes must be parked next to an existing bike rack. "And there's 40 of them on campus and we don't expect too much of a problem," he says. "You do have the ability to see who parked the bike wrong and who parked it right, so I think it will work out."
Last month Bird began testing its dock-free electric scooters in Cincinnati to the delight of many riders in Over-the-Rhine, Downtown and The Banks.
Greg Damico was checking one out in Pendleton. "I first saw them in San Diego a couple of weeks ago," he says. "I love them because you can jump on them wherever you find them and when you get off you leave them where you're at and just go."
The scooter, which travels up to 15 miles per hour, costs $1 per ride and 15 cents each minute. It is locked and unlocked via a smartphone app.
Bird says this is a pilot project in Cincinnati and it's still trying to determine the neighborhoods where people will ride them most.
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