Uber Brings Electric Bicycles to Europe

Like the convenience of Uber but don’t feel like sitting in traffic? The international ride-sharing service is bringing electric bicycles to Europe.

A couple months ago, Uber acquired the bike-sharing company Jump Bikes in an effort to expand its transportation footprint. Users can locate and rent the red bikes with their smartphones, and afterwards, drop them off at any bike rack around the city.

The Jump Bikes feature “e-assist” – an electric 250 W Class 1 motor gives you a 20 mph boost every time you pedal. The company claims this allows riders to go “3x the distance per ride on a JUMP bike in comparison to a regular bike.”

The bikes also include headlights and tail lights and an integrated u-bar lock.

Jump Bikes is touting the environmental and cost savings, and the Uber connection highlights the traffic reduction.

In a blog post announcing Uber Bike, Jump Bike CEO Ryan Rzepecki noted that “Our mission at JUMP Bikes is to build the bike you want.”

“A bike that you don’t even need to own, doesn’t cost a penny to maintain, and is always nearby when you want it. If we achieve this mission then we’ll see more people on bikes — meaning greener, more accessible, and healthier cities.”

The merger began in San Francisco, with plans to expand to Berlin and elsewhere in Europe, where bike-sharing services are more commonplace.

Read more here and here: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/09/uber-is-acquiring-a-bike-sharing-company-jump-bikes.html