Dale Near Grand
Have you seen those green bikes around the Twin Cities? They even made it to St. Paul and there are stations along Grand Avenue, Marshal and University Avenue.
The bikes are big and heavy and are designed to be used for running errands or for short trips and they are conveniently located near public transportation. The name of the program is Nice Ride the bikes are available from April to November.
The kiosks take credit cards and it is just $6 dollars to get started. If the bike is returned to a kiosk every 30 min there are no additional charges otherwise the prices start at $1.50 per half hour and they go up to $65 for an entire day. They are not meant to be rented for the day but to be borrowed for short trips.
Sadly there are no stations in downtown St. Paul and even though the station in the pictures is on Grand and Dale and there is a sign advertising that downtown is just down the hill personally I would not take it down because it would be very difficult to get the bike back up the steep river bluff and there are no stations downtown.
There are maps at the stations and there is even a mobile app that works on a phone and will show where the closest stations are. The Twin Cities are a great place to bike because we have an excellent trail system which makes it possible to get around without having to always share the road with cars.
Nice Ride Bike
I wish I had come up with the idea first! It is nice to see technology used in a way that makes our cities more physically active instead of less. Hopefully we’ll continue to see Nice Rides pop up around the country, and maybe the convenience of their “kiosk” locations will start to add property value…
I agree it is a good idea and the kiosks can be moved to new locations if they don’t work out where they are
So true! I’m sure someone will get use out of them. They would see a lot of success in a college town too I bet.