NICE RIDE FIVE-YEAR ASSESSMENT

& STRATEGIC PLAN

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THANK YOU

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Nice Ride staff compiled the following 5-year assessment for a strategic planning session of the Board of Directors held in January 2015. In it, we have attempted to highlight key lessons learned, some from successes and some from mistakes. We also asked our partners to comment on Nice Ride, our impact, and what we can do better. From our perspective, we see in front of us a world of opportunity to build healthier and more vibrant cities and towns. We hope this history will help others seize those opportunities too.

The final section is a summary of strategic direction. This section is currently in draft, to be finalized following the Annual Meeting of the Board in April.

Bill Dossett Executive Director Nice Ride Minnesota

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OUR MISSION To enhance the quality of our urban life by providing a convenient, easy-to-use bike sharing program that will provide residents and visitors a healthy, fun, different way to get around town.

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OUR VISION We see a bike sharing program that will permanently change the way people experience and perceive our city, as well as the way they experience and perceive transportation.

Nice Ride will create a more vibrant city, a place where people want to work, live and play. Nice Ride will stand as a working example of how our state and cities create programs that meet critical and shared public goals.

Nice Ride will show that the benefits of alternative transportation are many and lasting. For our residents those benefits will include:

• Avoiding vehicular congestion

• Reducing our carbon footprint

• Less dependence on fossil fuels

• More efficient movement from place to place

• More opportunities for healthy physical activity

• More interesting personal experiences interacting with the city

• A growing affinity to make other changes in all modes of transportation

• A sense of civic pride

CONTENTS

OUR STORY HOW IT STARTED SERVICE AREA PLANNING, EXPANSION FUNDING, & SYSTEM GROWTH/OPTIMIZATION PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY GETTING FROM EXPERIMENT TO RELIABLE TRANSPORTATION SERVICE Operations Theft & Vandalism Software & Point of Sale Technology Customer Service Call Center Anticipating New Technologies BEYOND BIKE SHARE OPERATIONS Marketing

Outreach Equity Initiatives Greater Minnesota North American Bikeshare Association (NABSA)

STRATEGIC DIRECTION DRAFT FEBRUARY 2015

MISSION URBAN SYSTEM GOALS GREATER MINNESOTA PROGRAM ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS

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APPENDICES

2008 Nonprofit Business Plan 2009 Transit for Livable Communities Award 2009 Initial Bike Share Station Location Plan 2010 Phase 2 Map 2010 Phase 2 Plan 2011 Nice Ride on the Northside Report 2012 System Optimization Report 2013 Greater Minnesota Vision Statement 2014 UROC Research on Nice Ride Neighborhood Project 2015 Nice Ride Partner Comments for Strategic Planning

OUR STORY

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HOW IT STARTED

Nice Ride began with a motivated mayor, a million-dollar promise, and a public-funding process designed to make tough decisions fast.

In 2008 Mayor RT Rybak told Time Magazine he would bring urban bike share to Minneapolis. At the time, bike share was a European amenity for big cities like Paris, France.

Communal bicycles were not new to the Minneapolis metro area. In the mid-1990s, the Yellow Bike Coalition launched a first-generation bike share system in Saint Paul. Yet without a way to track bikes and charge users, it was not possible to maintain a reliable bike fleet or create a sustainable business model.

Like yellow bike programs around the country, this first attempt ended quickly and did not inspire confidence. The Yellow Bike Coalition did, bring together Saint Paul activists who went on to introduce thousands to active transportation through a grassroots initiative now called Cycles for Change.

Fortunately, not all bike share programs are alike. Third-generation systems like Paris’s Vélib addressed first-generation problems through the same RFID and database technology that controls access to office buildings. Rather than locking a bike anywhere around the city, users dock bikes in automated kiosks where other people can find them and system operators can keep the bikes pedaling smoothly. When a rider checks out a bike, the system also pairs their rental with their credit card number, increasing user accountability. “These bikes,” Rybak thought, “would be different.”

Yet many community leaders questioned the difference between Rybak’s dream and the Yellow Bikes of the 90s. With several people asking,

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“Didn’t we already try this?” persuading the downtown business community was a huge challenge.

Paddling with a friend in the June 2008, City of Lakes Tri-Loppet, Rybak had an epiphany. A local nonprofit like the Loppet Foundation could mobilize community energy, draw on support from both public and private sectors, and seize opportunities better than government agencies and private companies alone. Rybak decided that if Minneapolis were to have a bike share company, a nonprofit model would be the key to its success. And Bill Dossett, the man paddling next to Rybak, would be the person to lead it.

Soon after, the City of Minneapolis contracted with the Loppet Foundation to engage the community and explore funding opportunities. The Loppet Foundation contracted with Dossett, a former lawyer and Loppet volunteer. Tasked with preparing the nation’s first nonprofit bike share business plan, soliciting sponsorship, and applying for federal grants, Dossett began the Twin Cities Bike Share Project (TCBSP).

TCBSP was a stakeholder group of bike advocates, transportation professionals, and bike shop owners. The group quickly came together to consider developing technologies, recommend a target service area, and identify desired elements of a future system. TCBSP held its first meeting in a space shared by the Midtown Greenway Coalition and Freewheel Midtown Bike Center. The Greenway Coalition and Freewheel were eager supporters of the bike share project at every step of development.

At the same time, a group of downtown professional firms committed to assist TCBSP. Dorsey & Whitney law firm, the Duffy & Partners design and branding firm, Roepke Public Relations, the Roundpeg and Mono marketing firms, and the Grant Thornton accounting firm all provided their services on

a pro bono basis. Mark Bixby, a physician and longtime member of the Loppet Foundation Board, and John Munger, Executive Director of the Loppet, provided expertise in nonprofit governance. Mark would later become chair of the Nice Ride Minnesota board. These professionals put the organization on a firm footing to solicit a title sponsorship.

In late summer 2009 Mayor Rybak hosted a meeting of business leaders at City Hall to pitch bike share to private-sector partners. From the very beginning, the Center for Prevention at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota was open to big ideas. Michael Huber, a veteran of Blue Cross’ active living programs, came to City Hall knowing more about bike share than anyone in the room. Huber challenged Nice Ride to create something big, with real potential to change the way people think about health and

BEHIND THE SCENES: In 2008 the primary business model for bike share was a street furniture contract. Advertising giants JC Decaux and ClearChannel provided bike share equipment and maintenance in exchange for billboard advertising rights. Mayor Rybak was worried an outdoor media company would not provide the level of investment and care a new bike share demanded.

LESSON LEARNED: Developing a strong brand identity early on gave potential partners faith in Nice Ride as a professional organization even before its official founding.

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transportation. “Do that,” Huber said, “and Blue Cross will be interested.”

Mayor Rybak invited Pat Geraghty, then CEO of Blue Cross, to a demonstration of the Public Bike System Company (PBSC)’s bike share equipment. Geraghty examined the bikes and stations in development for Montreal’s Bixi program. He kicked the tires and looked over plans for an 80-station system in Minneapolis. Within days, Geraghty committed to a $1 million title sponsorship contingent on Nice Ride’s ability to secure public funding for a full-scale launch.

Years earlier, former Congressman Jim Oberstar created the Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program (NTPP) for opportunities just like this one. Most federally-funded transportation projects involve major construction. They take years to bring through the planning, design, and construction phases. Oberstar realized that government procedures intended for major construction made funding bike and pedestrian initiatives difficult.

The NTPP made federal dollars available for pilot projects in four locations, including Minneapolis and its surrounding communities. NTPP funds were directed

toward demonstrating how a concentrated investment in non-motorized transportation infrastructure and programming could quickly lead to a shift toward active transportation. To fulfill this mission, the federal government gave local nonprofit, Transit for Livable Communities (TLC), the authority to select projects for the Minnesota pilot area.

In December 2008 the Minneapolis City Council applied to the NTPP for $1,750,000. If awarded, the City Council pledged to be the fiscal agent for a nonprofit bike share owner/operator, that didn’t yet exist.

Current Mayor Betsy Hodges spoke loudest in support of the authorizing resolution. Though Councilperson Hodges represented a ward outside the planned bike share service area, she saw bike share as the leading edge of a movement to create livable urban spaces.

Others on the Council were concerned about financial risk to the city if the nonprofit business proved unsustainable. The final resolution mandated that the City of Minneapolis could not be held responsible for the bike share program’s operating costs under any circumstances, even if the nonprofit business failed.

The City Council’s resolution put the TLC Board in a difficult position. A panel of transportation and public policy experts, the board was committed to maximizing the impact of the limited funds entrusted to them. The bike share program could be the “showcase project” TLC needed to change public opinion about non-motorized transportation, forcing officials to accelerate infrastructure projects delayed by red tape.

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Everyone on the TLC Board viewed bike share as a powerful tool to transform U.S. cities. Yet some were not convinced that Minneapolis was the right U.S. city in which to start. The bike share’s business plan was based on data from European metros very different from Minneapolis. The only local precedent was the defunct Yellow Bike Program. If Nice Ride failed, it could be a setback for bike share nationally and, even negatively impact larger cities like New York. Risking $1.75 million that could have been used to build bike lanes or improve sidewalks through Bike Walk Twin Cities was a tough call. Yet the TLC Board decided to move forward with bike share, twice.

The nonprofit business plan was built around the idea that Nice Ride would use public money and title sponsor dollars to buy equipment rather than take out capital loans. Once equipment was purchased, Nice Ride would cover operating costs without public support. Based on data collected from other bike shares, Nice Ride expected bike share sales revenue to cover 70%-80% of operating costs, leaving station sponsorships to account for the remaining 20%-30%.

TLC put Nice Ride’s financial sustainability to the test right away by placing a contingency

on NTPP funding. To receive their award, Nice Ride had to collect pre-committed station sponsorships totaling $100,000 per year for the first three years.

Nice Ride raised well over $100,000 for year one. But the new nonprofit found few partners willing to commit to a three-year contract in the depths of the recession. Unable to gauge Nice Ride’s viability on their own, TLC hired an independent consultant to review Nice Ride’s business plan. With a favorable report, TLC removed its award contingency and authorized Nice Ride to proceed with procurement in December 2009. Less than a month later, Nice Ride hired staff, selected a vendor, and became an operating organization.

Blue Cross’s commitment to match public contributions of capital dollars has been an effective tool for Nice Ride to leverage public investment. In comparison to the costs involved in developing other modes of transportation, the federal investment in bike sharing is minute. Given the federal government’s goals to reduce high costs associated with urban traffic congestion and the negative health impacts of sedentary lifestyles, investment in bike share is an obvious avenue for federal funds. Yet most

federal transportation programs, like NTPP, require a local funding match, and cities and counties are strapped by the high costs of operations and infrastructure maintenance. By fully funding the local match and supporting a public-private partnership to handle all operating expenses, Blue Cross enabled Nice Ride to grow quickly, using a larger array of funding sources than any other bike share system in the U.S.

LESSON LEARNED: Strong private support is critical to Nice Ride’s success. Title sponsor Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota gives public and nonprofit sponsors confidence that Nice Ride will deliver a quality service. Nice Ride staff is able to use this confidence as leverage to raise more sponsorship dollars.

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SERVICE AREA PLANNING, GROWTH, &

OPTIMIZATION Nice Ride launched on June 10, 2010 with 300 green bikes rolling down Nicollet Mall. On that day, questions about the Yellow Bike Project ended. Instead it seemed everyone wanted a bike share station in their neighborhood or business district.

The initial bike share station location plan was prepared by Alta Planning and Design in 2009. Nice Ride’s early goals were to maximize social impact on public perception of cycling, drive transportation mode shift, and ensure financial sustainability. To meet

these objectives, the Nice Ride Board directed Alta to choose station locations that would maximize Nice Ride’s utility as a transportation system. Alta chose locations based on residential density, employment and educational activity, and transit boarding activity. To supplement Alta’s findings, Nice Ride held a series of public workshops to

draw on small groups of people interested in transportation policy. The resulting service area centered on three locations: downtown Minneapolis, the University of Minnesota Minneapolis campus, and the Wedge/Uptown.

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Notably, the initial plan did not attempt to serve bike trails or recreational destinations. Nice Ride’s focus was on workday transportation.

Also absent from the original system map were stations in North Minneapolis. Within

days after the launch on June 10, 2010, Nice Ride received criticism for not installing stations in North Minneapolis. The Nice Ride

Board responded by inviting community leaders to a special board meeting in July 2010. At the meeting the board committed to make expansion and community engagement in North Minneapolis an immediate priority.

Within only a few weeks, Nice Ride partnered with the City of Minneapolis Department of Health and Community Services to apply for federal funding for a North Minneapolis expansion through a federal stimulus program. The program, Communities Putting Prevention to Work,

was aimed at combatting obesity and sedentary lifestyles in low-income communities.

Prior to the 2010 launch, staff projected that Nice Ride expansion would take place over several years, eventually expanding service into downtown Saint Paul with the opening of the MetroTransit Green Line in 2014.

After Nice Ride launched, Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman made it clear he had a more accelerated schedule in mind. Just a few weeks after launch Coleman invited Blue Cross CEO Pat Geraghty and Nice Ride Executive Director Bill Dossett to a meeting on University Avenue to discuss ideas for bike share in the Central Corridor, on Grand Avenue, and in downtown Saint Paul.

Blue Cross and was also keen to build on momentum created by the launch. To spur additional public sector investment, Blue Cross committed to match public sector capital investment in bike share equipment at the same ratio as their initial investment—one part private funding to two parts public funding. The TLC Board responded by inviting Nice Ride to reply to a solicitation for new

Bike Expansion Funding through 2014

Bike Walk Twin Cities/FHWA 2,773,000 NPS Alternative Transportation to MNRRA

1,100,000

Central Corridor Funders Collaborative

350,000

DHHS Communities Putting Prevention to Work

250,000

University of Minnesota 150,000 MNDOT/FWHA 100,000 Hennepin County 90,000 Macalester College 30,000 Total Public Funding 5,043,000 Title Sponsor: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota

3,144,040

Total Sources of Public & Private Funding

8,187,040

* Blue Cross provided $1.1 million additional funds for system improvements, promotional items, and the Greater Minnesota pilot.

Bike Expansion Funding uses through 2013

Year Stations Bikes Funds Used 2010 65 700 3,141,215 2011 51 500 2,233,511 2012 20 128 1,121,668 2013 24 228 1,021,875

Totals 170 1,556 7,518,269

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NTPP projects made possible when the federal Highway Bill was extended in 2010.

In fall 2010 Community Design Group hosted a series of local workshops on Nice Ride expansion. While pre-launch workshops only drew a small group of transportation policy advocates, 2010 workshops brought in crowds of people who wanted bike share stations in their neighborhoods. Community Design Group’s engagement work resulted in a Phase 2 Plan, including 200 potential station locations in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The Nice Ride Board approved the Phase 2 Plan in December 2010 and authorized staff to move forward to implement it to the extent that capital funds were committed to support expansion equipment.

The approved Phase 2 Plan Map brought two important changes to the Nice Ride system. First, it created a potential service area far larger and less dense than the 2009 Alta plan, and all existing European systems. Second,

Nice Ride’s community engagement sessions indicated demand to add stations near parks and other ‘attraction points’. Staff discovered the Chain of Lakes were viewed not just as recreational resources, but as primary destinations for tourist and social activity.

These discussions in Nice Ride’s first off-season led to a 51-station expansion in 2011. Due to equipment supply chain challenges, most of these stations were not installed until after mid-summer. Usage doubled in the second year. Yet the vast majority of ridership increases were concentrated in downtown Minneapolis rather than in newly placed stations.

The 2012 season marked the beginning of Nice Ride’s partnership with the National Park Service. Through this partnership, Nice Ride was able to assist the National Park Service with their goal of increasing alternative transportation access to and through a 72-mile strech of riverfront called the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA). To achieve this goal, the National Park Service awarded Nice Ride funds from the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit

Administration funds available for alternative transportation to national parks.

The Central Corridor Funders Collaborative and University of Minnesota also contributed funding to fill in stations along University Avenue (then under light-rail construction) and on the University of Minnesota Saint Paul Campus during the 2012 season. With the support of Mayor Coleman, the MNRRA, and Blue Cross, Nice Ride expanded by 30 stations in 2012, with expansion efforts focused on downtown Saint Paul.

The 2011 and 2012 system expansions were hugely successful in furthering Nice Ride’s mission to make cycling for transportation mainstream. Dramatic expansion created positive momentum for the bike share that resonated with a growing back-to-the-city

The Nice Ride System by the Numbers

Year Stations Bikes Total Trips

2010 65 700 101,797 2011 116 1,200 219,740 2012 146 1,328 275,747 2013 170 1,556 310,454 2014 170 1,556 408,485

AT A GLANCE: Nice Ride’s 170 station system covers approximately the same land area as Vélib., Paris’s 1,400 station system.

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movement. Minnesotans took pride in Nice Ride’s success and leadership role.

Yet Nice Ride’s 2011 and 2012 expansions were not successful from utilization or financial sustainability perspectives. Though system usage continued to grow, the downtown Minneapolis core still accounted for the vast majority of ridership increases. With about 60% of annual station operation costs fixed regardless of use, many new stations added costs without adding revenue.

These results were summarized in an optimization report prepared by Antonio Rosell of Community Design Group. In this report, Rosell created a framework to evaluate categories of station locations:

Network stations are located in high density multi-family areas, employment centers, or retail centers, and meet users’ daily transportation needs. These stations compose the majority of the Nice Ride System

and vary in ridership levels with downtown Minneapolis stations performing best.

Attraction Point stations are located near destinations like the Chain of Lakes, museums, hotels, restaurants, and brew pubs with outdoor seating. These locations often see very heavy walk-up use on summer nights, week-ends, and during events and festivals. As a whole, Attraction Point stations generate more revenue than network stations and often serve as the starting point for people who are experiencing urban cycling for the first time. Unlike network stations, Attraction Point stations can perform well even if they are far from other stations.

Regional Equity stations are neither placed in high-density areas nor tourist destinations. Instead, these stations provide system access in historically low-income areas in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Residents near

equity locations tend to have less access to a wide-range of urban resources, depend heavily on public transportation, or experience disproportionate incidence of health complications. Utilization at these locations is expected to be lower than Network and Attraction Point locations because residential density and commercial activity levels are lower. The results of the Optimization Project underscored both the Board’s commitment to serve these areas and the $2,500 annual operating loss Nice Ride

2014 Stations by Category

&Walk-Up Sales Category % of Stations % of Sales

Revenue Network 61.54% 57.28%

Attraction Point

19.53% 36.86%

Equity 18.93% 5.86%

LESSON LEARNED: Increasing the density of stations in a high-performing area generally makes the system work even better. A Network station that is not being utilized is a good candidate for relocation.

LESSON LEARNED: Committing to placing stations in underserved communities means finding alternative sources of income to support them.

LESSON LEARNED: Placing a station at a local destination is likely to increase the station’s usage and revenue, even if the station is not well connected to the rest of the bike share system.

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must cover for each equity station.

Nice Ride currently uses Rosell’s framework to evaluate proposals to relocate stations. In fall 2012, the Nice Ride Board also adopted three specific strategies resulting from Rosell’s work:

• Approach private foundations for operating support for Regional Equity stations.

• Go forward with installation of Attraction Point stations, even if those locations are not well connected to a dense network of stations.

• Densify the Nice Ride system by filling in gaps in the core areas where bike share works well.

With these directives, Nice Ride gained $50,000 in contributions from the McKnight Foundation in 2013 and 2014 to offset Regional Equity station costs. The board also approved additional Attraction Point stations at Lake Calhoun, Lake Nokomis, Minnehaha Falls, and Como Lake to meet rider demand. New stations were added to fill gaps along the busy downtown Minneapolis Riverfront, in one case only a block from another successful station. All of these changes contributed

positively to both ridership and revenue in 2013 and 2014.

The primary public funding for Nice Ride’s 24 station expansion in 2013 came through the National Park Service. The National Park Service partnered with Nice Ride to fund locations along the MNRRA, including the creation of a link between the Blue Line light rail and river destinations plus several stations reaching far from the urban core at locations like Fort Snelling and Webber Park. Stations farthest from Nice Ride’s urban hub have not generated usage similar to urban attraction points. Low usage at these locations raises the question whether a bike designed for urban transportation is the right tool for trail riding.

Additional public funding for 2013 expansion came through Hennepin County Community Works. These funds were targeted at stations on Lake Street and at Blue Line stations.

In 2014, Nice Ride planned to place new stations near the Mississippi River north of downtown Minneapolis. Though funding for new stations was provided by the National Parks Service, 2014 expansion was delayed due to supply chain problems. As a result, this expansion will occur in the 2015 season.

BEHIND THE SCENES: In 2010 Nice Ride signed a 5-year contract with Public Bike System Company (PBSC). This contract had two primary parts: an equipment supply contract and a software-as-a-service contract for the bike share’s back-end operating system. PBSC sub-contracted with 8D Technologies to provide the second portion of this agreement, the back-end operating system.

In 2012 PBSC terminated its joint venture with 8D and began developing a competing software system. In 2013 PBSC commercialized its software system in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. 8D sued PBSC for theft of trade secrets. New York sued PBSC for deficiencies in the new software. These claims forced PBSC into bankruptcy in 2014.

Nice Ride has continued to purchase its operating system from 8D throughout this period. In 2015, Nice Ride will purchase equipment from both 8D and a new company, PBSC Urban Solutions, which purchased the manufacturing assets of PBSC through bankruptcy.

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Nice Ride’s inability to expand in the 2014 season did not stop staff from gaining new sources of funding. In 2014, Nice Ride successfully obtained public funding through the Twin Cities Metropolitan Council, Twin Cities Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and the traditional channels for distribution of federal transportation dollars for the first time. This award, which will help fund three stations, was made using Transportation Demand Management (TDM) funds in response to Nice Ride’s application for funds to implement system densification goals.

Over the last five years the Nice Ride service area has seen many changes. In downtown Minneapolis, key changes occurred at or just before the 2010 launch. Urban innovations at this time included the completion of the 2nd Ave and Marquette Ave reconstructions, the reopening of Nicollet Mall to bikes,

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and the completion of the new Twins Stadium. In more recent years, an apartment and housing boom along the Greenway and downtown riverfront from 2011-2014 added thousands of new “car-lite” residents to the urban core.

After three years of construction, the University of Minnesota re-emerged in 2014 as a transit-oriented district built around Green Line stops. While Green Line construction was over, cranes remained as developers built thousands of new apartment units in Stadium Village. In Lowertown, Saint Paul, the opening of the Saints Stadium in 2015 will create a weekend and evening attraction that brings people into Saint Paul’s core on summer nights and week-ends.

The development of safe, welcoming cycling infrastructure has brought important changes to the local urban landscape. In Minneapolis, rapid expansion of the bike lane system occurred in 2010-2012, spurred by NTPP investment and the Minneapolis

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Bicycle Coalition’s work. In many cases new infrastructure created safe bike routes through difficult barriers, crafting a network of bike lanes and trails.

Across the river in Saint Paul, major bike infrastructure development remains in the planning stage. Challenging barriers like highway bridges and one lane streets make it difficult for cyclists to move in and out of downtown and north-south between Green Line stops and Grand Avenue.

In 2014, Mayor Coleman proposed a Bike Plan for Saint Paul with transformative potential. Nice Ride is working actively with Saint Paul Women on Bikes, a new grass-roots initiative formed with support from Blue Cross, to support the Bike Plan. Nice Ride is particularly interested in the concept of a downtown “Loop” intended to create a protected bike-ped facility similar to the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. Nice Ride sees the downtown Loop proposal as a visionary concept, supported by business, the hospitality industry, and cyclists, to connect downtown employment centers, parks, and cultural destinations.

The heat maps displayed above illustrate differences in bike share usage and revenue

in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. In part, the differences between system efficacy in Minneapolis and Saint Paul are about timing.

In Minneapolis, the bike share system launched concurrent with other investments in transit-oriented development, downtown vitality, and cycling infrastructure. The type of launch conducted in Minneapolis is referred to as a concurrent investment approach. In that context, bike share thrived and served its intended function as a catalyst for cultural change. Success stories in Paris, Washington DC, and New York City also demonstrate the transformative impact of concurrent, large investments in bike infrastructure and bike share.

Nice Ride’s launch in Saint Paul was a bit different. In Saint Paul, bike share preceded these investments, using a leading investment approach. Rather than drawing on existing momentum, bike share has been employed as tool to expand transportation options during a difficult period in some areas of Saint Paul when retail and entertainment businesses were impacted by major construction. Bike share has also been viewed as a political tool to change conversations about protecting parking into conversations about vitality and livable streetscapes in Saint Paul.

Through its experiences in Saint Paul, Nice Ride learned that the leading investment approach is a hard way to run a business dependent on sales revenue and station sponsorship to cover operating costs. Nice Ride staff also learned that using bike share as a political tool may undermine the transformative cultural impact of a successful launch. While low utilization of bike share may motivate politicians, a system operating well below capacity does not change peoples’ perceptions of an urban area or make cycling a mainstream activity in those places.

LESSON LEARNED: Bike share dependent on sales revenue and station sponsorship is most successful when launched concurrent with transit-oriented development and cycling infrastructure in a vital urban area.

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PUBLIC-PRIVATE

PARTNERSHIP Mayor Rybak’s instinct to put ownership of the bike share system in the hands of a public-private partnership proved both strategic and essential to Nice Ride’s success. Through this model, Nice Ride has expanded, invested more resources in outreach and program activity, placed greater emphasis on a continuous cycle of improvement, and developed tools to reach people outside the urban core. With the support of their sponsors, Nice Ride was able to do all of this faster than any other bike share in the country.

From 2010 through 2013, station sponsorship revenue covered approximately 40% of Nice

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Ride’s operating costs for the urban bike share system. With the exception of contracts negotiated in 2009, all of these sponsorships have been one year commitments. The majority of Nice Ride’s station sponsors, however, have chosen to continue to support the bike share system in every year of operation. These sponsors include:

• Allina Health • Augsburg College • Birchwood Café • Dero • Dorsey & Whitney, LLP • Freewheel Bike • Peace Coffee • Seward Community Co-op • Target • Wedge Community Co-op

Nice Ride’s sponsors make their investment decisions based on their own goals to encourage healthy lifestyles and urban vitality. Most sponsors are less interested in transportation data and more interested in cultural impact. With the encouragement of these sponsors, Nice Ride built a strong outreach team dedicated to introducing people to urban cycling and active lifestyles.

Each summer Nice Ride trains its outreach team to lead introductory bike rides, fit helmets, and plan great cycling routes.

Target Corporation has played a key role in these efforts by directly funding outreach programs in low-income neighborhoods where cycling activity is low and negative health impacts associated with sedentary lifestyles are more prevalent.

More than just encouraging active lifestyles, Nice Ride’s sponsors want to associate their brands with a quality service. They are less concerned with operations details and more concerned about Nice Ride’s reputation for providing a reliable, high-quality experience. When Nice Ride succeeds in fulfilling these expectations, sponsors want to build on that success by bringing Nice Ride to more people.

In 2013 it became clear that the Nice Ride urban system was reaching the geographic

limits of its effective service area. That season Blue Cross encouraged Nice Ride to explore new tools to help make active transportation mainstream in suburban areas and small cities.

Meanwhile, the Nice Ride Board was focused on improving the operations and financial sustainability of Nice Ride’s core urban system. Nice Ride needed to find a way to operate new programs without redirecting funds aimed at urban bike share.

When Nice Ride staff requested additional programming support, Blue Cross was excited to have the chance to expand Nice Ride’s reach in the community. These new opportunities changed Nice Ride’s title sponsorship relationship. Blue Cross agreed to fund investments in Nice Ride’s organizational capacity, improvements to existing equipment, and capital expansion.

LESSON LEARNED: Nice Ride’s sponsors value working with an organization whose vision of community, urban life, and environmental sustainability matches their own.

LESSON LEARNED: Nice Ride sponsors are invested in Nice Ride’s ability to provide high-quality user experiences.

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By re-investing, Blue Cross enabled Nice Ride to restructure its staffing, purchase a long-term home for its operations, and bring the customer service call center in-house. Blue Cross also made it possible for Nice Ride to replace obsolete modems in terminals, hire a technician to reduce response times on technological problems, and work with 8D to develop retrofit solutions that will facilitate integration of mobile payment and unlocking interfaces.

All of these changes positively impacted how users experience the Nice Ride system. Though the bikes are older than most bike share bikes in the country, Nice Ride’s highly trained staff and new quality assurance procedures keep them in better condition

today than they were in 2011. Also, as some of Nice Ride’s electronic devices are reaching the end of their useful lives, the system’s ‘uptime’ rates are significantly higher than in previous years. Nice Ride staff makes replacements with the latest technologies.

Soliciting sponsorship every year is challenging. Yet renewing sponsorships each season forces Nice Ride to constantly

innovate and improve. Close relationships between Nice Ride and its sponsors have allowed Nice Ride to go on despite lagging utilization and revenue projections all while strengthening Nice Ride’s commitment to encouraging a strong cycling community.

LESSON LEARNED: Investing in yearly audits allowed Nice Ride to meet Blue Cross’ restructuring commitment by applying for financing for their new building and equipment. Accountant and Office Manager Coreen Elwell kept Nice Ride’s finances in order since Nice Ride’s start, assisted by contract CFO Barb Huibregtse in

t

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FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY For Nice Ride, achieving financial sustainability has been a careful balance of controlling operating costs while increasing revenue and fostering sponsor relationships.

Nice Ride was successful in controlling costs in its early years of operation. Cash flow limitations forced belt tightening. Nice Ride was housed in a closet, held compensation low, and did not invest in tools or spare parts. Tremendous donations of professional services and in-kind or below-market rents helped Nice Ride stay afloat.

In 2013 and 2014 Nice Ride intentionally increased its investment in compensation, space, spare parts, and tools to achieve system improvement goals. In doing so Nice Ride found substantial efficiencies, including

reducing costs of take-out and redeployment, reducing overtime pay, in-sourcing the customer service call center, increasing capacity to make repairs locally, and sourcing spare parts directly.

Because these investments in capacity have paid dividends in higher utilization and revenue in the urban system, Nice Ride intends to continue this approach. Finding additional cost efficiencies will be a challenge.

LESSON LEARNED: For Nice Ride, investing in operational capacity lead to greater organizational efficiency.

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The 2014 season marked a big step forward for Nice Ride’s system revenue. Without any increase in the number of stations or bikes, sales revenue from subscriptions, passes, and fees grew 39%—a year over year increase of $271,000.

Many factors contributed to Nice Ride’s success in 2014 including:

• more people moving and socializing downtown

• a record year for Minneapolis hotel occupancy

• the launch of Car2Go bringing increased urban mobility and substantial co-marketing

• successful system optimization of Network and Attraction Point stations

• a sales strategy that focused on simple messaging, utilizing a free-trial pass sponsored by Blue Cross offering membership incentives, and maximizing Nice Ride’s impact at community events

• greater system realization due to modem upgrades and improved rebalancing

• product changes (discussed below)

Nice Ride does not know which of these factors contributed most to its revenue increase. The organization has, however, learned a few things through trial and error:

• comprehension of Nice Ride products remains a major obstacle to sales

• lingering concerns about the initial $250 authorization hold (removed in 2011) remains an obstacle to sales

• customers increasingly favor walk-up access over membership

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Nice Ride’s title and station sponsors play a large role in the organization’s financial sustainability. Over its years of operation, Nice Ride developed a successful model to solicit and recognize station sponsorships. Nice Ride’s standard $10,000 station sponsorships grant sponsors four station posters for the duration of a Nice Ride season. The greatest persisting challenge in the sponsorship program lies in balancing senior staff time needed to solicit new sponsors with time spent developing and improving Nice Ride’s outreach programming. Developing a scalable, sustainable sponsorship model for Nice Ride’s Neighborhood and Greater Minnesota initiatives present the largest challenges going forward.

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GETTING FROM EXPERIMENT TO

RELIABLE TRANSPORTATION

SERVICE Continuously improving user experience with the Nice Ride system remains one of the largest priorities for the staff. While rebalancers keep bikes in each station, mechanics keep the bikes running smoothly, and IT personnel work to improve customer interface on the streets and on the Nice Ride website. Of course, things don’t always work the way the staff plans.

BIKES

The Nice Ride bikes, custom designed and manufactured for PBSC by Cycles Devinci, have stood the test of time far better than staff anticipated. Nice Ride found that if the bikes are maintained well and wear parts like chains, seats, bungees, and grips are replaced, bikes in service since 2010 can be expected to continue to perform well, even being indistinguishable from newer bikes. The Shimano Nexus internal shifting and roller brake system Nice Ride selected for its bikes has also performed well and reliably.

The primary criticism of Nice Ride’s green bike rests on its heavy weight and slow feel when a rider is taking a longer trip in places like the Midtown Greenway where other bikes travel more quickly. Nice Ride anticipates that current bike share industry restructuring will open up the market for greater competition for bike share bikes. Nice Ride staff is hopeful that these changes will lead to options for lighter bikes and a winter-specific bike.

LESSON LEARNED: When properly maintained, Nice Ride bikes run smoothly after five seasons of wear.

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OPERATIONS

With over 35 years of experience in state park and bicycle advocacy, Nice Ride’s first Operations Director, Dan Breva gave local regulating officials confidence in the new nonprofit. In the months leading up to Nice Ride’s first season Breva obtained permits for all 65 stations, led Nice Ride’s first assembly and installation project in partnership with Jeff Siewert of Sieco Construction, and hired the first rebalancing team.

Each of these initial operations tasks renews every year at Nice Ride. Permitting bike share stations is a never-ending process in cities continuously under construction. Each permit raises a new set of concerns with neighboring uses and competing demands for the right of way. Breva chose battles carefully and cultivated a relationship with permitting officials who viewed Nice Ride as a partner willing to help to solve problems, not just cause them. Breva’s careful work led to expedited permitting procedures Nice Ride uses today.

Unlike most large urban systems, Nice Ride chose not to separate its rebalancing and bike maintenance responsibilities. Nice Ride

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believes it is more efficient to train the same drivers to both rebalance and maintain the bikes. Operations team members are authorized to park their trucks and work on bike and station maintenance when the system is in balance, while monitoring the system for stations at risk of becoming empty or full.

Communication was the biggest challenge to the operations team in Nice Ride’s first season. To use their time well and avoid unnecessary trips back to the shop, operations team members needed up to date information and ways to get their questions answered. In fall 2011 IT Director Mitch Vars and current Operations Director Ian Nancekivell worked together to develop an intranet communication tool and protocol for managing non-urgent tasks and following up on more urgent problems with malfunctioning stations.

Instead of having a central dispatcher who makes decisions for operations staff, rebalancers communicate on the street, making their own decisions in real time. Drivers are also not given targets for the number of bikes in any location at any time. Nice Ride learned that better communication

tools paired with more responsibility made employees happier and more effective.

In the future Nice Ride hopes to give its operations team more insight into the way their work affects customer experience, tying incentive compensation to results that impact customers. Nice Ride staff is currently working through the North American Bikeshare Association (NABSA) to create a reliability index for this purpose.

Trucks and trailers are a big part of Nice Ride’s work. Nice Ride was originally outfitted with a Chevy Silverado and two electric vehicles. The Phase II Plan’s increased service area brought with it the need for more endurance and towing power than an electric vehicle could provide. At this time, Nice Ride traded its electric vehicles for Ford Rangers.

Snowmobile trailers provided the light weight and low loading height desired for rebalancing, but pulling the wide wheelbase trailer behind a narrow vehicle was a recipe for fender benders. We now use trailers custom-built by Anthony Siewert. The reduction in accidents quickly made up for the increased trailer cost.

One of Nice Ride’s biggest challenges and largest operation expenses is removing stations for winter and redeploying them in the spring. Since Nice Ride’s first season, Sieco Construction has handled all of the heavy equipment work for each deployment and takeout. Each spring and fall Sieco’s employees integrate with a team of Nice Ride staff using forklifts to install up to 35 stations or remove up to 42 stations per night.

With years of practice and a bike storage facility provided by Allina Health in the middle

LESSON LEARNED: Nice Ride’s operations team functions most effectively when staff is given the skills, responsibility, and communication tools to make on-the-street decisions about system needs.

AT A GLANCE: Nice Ride’s stations are composed of more than 24,000 square feet of base plate steel weighing almost 400 tons. If all 170 stations were connected together, their length would total over a mile and a half.

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of Nice Ride’s service area, takeout and deployment are more efficient than ever. But the process is still expensive. Total costs for redeployment and takeout in 2014 were $161,000.

Nice Ride staff’s primary strategy to reduce these costs is to obtain permission to store more stations in place during the winter. Alternatively, Nice Ride could reduce takeout and redeployment costs by extending the operating season for some or all of its stations.

Nice Ride committed to evaluate winter operations when it accepted federal funds in 2009. An initial evaluation concluded that a winter bike share business model did not make sense, even assuming a winter program could be accomplished safely by installing studded tires on Nice Ride’s bikes. Within Nice Ride’s current season, usage rates drop precipitously by late October leaving little promise for winter sales. Moreover, salt damage to Nice Ride’s bikes would severely alter their lifespan. Currently all of Nice Ride’s permits for right of way in the City of Minneapolis and the City of Saint Paul require that stations be removed by mid-November.

Nice Ride isn’t the only bike share that has considered winter operations. Bike share systems in Chicago, Toronto, Salt Lake City, and Denver now operate year round. This winter the University of Minnesota asked Nice Ride to evaluate the potential for an extended season zone, possibly extending use to the beginning of the Christmas break and restarting operations in March.

When Nice Ride staff presented the University’s idea to the Nice Ride Board, the Board decided to hold on this opportunity until a winter-specific bike, protected bike lanes, and innovations in maintaining bike share stations in snow create more optimal conditions for a winter bike share program.

Nice Ride does not currently distribute helmets at stations. Instead, the Nice Ride outreach team has distributed approximately 18,000 helmets contributed by Blue Cross and

Blue Shield of Minnesota through outreach events across Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

With over seven hundred bike share systems operating worldwide and over 30 million trips taken on bike share bikes in the U.S., the safety record of bike share has been very good. Advocates for providing helmets at

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stations or mandating helmet use have been largely quiet.

In fall 2014 Seattle launched its bike share system with a mandatory county-wide helmet law in place. When plans for an automated helmet dispenser fell through, Seattle launched its system using temporary helmet bins to distribute and collect helmets on the honor system. Remarkably, the honor system component of this program appears to be working. After a high rate of theft in early weeks, the majority of helmets are now being returned to bins.

Yet the high cost of helmet collecting, cleaning, checking, repackaging, and redistributing raise feasibility concerns for

Nice Ride staff. The cost associated with maintaining Seattle’s helmets may exceed the cost of the helmets, making it hard to say if this system will be sustainable during peak season. Nice Ride will continue to monitor Seattle’s experience and evaluate its helmet distribution policies in light of those results.

THEFT & VANDALISM

When the Nice Ride Board selected a primary vendor in 2009, they knew that Minneapolis’s bike share must be perceived as fun, convenient, and easy to use if it were to be successful. On the heels of the Yellow Bike library program of the late 1990s, the Board also knew they must choose a platform that

would not present an easy opportunity for thieves and vandals. Headlines in 2007 and 2008 praised Vélib’s successful ridership but decried the system’s design—a design that allowed for 3,000 stolen bicycles in its first year on the streets.

Public Bike System Company (PBSC) designed its system with an intentional focus on durability and avoiding the problems that plagued Vélib. Though thieves might be able to separate the bikes from their docks with considerable effort, the docking mechanism’s integration into the bike’s headset would render their frames unrideable after forced extraction.

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When Nice Ride hit the streets in 2010, staff braced themselves for an expected $140,000 in losses due to theft and major vandalism, but by the end of the first season Nice Ride

hadn’t seen anywhere near these projected losses. The only bike unaccounted for at the end of 2010 was recovered in 2011. Early incidents of graffiti and attempts to modify and decorate bikes dropped to a nuisance level after a few weeks. Surprisingly, the greatest contributor to replacement costs has been stations hit by out-of-control drivers leaving the road.

Looking back Executive Director Bill Dossett questions whether PBSC’s high-security design was worth the

added maintenance time for Nice Ride mechanics. In hindsight it’s hard to tell whether the system’s secure features accounted for small incidence of theft and vandalism, or if a lower-maintenance version

and a bit of Minnesota Nice would have kept thieves away.

SOFTWARE & POINT OF SALE TECHNOLOGY

Mitch Vars, Nice Ride’s IT Director, came to the job with a unique background including web development, interactive kiosk development, and custom fabrication. Executive Director Bill Dossett recalls a moment in 2010 when the procurement, assembly, and installation of the first 65 stations was complete and Dossett expressed self-satisfaction. Vars laughed. “This is not a construction project,” he said. “This is technology. It is never complete. The cycle of development is continuous. The electronics we buy today are obsolete within a year.”

In 2010 and 2011, Vars worked regularly with software developers from 8D and the technical team from PBSC and Alta Bike Share (now Motivate) to identify bugs, test patches, and improve the performance of the system. Key projects included reducing bike docking errors and developing promotional codes and reporting systems to tie financial results to customer rental activity.

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This early period in North American bike share was a collaborative venture with a small number of people involved. PBSC was literally writing the technical manuals for assembly and troubleshooting as this collaborative group moved forward.

According to Dossett, if he could go back in time and change one thing from the start-up phase, he would have retained an expert in payment systems in 2010. By doing that, Nice Ride may have avoided a customer experience fiasco created by debits cards and a $250 authorization hold.

Before 2010, all of the bike share systems operating in Europe and Canada required walk-up customers to use a credit card; debit cards in these countries were rejected. These systems placed a $250 authorization hold on credit cards at the time of a 24-hour subscription purchase as a security deposit. The hold impacted the customer’s credit limit for a short time, but that had little impact on consumers. Because theft was considered the greatest risk to the program, Dossett and Vars were not inclined to change this security deposit. Nice Ride trusts its customers with a bike worth $1,000. Staff wanted those customers to know they could recover at least $250, even if they ran off with a bike and

cancelled their card. What Dossett and Vars didn’t know is that US card processing procedures are substantially different than in Europe. Debit cards, having replaced check writing in recent years, would be accepted by our system and used in high volume.

When Nice Ride first opened for business on June 10th, Dossett sent young operations and outreach employees to test the system using their personal cards. The rentals processed without a hitch and customer service reversed the charges for the test. Yet a few hours after his shift, one employee called Dossett concerned. A restaurant had rejected his debit card. The $250 hold Nice Ride placed on his account earlier in the day exceeded the available amount in his bank account. Because every bank sets its own rules regarding when to release an authorization hold (usually 5-10 days), there was nothing Nice Ride could do to fix that.

Within a few days, the Saint Paul Pioneer Press published a story about a student unable to buy books and food after using Nice Ride. The problem was exacerbated by a customer service call center located in Montreal that did not understand the customers’ problems. This fiasco negatively impacted Nice Ride’s reputation and created

distrust, particularly among students and low-income communities, that has persisted for years.

Nice Ride initially reacted to the authorization hold problem by reducing the hold to $50 and putting additional notices on the terminals. In early 2011, Nice Ride became the first system in the country to eliminate the authorization hold. Notably, Nice Ride never actually collected and kept an authorization hold.

As far as staff can tell, eliminating the authorization hold has not impacted theft rates at all. Rather, theft generally occurs from a misdocked bike or a stolen credit card.

The lessons Nice Ride learned from this experience went beyond a re-evaluation of security levels. Staff learned that payment processing systems are a mystery to consumers and software developers alike. They vary by country, bank, card, and merchant processor, and they can change. Perhaps most important from a user experience perspective, staff learned that the information provided on station decals and website FAQs is invisible to most people—customers only read what appears on the touchscreen as they speed-read through it.

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Nice Ride’s point of sale continued to evolve with changes in software, user agreements, and language all aimed at making the system easier to use and understand. For example, Nice Ride took the word ‘free’ out of communications about ride pricing structure and added a screen to the user-interface requiring the user to accept the fee schedule before proceeding.

In 2012 and 2013, Nice Ride’s involvement in discussions regarding the cycle of software development abruptly ended. 8D Technologies continued to work with Nice Ride on software hosting and maintenance issues, but upgrades and improvements stopped.

PBSC and 8D, former joint collaborators, became direct competitors and litigants in a lawsuit 8D filed against PBSC for theft of trade secrets. 8D refused to share upgrades with companies under contract with PBSC, because PBSC had full access to the operators’

interface and would have access to any proprietary software developments.

Litigation ultimately concluded with PBSC dissolving through bankruptcy. With this final resolution, it became clear that 8D’s development work had continued in the interim.

8D was ready to commercialize its first major upgrade to its BSS Platform, which incorporated many of the changes requested years before and new features, including a dramatically improved touchscreen and the capacity to dispense keys at terminals.

Nice Ride became the first bike share system to upgrade to the BSS 4 platform in June 2014 and worked closely with 8D to test and improve system software. Nice Ride also chose to have 8D provide the membership

sign up and account pages for the Nice Ride website, reducing data security concerns and making it possible to sync these pages with anticipated future developments.

In September 2014 Nice Ride installed the world’s first key-dispensing kiosk in front of the Hyatt Regency on Nicollet Mall in

LESSON LEARNED: Bike share users only read system information highlighted for them during the rental and payment process.

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Minneapolis. Prior to this point, riders could check out bikes by swiping their credit card at each station or creating an account online and receiving a key in the mail. Now riders can purchase a key at select kiosks, eliminating the need to swipe a credit card at

each station they visit.

Vars’ 2010 statements to Dossett were prophetic. The cycle of development is continuous, and accelerating. The old touchscreens in terminals Nice Ride purchased in 2010 should be retrofitted with

new touchscreens and software upgraded to drive those new screens. Robust involvement of system owners in the cycle of development is now making that happen. Fostering conditions for that collaboration is one of the reasons Nice Ride was instrumental in the formation of the North American Bikeshare Association (NABSA).

CUSTOMER SERVICE CALL CENTER

Prior to 2013 the Nice Ride call center was run by PBSC and housed in Montreal, Canada. Under the direction of Melissa Summers, Director of Customer Service and Site Planning, the Nice Ride call center moved to Nice Ride headquarters in Minneapolis during operational restructuring. Having Nice Ride’s call center in-house costs less on a net basis than the PBSC-run contract and has dramatically improved service for Nice Ride’s customers. Most importantly, the local call center is able to work directly with the operations and outreach team to identify and solve problems faster and with less headache for employees and customers.

LESSON LEARNED: Nice Ride’s in-house call center combines local knowledge with direct access to other Nice Ride staff to solve customer problems quickly and effectively.

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ANTICIPATING NEW TECHNOLOGIES In September 2014 CityLab declared the smartphone “the most important transportation innovation of the decade.” Creating a world in which people choose not to own a car is about creating a set of alternative transportation choices that are convenient, less damaging for the environment, and less expensive. In the last five years, that set of choices has grown dramatically for many city dwellers, including new car share, bike share, ride share, and transportation network companies.

Over the next five years, Nice Ride staff believes these new alternatives, and traditional alternatives including buses, trains, and taxis, will become better and easier to use. We believe changes relating to growth of smart phone use as a route planner, digital wallet, and unlocking device will accelerate this change. For Nice Ride, integrating new technologies is our greatest opportunity for growth.

When Apple introduced ApplePay in September 2014, retailers around the world decided that a Near Field Communication (NFC) equipped reader is standard equipment

in their check-out lanes. Developers working on unlocking devices for hotel rooms, office buildings, car share cars, or bike share bikes now know that the vast majority of phone users will have NFC technology at their fingertips to provide an identifying key.

Transportation-related apps, including Google Maps, UBER, and local transit interactive maps already account for some of the most commonly downloaded apps. Municipal

parking is also moving toward an app-based interface, making it possible to avoid standing in front of a meter with frozen fingers or to add time without leaving your meeting.

The most successful apps are the simplest. No need for a web page. No need for a subscription. By signing in with the digital wallet of their choice, users don’t even have to enter financial information. UBER is regarded as a prime example of this kind of

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app making it possible to request a ride, watch your car arrive, and pay with one or two screens and one click. Valuations of UBER place the company’s worth around $40 billion.

Although the idea of integrating payment methods has been a goal of transit agencies and bike share companies for many years, very little progress has been made. The transition to mobile payments and smartphones instead of cards and keys has created a unique opportunity to change that. Cities like Helsinki, London, and Los Angeles are seizing that opportunity and pushing forward major integration initiatives.

Transit agencies and transportation providers are investing heavily in devices to enable real time tracking to predict when and where a bus will arrive. Nice Ride IT Director Mitch Vars is currently developing an open data protocol for bike share through the North American Bikeshare Association (NABSA). Open data protocols like these are putting tracking data in the hands of app developers.

Thousands of independent transportation apps already exist. A new generation of apps, led by Daimler’s RideScout, aggregate data from hundreds of local transportation

providers and combine them with a route planning tool, making it easy for the consumer to select from multiple transportation modes or plan an intermodal trip. Global companies like Daimler are investing in these urban mobility tools because they believe these tools will facilitate millions of transportation transactions daily.

In addition to competing with taxis, UBER is targeting auto retailers. UBER is amassing the volume data that will enable it to offer riders the choice to share the car with another rider, reducing the price for each of them. As alternative transportation cost comes down and convenience and options increase, more people will choose not to own cars.

For all of these reasons, the Nice Ride staff believes urban mobility integration has great potential to increase bike share usage and positively impact the financial sustainability of Nice Ride. Nice Ride is working at the local and national level to push urban mobility integration. The newest docks Nice Ride purchases in 2015 will have NFC reading capacity. Nice Ride staff are currently working with 8D to explore ways to retrofit existing bike share docks with this capacity while collaborating with 8D and Clockwork to explore the timing and direction of changes to

Nice Ride’s web interfaces to prepare for a phone-based transportation world.

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BEYOND BIKE SHARE

OPERATIONS

MARKETING

In Minneapolis and Saint Paul, many urban commuters never have to set foot outside. From an attached garage to a parking ramp to a skyway, some residents can get all the way to their offices without taking a breath of fresh air. When Nice Ride rolled onto the streets in 2010, bike share system offered a way for people to break out of their day to day transportation routine.

Early marketing efforts were aimed at presenting a unified brand presence with a clear mission statement. With help from Duffey & Partners design, Roundpeg consulting, Roepke public relations, and Mono marketing, Nice Ride successfully

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pitched bike share to sponsors who identified with Nice Ride’s core values. After system launch, sponsor support quickly translated into public praise. The organization’s ‘Take Summer by the Handlebars’ motif led residents to associate Nice Ride stations with a bit of warm-weather fun.

Membership Initiatives

While Minnesotans were taken with Nice Ride’s adventurous brand, convincing them to ride a bike or sign up for a membership was easier said than done. In 2011 Nice Ride offered discounted annual memberships for the first time. That spring riders signed up more than ever before taking Nice Ride’s number of members to around 4,000 where membership levels stayed for the past three years. In 2012 Nice Ride launched a membership drive. Yet public radio airtime and incentive prizes did not change Nice Ride’s membership numbers.

At the end of the 2013 season Nice Ride staff surveyed system users and discovered that half of the people riding Nice Ride bikes didn’t know Nice Ride offered memberships. The next year Nice Ride created a new product: a 30 Day Pay-As-You-Go membership option. The 30 Day membership gave users an

unlocking key without asking them to pay the price of a year-long commitment. To bolster the 30 Day membership’s launch, title sponsor Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota offered to pay for trial memberships so riders could try out member benefits risk free.

While 2014 saw a record number of rides, the season’s success likely had less to do with membership sign-ups and more to do with an increase in Nice Ride’s local presence. Half of Nice Rides 2013 members renewed in 2014. Hundreds of riders signed up for 30 Day Pay-As-You-Go memberships. Yet membership levels continued to hover around 4,000. Marketing Director Anthony Ongaro believes membership numbers will grow more over time. Yet his efforts in the coming season will shift away from membership initiatives toward messaging aimed at getting people on bikes regardless of their point of entry into the Nice Ride system.

Building on Existing Momentum

From the very first season, Nice Ride’s marketing has been closely linked to its outreach efforts. While the bright green bikes provide their own visibility, presence at local events is key to Nice Ride’s position as a staple in the Minneapolis and Saint Paul communities.

Early on Nice Ride staged its own beer and music events called Nice Nites to build a community of cyclists around the bike share system. While Nice Nites provided a fun space for members to mingle, planning Nice Nites absorbed an immense amount of senior staff time with little impact on system use.

When staff table at existing community events, however, Nice Ride is able to reach more people without using their own marketing and planning resources. For example, events like Minneapolis and Saint Paul Open Streets bring thousands of residents and tourists to a central location where their main goal is to engage with advocates and vendors and enjoy the event’s atmosphere. At events like these Nice Ride staff can have hundreds of conversations about bike share in just one day with limited organization-specific marketing to encourage

LESSON LEARNED: Membership-focused marketing has yet to present tangible gains for the Nice Ride. In the 2015 season Nice Ride will return to an emotion-based campaign centered on appealing to riders’ sense of urban adventure.

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attendance. Some of Nice Ride’s most successful marketing in 2014 came from paid ads on social media encouraging viewers to visit the Nice Ride booth at an upcoming event or festival.

In 2014 Nice Ride had the opportunity to connect with car share industry leader Car2Go as it launched in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Early on Ongaro saw elements of Nice Ride’s values in Car2Go’s brand. That summer Nice Ride and Car2Go became strategic partners, working together at events and in co-marketing campaigns that benefited each organization.

When Nice Ride’s 30 Day Pay-As-You-Go trial membership came onto the market in spring 2014, Nice Ride and Car2Go partnered with local nonprofit HOURCAR plus the Wedge and Seward natural food co-ops to host urban lifestyle events at high-density apartment buildings in

downtown Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The 40 event initiative centered on living spaces within a block or two of a Nice Ride station. People who lived in selected buildings could sign up for free Nice Ride and Car2Go memberships while enjoying a healthy snack from one of the co-ops.

Residents’ proximity to the Nice Ride system made them more likely to ride. Yet the living space initiative consumed large amounts of staff time without proportionate gains in usage or membership. Some events were successful. But at others, Nice Ride Staff struggled to get residents to sign up for a free membership, even with incentives like custom Banjo Brothers backpacks and packages of Peace Coffee. This summer Nice Ride staff will only return to the apartment communities where outreach was most successful while pursuing other marketing strategies.

LESSON LEARNED: From a marketing standpoint, Nice Ride’s outreach efforts are most successful when staff tap into existing resources to showcase the Nice Ride brand at community events planned by partner organizations.

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OUTREACH

Outreach has always been an important aspect of Nice Ride Minnesota, but year by year, the role of outreach has changed. While it continues to be closely related to the marketing strategy, it is becoming more integral to the mission of the non-profit through expanded programming beyond the urban bike share system. As another example of the commitment to quality that characterizes Nice Ride, outreach is constantly evolving in an effort to better meet the needs of the community served. At the beginning the public needed to see that there was something new in town. In 2010 every effort was made to get people on the bikes,

create buzz, make the brand visible and pique curiosity. On opening day 300 people rode Nice Ride bikes down Nicollet Mall for free. Bikes were taken to events and employers to encourage people to just try them out. The belief was that once a person got on the bike and realized how fun it was, they would use the system. Outreach was about building excitement, with the assumption that this excitement would drive use and sales. The following season continued to be about spreading the brand recognition. With annual memberships discounted to boost sales, the outreach team’s role was to keep fueling public interest and desire to be a part of this cool new organization. Nice Ride was present at events large and small, bringing a new game or activity each time. To ensure a warm welcome everywhere, staff came bearing free gifts for interested passersby. With beautiful branding on hats, shirts, socks and posters, Nice Ride gave away thousands of dollars of Nice Ride gear and memberships. A number of changes in outreach strategy occurred in 2012. More efforts were made to engage people long enough to teach them how to use the bike share system. Free branded items were used to strategically

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create an audience for education as staff asked people to answer trivia questions about how to use the bike share. Only those who answered correctly more than once were rewarded. The iconic Nice Ride helmet made its debut in 2012. Purchased with funding from Blue Cross, almost 8,000 helmets were given out that season at tabling events in skyways and at festivals. While every adult could have a helmet, Nice Ride staff needed to fit each person’s helmet for safety reasons. During the time between fittings, long lines often formed. This wait time created the opportunity for the outreach team to have conversations with several people in the line while fitting each helmet. Whenever possible, event locations were chosen near Nice Ride stations. Nice Ride in your Neighborhood featured the Nice Ride event tent set up near a station on a summer evening each week; neighbors could gather, ask questions and then be led on a short group ride. The Nice Nites events, gatherings for beer, music and socializing among members, were also held that season.

In 2012, Nice Ride began sending staff through League Cycling Instructor (LCI) training, a certification process from the League of American Bicyclists, with local

training sessions administered by the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota. Requiring at least 30 hours of training, this intensive process leads bicyclists through classroom and on-street

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training modules of the League's Smart Cycling curriculum. Once certified, these outreach staff lead rides on Nice Ride bikes and are certified to teach safe cycling on their own time in the community.

Since most of these staff are seasonal outreach employees who may not return the following year, there is a continuing need to have new staff complete the training each season. This education reflects a significant and ongoing investment. However, the benefits of having trained cycling instructors who all know the same best practices and have proven skills is a critical part of the high quality experience expected from Nice Ride. Staff that move on to other opportunities continue to carry their knowledge and skills into the community. Through 2014 Nice Ride has had 12 staff become LCIs. Five of those will be returning in 2015 and five more will go through LCI training in 2015. In the 2013 season, staff intently focused on education. The outreach team led significantly more station demonstration rides while the free helmets were used to entice people to check out bikes on a free 24 hour pass. However, 2014 marked the most significant shifts: first, from education to sales; second,

from urban bike share only (green bikes) to using fleet bikes for a season to support individuals in lifestyle changes (orange bikes). The success of the 30 day trial proved Nice Ride could get people to sign up as members if we asked them to do it and made it easy (and free). Excitement and education continue to be necessary, but they are passive sales strategies. Actively selling by asking people to sign up to be members at tabling events and asking them to buy passes at our stations is the next step for supporting the urban bike share. As Nice Ride expanded its focus in 2014 to include the Greater Minnesota Pilot (see below) and a months-long individual support program called Nice Ride Neighborhood (see below), Nice Ride’s outreach efforts expanded and will continue to do so. The Neighborhood program will grow from 146 to 270 participants/fleet bikes in 2015. The Neighborhood program also inspired a similar yet distinct program that will launch in partnership with Allina Health. The program, called Wheel Being, will feature a fleet of bikes that health care providers will prescribe to their patients. Once patients receive their

bike from Nice Ride, they will become part of a community of people choosing to make biking a part of their lives. The Outreach Team will be there to lead rides, teach new skills and encourage the riders to keep pedaling. The paid seasonal staff are not the only people engaging in outreach, either. It is important to recognize the volunteers that have been a part of spreading the word about the joys of biking and bike share from the beginning. Throughout all of the phases of outreach efforts, Nice Ride could not have reached the thousands of people at more than a hundred events per season without the efforts of our dedicated volunteers. 43 volunteers made up Team Wheelie Nice in 2014. Nice Ride staff could not do what they do without volunteers working right alongside them.

LESSON LEARNED: Nice Ride’s successful outreach blends a highly qualified staff with team strategies that continuously evolve to meet people at their individual level of knowledge about and interest in bike share.

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EQUITY INITIATIVES

Nice Ride on the North Side

Nice Ride’s expansion into North Minneapolis was guided by a planning and community engagement project led by Bill Smith of Biko Associates, Inc. Smith led a series of community meetings and focus groups to guide bike share implementation in North Minneapolis. Smith presented his recommendations to the Board through a report, entitled Nice Ride on the North Side. The research outlined in this report led to a greater emphasis on encouraging cycling and introducing bike share in low-income communities through outreach activities described below. Equity-based outreach also introduced Nice Ride to a number of the community partners the organization continues to work with today.

Nice Ride’s work in North Minneapolis has often taken unexpected turns. An invitation to coffee with Representative Bobby Champion became a meeting with transportation equity advocates and a MPR reporter. A severe tornado shortly after installation of the North Minneapolis expansion changed plans from a ride with the

Mayor to a volunteer debris clean-up day. The death of a Nice Ride member, killed by an out of control driver while he was standing next to a bike share station, led to a community ride to honor his memory. With each new obstacle, Nice Ride’s nonprofit business model has given staff the flexibility to make progress in an ever-changing environment.

Community Partners Program

In 2011, Nice Ride began a program to reach out to low-income communities in the Nice Ride service area. Sponsored by the Target Corporation, the program provided discounted and free annual memberships to social services providers able to share them with clients. Yet merely connecting individuals with reduced priced memberships was not enough to encourage ridership.

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With the support of the Target Corporation, the Community Partners program has evolved to focus on individuals whose transportation needs match up with the service Nice Ride provides through its urban system. Beyond handing out memberships, the Community Partners Program provides new riders the training and community support necessary for a successful introduction to urban cycling.

The program follows a process aimed at distributing resources to persons who will benefit from them most. First partners identify individuals who are likely to use Nice Ride, but may not be able to access bike share on their own. Next Nice Ride hosts an orientation ride near the partner’s location. At the orientation Nice Ride staff provides an introduction to the Nice Ride system, tips on how to ride in traffic, and gives each rider a helmet. At the end of each orientation riders are given free year-long memberships to Nice Ride and access to a computer to create a Nice Ride account.

The Community Partners Program and its sister initiative, the Student Scholarship Program operate through direct partnerships with community organizations like Emerge, Saint Paul Public Housing, and Minneapolis Career and Technical College (MCTC).

Nice Ride Neighborhood Pilot

The Nice Ride Neighborhood Program, launched in 2014, grew out of a desire to build on the success of urban bike share by developing new tools and programs that will encourage active transportations in communities outside the urban core. The program was not conceived as a low-income program. The initial pilots, however, were focused in North Minneapolis and in Saint Paul’s Frogtown and East Side neighborhoods.

Like the Community Partners Program, participants in the Nice Ride Neighborhood Pilot were enrolled by a community clinic, church, housing provider or other partner with regular contact with the rider. But, instead of receiving a reduced membership to Nice Ride’s urban system, each participant

was lent a high-quality commuter bike with lights, fenders, and cargo rack, branded and painted orange to identify the program.

In exchange for using the bike, participants agreed to attend an orientation ride and participate in at least four Ride and Dine events hosted by the Major Taylor Bicycling Club of Minnesota. These events were intended to create a supportive community for riders while introducing them to cycling routes in their communities.

Ride and Dine events also provided an opportunity for Neighborhood participants to have mechanics from Nice Ride and Free Bikes 4 Kidz fix any issues with their bike such as flat tires or seat adjustment to make sure these kinds of repair and adjustment issues did not prevent people from riding. They could also take their bikes to local bike shops Venture North and Cycles for Change for no-cost service during regular business hours. Services provided by these bike shops were paid for through a partnership with Nice Ride Minnesota.

At the end of the Neighborhood Program, participants who attended four community events and rode at least twice a week received a $200 credit to their local bike shop

LESSON LEARNED: Reaching underserved populations means creating supportive, educational programs that give new riders the tools they need to be successful. Merely distributing reduced price bike share memberships is not enough to encourage ridership in these communities.

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partner upon returning their orange Neighborhood bike.

The University of Minnesota conducted an extensive evaluation of the Neighborhood pilot. Student researchers attended Neighborhood events, worked with Nice Ride staff, and interviewed over 90 riders at the end of the program season in October and November. In the Executive Summary of their report, the University researchers

concluded that the pilot was successful in changing individual and community perceptions around active transportation:

The creation of a “biking community” and “fellowship” among participants was a critical driver of program participation and success. Further, NRN participants reported that the program increased their knowledge and use of existing biking

infrastructure (parks, trails, and bike lanes) and provided connection to people in their neighborhood around bicycling. Thus, we believe the NRN program improved the perception of biking in the neighborhood and may lead to neighborhood and geographic community level increases in biking behaviors and perceptions.

The success of this pilot program has reinvigorated Nice Ride’s engagement with low-income communities, particularly in North Minneapolis, where program partners have come forward with great ideas to improve the program.

The Neighborhood Program’s success will also enable Nice Ride to respond to requests for expansion in areas outside the urban core by providing a tool that is better suited to areas lacking the density that is necessary for urban bike share.

LESSON LEARNED: Expansion efforts in new communities ought to focus on which tools will encourage active transportation best rather than attempting to make urban bike share work in low-density areas.

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GREATER MINNESOTA PROGRAM

Blue Cross engages with cities and towns across the state on active living initiatives. In 2012, Blue Cross began hearing a common theme: small cities want Nice Ride, too. Nice Ride also heard these requests as mayors and sustainability directors called Nice Ride headquarters, asking how to bring bike share to their communities.

In fall 2013 Nice Ride hired Anthony Desnick as the Director of Greater Minnesota Strategies. Desnick’s first task was to meet with advocates all over Minnesota to get their ideas on how Nice Ride could build on its urban success through programs in small cities. Next Desnick drafted the Greater Minnesota Vision Statement to guide Nice Ride’s work outside Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

Core strategies of the vision statement include:

• Pioneer new tools—not necessarily urban bike share—tailored to small cities.

• Develop Nice Ride Centers: a focal point for cycling activity and active living culture in small cities

• Support local bike shops by contracting with them for operating support.

• Encourage people to ride to and through downtown.

Nice Ride’s first Greater Minnesota pilot kicked off in June 2014 as a group ride on the program’s new orange VANMOOF bikes arrived in Bemidji. For the next four months Bemidji residents and visitors could rent any of the 100 bicycles from four locations around town. Students at Bemidji State University could also check out bikes from a special fleet

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designated for coursework, group rides, or a semester-long lease. To encourage local cycling, the program featured free two hour

rentals for Bemidji residents between Monday morning and Thursday evening.

From the perspective of utilization and establishing a replicable business model, the results from the first year of Bemidji’s three year pilot program were a disappointment. Ridership levels were low, particularly at the Visitor’s Center and lake front park rental locations. Revenue was very low, in part because the web-based reservation system caused confusion despite its intent to be simple for consumers and retail partners. With over 80% of users checking out bikes by walking up to a rental location without a reservation, most of the confusion over Nice Ride Bemidji’s rental system was unnecessary.

Yet 2014 was more successful from the perspective of Nice Ride’s mission to help make Bemidji a ‘bike place’. Local hotel operators and downtown business owners, particularly the local

foods cooperative, saw the benefits of marketing their town as a bike place. As a result, these community leaders are supportive of efforts to add wayfinding and

infrastructure development to make cycling between the hotels and downtown more intuitive. Blue Cross funded a planning project to bring those ideas to fruition.

In its second season, Nice Ride Bemidji will refocus its efforts on the downtown bike center and away from some of the tourist destinations by the Lake. Similar to Nice Ride’s outreach efforts in the Twin Cities, Bemidji’s outreach activities will be targeted to maximize impact and leverage social media and incentives.

LESSON LEARNED: To make Bemidji a bike place, the Greater Minnesota Pilot needs to work with community partners to develop local ridership through community-centered rental locations in the heart of the town.

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NORTH AMERICAN BIKESHARE ASSOCIATION

Nice Ride took a leading role in the formation and convening of the North American Bikeshare Association (NABSA). In part, this work was motivated by a desire to restore stability and communication about the cycle of bike share development to an industry rocked by the bankruptcy of its biggest vendor, Public Bike System Company (PBSC). Beyond its original function as a forum for collaboration, Nice Ride staff views the industry association as the best tool to drive forward an urban mobility integration agenda.

At NABSA’s first annual meeting in Pittsburgh, representatives of the Shared Use Mobility Center, the American Public Transit Association (APTA), RideScout, and Car2Go opened a dialog with bike share owners, operators, and vendors about urban mobility integration. Nice Ride Executive Director Bill Dossett is currently serving on a working group of APTA on the same subject. NABSA is hosting webinars, like “ABCs of Payments” that will enable cities and non-profits to engage intelligently with our

vendors and with other transportation providers about payment system integration.

NABSA will also provide the bike share industry with a voice in Washington on

Legislative issues as it recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with PeopleForBikes to collaborate on legislative strategies common to both.

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COMMENTS FROM OUR PARTNERS

This winter Nice Ride staff reached out to organizational partners to share their thoughts as Nice Ride prepared its Five Year Assessment and Strategic Plan. Partners touched on three topics:

• Impact/social benefit: Does Nice Ride make a noticeable difference and how? Are we making the most of the public and private resources invested in Nice Ride?

• Partnership: Have we met your expectations? What can we do better? Are we missing opportunities to pursue common goals?

• Direction: What should Nice Ride do more of, or less of, three years from now?

As staff read through the thoughts of Nice Ride sponsors, community partners, and local leaders, a two themes emerged: expansion and equity. Comments centered on those

themes are highlighted below. A complete version of the comments Nice Ride received are available here.

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EXPANSION

If we can add more stations, those stations should be used to “thicken” the coverage within the existing service area, not spread out into a broader geography.

- Peter Wagenius, Policy Director, City of Minneapolis Office of the Mayor

Seward Co-op would very much like to see the Nice Ride program expand further into south Minneapolis in order to accommodate shoppers at our new location in the Bryant neighborhood.

- Tom Vogel, Marketing Manager, Seward Co-op

I am interested to see what happens with the Bemidji campus use and the collaboration with the college. Can we survey the students and find out what would make them ride more? Can we learn from what is working and what is not in Fargo and how they are partnering with the college and bike share there? Can we do more to help with bike share at other college campuses like Duluth and Mankato. Even if Nice Ride does not run

the program can we provide advice and assistance.

- Lisa Austin, Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Coordinator, Minnesota Department of Transportation

We would like to see “orange bike” or Social Bicycle systems implemented in lower traffic—yet still popular—areas such as in and connecting between parks and towns, such as Anoka and Hastings, in the MNRRRA.

- Ben Rasmussen, US Department of Transportation, Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, Consultant to Mississippi National River and Recreation Area

We are looking forward to our new Wheel Being partnership, to show our primary care physicians that partnering with a community organization is feasible and successful (we hope!) and to encourage our patients to try a new type of physical activity.

- Alison Pence, Director of Community Engagement, West Metro, Allina Health

EQUITY

I think the outreach work that you all do [through the Student Scholarship Program] is fantastic and I’ve witnessed first-hand the value of your program!

- Kimberly Bestler, Program Assistant and Tutor Coordinator, TRiO/Student Support Services, Augsburg College

There has been great progress in working on equity issues with low-income people of color. I would like to see more with equity in all levels of income of people of color. I think the partnership with Major Taylor could be expanded to do more of this.

- Lisa Austin, Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Coordinator, Minnesota Department of Transportation

Allina Health also has a renewed focus on Health Equity and many of our clinics have selected ‘Optimal Diabetes Control’ amongst our non-English speaking patients as one of their goals for 2015 (including the Bloomington clinic). It would be nice if NR

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could include focusing on these same populations as well….

You’ve got urban bike share down. Time to think about how best to access the people who aren’t being (and won’t be) served by your current efforts.

- Alison Pence, Director of Community Engagement, West Metro, Allina Health

I think there is more opportunity for partnering around expanding biking access in low-income and to more diverse communities. I think Nice Ride should make sure to keep running its core business well and focus additional efforts on breaking down barriers to biking/Nice Ride for people who do not regularly bike….

I do think that Nice Ride should make it a priority to have their Board and staff better reflect the diversity of the city. That is especially important for meaningfully expanding NR Neighborhood and future programs targeted to communities of color.

- Ethan Fawley (pictured right), Executive Director, Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition

STRATEGIC DIRECTION

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MISSION

• Our current mission statement is effective and captures our core values. Focusing on multiple benefits—health, vitality, and transportation—has resonated with partners and the public and served as a guide for good decisions.

• We should make a small change to our mission statement to reflect that Nice Ride does more than bike share programs. We operate fleets of bikes for the public good.

URBAN SYSTEM GOALS

• Our five-year experience has demonstrated that bike sharing works most effectively in urban areas. Adding stations near single-family homes results in under-utilized stations. Adding stations near other successful stations (i.e., “densifying” the network) results in more highly utilized stations and growth in total system usage. Future expansion of the urban system should focus on densification:

o An immediate need for densification exists in the area surrounding the University of Minnesota Minneapolis campus, which has been transformed by light rail and transit-oriented development.

o Station expansion should closely follow high-density apartment development in the urban core. o Our 2011 “Phase 2” Plan is outdated. We should re-engage the public to share our five-year results, re-focus urban system

expansion on the urban core, and demonstrate the new tools we are developing for other areas. • Our operations and financial investments should focus on customer experience, quality, and reliability.

o We will expand investment in metrics, quality assurance, and incentive compensation to give employees transparency to customer experience and motivate commitment to quality and reliability.

o Through the North American Bikeshare Association (NABSA) industry association, we will continue to learn from the successes and mistakes of other systems, particularly focusing on winter cycling and helmet use/safety.

• We will invest in and look for opportunities to play a leadership role in urban mobility integration. Rapid growth in alternative transportation solutions, changing consumer preferences toward urban living and away from car ownership, and adoption of smart-phone-based payment, sign-up, and unlocking systems create a unique opportunity for urban mobility integration. To achieve its mission and strengthen financial sustainability, Nice Ride should pursue this opportunity.

o We should optimize our product configuration and pricing to anticipate a world in which riders come to Nice Ride through smart phone apps that aggregate transportation alternatives.

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• Winter Biking o Due to the particular challenges of our climate, freeze-thaw cycles, and heavy use of road salts, Nice Ride should remain

cautious about winter cycling in the urban system. Important changes are anticipated that may enhance feasibility, including: development of winter-specific bicycles, installation of protected bikeways, and innovation in winter bikeways maintenance. Nice Ride should wait for these changes before piloting a winter urban bike share program. However, Nice Ride should continue to look for opportunities to locate stations in locations where they can remain in place year-round, particularly in a zone surrounding the University of Minnesota in and urban parks.

GREATER MINNESOTA PROGRAM

• Small Cities/Bike Places o Refocus on:

Partnerships with restaurants, local food retailers, and hotels. Riding to and through downtown.

o Simplify user interface for customers and partners. Work flexibly with Bemidji State University. Get it right before adding cities.

o Supporting people willing to try active transportation: Nice Ride Neighborhood

• Continue and refine program in North Minneapolis, Frogtown, and East Saint Paul. • Build on relationships with most-invested partners. • Follow direction of University of Minnesota study: continue community-building and investment in quality;

create more ways for participants to succeed. Wheel Being

• Pilot program similar to Nice Ride Neighborhood with enrollment through physician referrals in suburban areas Develop business plan and prepare for growth; look to title sponsorship for capital/growth; look to program

sponsorship, grants, and individual giving for operating support. o Continue to look for new opportunities and tools to build on success of urban bike share by making riding a bike for

transportation “mainstream” and making the connection between health and how we get around.

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ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS

• Build on success as a “grass tops” public-private partnership with capacity to implement high-quality projects on schedule o Maintain strong relationships with government partners; use Nice Ride investment to leverage public sector investment in

infrastructure and integration; time new projects to coincide with infrastructure improvements, not precede them. o Strengthen relationships with the key sponsors who have supported Nice Ride since 2010 and whose goals are best aligned with

our mission while cultivating new sponsor relationships with firms that share our values and goals. o Continue to vigorously support the “grass roots” efforts of key organizations, including the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition, St.

Paul Women on Bikes, and Transit for Livable Communities. • We can and we should simultaneously invest in innovation and improving core service. • Continue to invest in capacity-building through staff training and equipment acquisition. • Continue to invest in national industry association as a catalyst for urban mobility integration and forum for professional development. • Be open to partnership and restructuring opportunities as changes in urban mobility sector accelerate.

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CURRENT & PAST EMPLOYEES Aaron Stoltman Alasdair McKernan Alexander Inman Alexander Salazar Alicia Cameron Amitabh Singh Amy Salloway Andrew Cook Andrew Ritchie Andrew Temperante Angela Coe Anna Jacobson Anthony Desnick Anthony Ongaro Ben Gross Brent Grihalva Chad Belcher Christopher Farstad Coreen Elwell Daniel Breva Ellen Apel Emily Wade Franz Cordes-Eklund Garrett Hengstler Ian Nancekivell

Innokenty Zavyalov Isabel Antreasian Jacob Quarstad Jamez Smith Jeffrey Shockley Jeremy Mendelson Jessamine Bristow Jill Lestina-Warnest Johanna Winters John Bemel John Feidt John Strharsky Jonathan Howard Joshua Sweet Julian Hyde Kristine Nye Lauren Haun Manuel Alvarez Marisa Cartwright Mark Rood Matthew Broin Matthew Irons Matthew Peterson Matthew Steely Melinda Neville

Melissa Summers Michael Dodd Michael Wethington Mitch Vars Mourette Valcin Nathaniel Hart-Andersen Nicholas Carroll Paul Stucker Robert Fox Robert Hollister Sarah Dunne Sarah Lageson Sarah Padovese Scott Hoostal Shayla Yeackley Tami Traeger Travis Palmer Trevor Drake William Bush III William Dossett William Zager Wolfram Ruhmann Wyatt Miller