San Francisco might be the center of tech startups but getting around using a bicycle can be quite tasking and a very sweaty undertaking. The city is filled with steep hills, and is not suitable for leisure bike rides or simply commuting in one, unless you are training for sports. Enters Ford GoBike, the ebikes that makes going uphill on a bike easy.
The city already has various bike-sharing schemes running, but they have not been able to achieve their full potential as some users are afraid of the sweaty and tiresome affair of pedaling uphill in the city. However, with Ford GoBike electric motorized two-wheelers, going uphill will not be a concern.
Ford GoBike is already a well-established bike sharing scheme in San Francisco, and with the addition of 250 ebikes to its fleet, it is bound to attract more users who were previously afraid of getting tired and sweating.
The new fleet, dubbed the ‘Ford GoBike Plus’ has ebikes with speed topping at 18 mph. The ebikes are said to benefit “not just San Francisco residents, but everyone who comes to the city for any purpose… whether you’re going to work or to a museum, a restaurant, the theater or shopping, now you’ll have a new fun and flexible option for getting to your end destination,” said Jack Mackenzie, the chair of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission that oversees the Ford GoBike program in the Bay Area.
Launched in June 2017, FordGoBIke now has 287 stations and over 3,600 bikes across the Bay Area. The company is targeting to grow its bike fleet to reach 7,000 regular bike and double the number of stations; if it achieves that growth it will be the biggest bike-sharing scheme in America.
Though there is a growing competition within the bike-sharing scheme industry particularly in the U.S. market. You might be interested to know of a Chinese firm Bluegogo which also launched its bike sharing scheme in San Francisco but was later forced to pull its bikes off the streets following legal battles with the authorities over permits issues. The issue was so big that Bluegogo was forced to close shop and move out of the business.
