B-cycle Bike Sharing Memberships Are Now Valid Across The U.S.

Reposted from Bikocity:

There are over a dozen B-cycle bike-sharing programs across the U.S. Until now, however, membership would just be good for the city in which you signed up. That’s going to change this week. Annual memberships will now be valid in all 15 locations in which B-cycle is located (and, presumably, in any cities where B-cycle gets rolling). The program is called B-connected.

 
Of course, this is a big win for B-cycle members who like to travel and, of course, like to bike. The full list of cities where B-cycle is currently in business or about to launch is:

• Denver, CO
• Boulder, CO
• Madison, WI
• San Antonio, TX
• Houston, TX
• Spartanburg, SC
• Charlotte, NC
• Des Moines, IA
• Kansas City, MO
• Omaha, NE
• Nashville, TN
• Kailua, HI
• Broward County, FL.
• Fort Worth, TX (launching Spring)
• Salt Lake City, UT (launching Spring)

Quite a good spread.

Angie Schmitt of Streetsblog DC adds:

“The company has been exploring the “B-connected” model since last March, using Denver, Boulder, and Madison as pilot cities. If a B-cycle member incurs additional fees while in another B-cycle city (by taking a bike out longer than the allotted time limit, for instance), they will be charged by the system where the trip took place.”

Angie also says that B-cycle is the first bike-share company to allow members to use other cities’ systems without paying extra. I think she means within the US, because I’m currently a member of nextbike in Wrocław, Poland,  and am allowed to use their systems in other cities (other countries even) for no extra charge. For example, the company has systems in New Zealand, Turkey, Cyprus, Germany, the UK, Azerbaijan, Austria, and elsewhere.

With the huge number of bike-sharing programs in place around the world, I’d be surprised if B-cycle and nextbike were the only two with such an offer.

But in any case, it’s awesome to see B-cycle “opening up its borders,” and let’s hope other bike-sharing companies follow suit.