There were 10,000 dockless bike share bikes scattered across Seattle at the end of 2017, nearly a quarter of all units nationwide.
That was one of the findings in a new study of Seattle’s bike sharing program released Monday by the Seattle Department of Transportation. It comes as the city is determining long-term regulations for dockless bike sharing companies. The study found that the 10,000 bikes from Spin, LimeBike, and Ofo were ridden 468,000 times from July 2017 to the end of the year.
The study underscores the rapid growth of bike sharing in Seattle and the city’s status of a nationwide proving ground for the concept. The program only kicked off last summer, when the city granted permits to Spin and LimeBike starting with 500 bikes a piece, a threshold that was increased later in the year. In August, Chinese bike share company Ofo jumped into the fray.
