Yes, You Can Now Jump on Those Red ‘Jump’ Bikes in Rochester
Have you seen those red bikes that say 'Jump' on them around Rochester? Well, yeah, now you can jump right on one and take it for a ride.
I first saw one of these intriguing red bikes sitting in the parking lot outside the Townsquare Media Communications Complex off 2nd Avenue in Rochester when I got into work early Tuesday morning.
As it turns out, they're available to rent right now, and are owned by the same people who've brought those bright green Lime scooters to the Med City the past two summers. And, according to this TechCrunch story, they're actually ELECTRIC bikes that you can access via an app on your phone.
The story said that the Jump brand had originally been owned by Uber, and the only way to rent one was to use the Uber app. Now, though, they've been bought by Lime, and you can access them just as you would one of those Lime scooters. (You hover your phone's camera over the special code and it automatically opens either Lime app or a page on your phone's browser that allows you to start the rental process. The Jump bikes show up in red, while the Lime scooter locations are green.)
The story noted that our fair city of Rochester is only the fourth U.S. city in which these red Jump bikes are now available. (You can also rent them in Denver, Seattle and Washington, D.C.) KIMT-TV said Lime originally had only 5 bikes available when they first hit the streets of the Med City in mid-August, but that plans were to have as many as 25 available soon after that, with plans to add 25 more if demand is great enough.
The cost to rent them is the same as the Lime scooters, which according to the Lime app is $1 to start plus $.29 per minute on your ride. (Which means a 30-minute ride would run you $9.70.) Have you seen them around town in Rochester?
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