Photo courtesy of Ofo
D.C. is adding yet another color to the rainbow of bikeshares on the city’s streets and sidewalks.
Ofo, a Chinese company that says it pioneered the concept of dockless bikesharing, rolled out hundreds of bright yellow bikes in D.C. on Tuesday.
The company is joining four other dockless bikeshare companies as D.C.’s Department of Transportation pilots the concept through April 2018. Instead of leaving bikes at docks like Capital Bikeshare, riders can leave the smart bikes anywhere they would a personal bike—similar to how Car2go works for vehicles. (To keep up with the increase of new bikesharing options across the city, a transportation app recently added the dockless options to its D.C. map.)
The oldest of the companies, Ofo currently operates its in 180 cities across 15 countries, including a recent U.S. expansion to Washington state and Massachusetts.
Compared to its D.C. competitors, Ofo is giving residents more time for their buck at $1 per hour. China-based Mobike and California-based Spin and LimeBike offer 30-minute rides for $1, and the only electric bike company, JUMP, charges $2 for every 30 minutes. Riders also pay $2 for 30-minute rides on Capital Bikeshare, which launched in 2010 as a replacement for SmartBike—the country’s first bikesharing system that launched in D.C. in 2008.
For its D.C. debut, Ofo is running a promotion that lets riders pedal through the city for up to two hours free from October 9-22.
Ofo founder Dai Wei came up with the idea for station-free bikesharing in 2014. During its short existence, the dockless model has contended with issues such as bikes piled up on city streets and reported lost or stolen.
In 2016, Mobike pioneered GPS-enabled bikes to help mitigate some of these problems. Other companies—including Ofo, Spin, Limebike, and JUMP—have mimicked the technology, which also allows users to access a QR code to unlock the bikes.
Advancing the technology, Ofo is rolling out a system in China this month that lets users unlock the bikes by placing their smartphones near the bikes instead of relying on QR codes, which scammers have reportedly used to steal money from users.
Ofo has also gained recognition by partnering with a tech company to develop “Smog Free Bicycles” that can collect and purify polluted air, then release clean air around the cyclist—this model will also be first introduced to the Chinese market.
This week, Ofo is rolling out 400 bikes across D.C.—a number allotted to each dockless bikeshare company during DDOT’s pilot period. Like the other dockless bike companies, it has an on-the-ground team to monitor the bikes for maintenance and in case they need to be relocated.
The company is setting up at Bareburger in Dupont Circle on Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. so people can test the bikes and grab some free lemonade.
