Staten Island’s borough-wide dockless bike share pilot to roll out next spring

Back in April, the city put out a call for companies interested in providing a dockless bike-sharing service in Staten Island. Now, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has selected a company, and unveiled details on the borough-wide pilot program, following the success of its initiative in several parts of the city, launched in 2018.

U.K.-based bike share provider Beryl has been selected to lead the service in the borough starting next spring, with more than 1,000 bikes. The DOT said that Beryl is different from other providers as it offers a “hybrid system” that encourages riders to park bikes responsibly. The system provides incentives for users to park in “bays” or parking spaces that appear on the Beryl app: For instance, in the U.K., users are charged £2 if they don’t return their bike to a “bay,” a spokesperson for the company told Streetsblog.

Meanwhile, the companies that had operated the first phase of the program in Staten Island will wrap up their service soon: JUMP will end its service on November 15, with Lime following on December 3. Together, the two companies had about 400 bikes in select areas of the borough including the North Shore and part of eastern Staten Island south of the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge. But next spring, the service will be borough-wide.

“We’ve developed a successful, and more importantly, safe, sustainable, responsible and affordable hybrid bike share system, driven by the social impact goal of reducing the barriers to cycling and getting more people on bikes,” Emily Brooke, founder of Beryl Bikes, said in a statement.

The city debuted its dockless bike share pilot over a year ago in the Fordham area in the Bronx, the Rockaways, and Staten Island’s North Shore. Back in August, the DOT announced that the Rockaways pilot would also get a second phase, which would roll out in November; DOT says it’s still in talks with Lime about continuing that program.