Leaders react to JUMP bike price jump

July 18, 2019 12:20 am

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — A more than 400 percent price hike for a JUMP bike?

Community leaders say it’s unacceptable.

“We would like bike riding to be a viable transportation alternative for absolutely everyone,” said Kathleen Gannon, the vice chairwoman of the Rhode Island Bicycle Coalition. “And we’re just afraid that this hinders that.”

The JUMP bikeshare company, which is owned by Uber, says it will keep its “boost” program for low–income riders.

But the Rhode Island Bicycle Coalition is still concerned.

“That middle ground between people who qualify for Boost and people who are okay with paying 18 dollars an hour to ride a bike around town, that gap in the middle is what we might lose,” said Sarah Mitchell, the chairwoman of the Rhode Island Bicycle Coalition. “And these individuals now have either no mode to get around, or choose to go back to driving and increase traffic on our roads.”

The JUMP bike price jump is a shock not only to residents who rely on these bikes for daily travel, but for city officials as well.

“City staff has expressed these concerns directly to JUMP and will advocate that they reevaluate these price changes,” said Ben Smith, a spokesman for the mayor’s office. “We will be keeping a close eye on ridership in the coming weeks to evaluate the impact on system usage.

City Councilwoman Helen Anthony calls it a bait-and-switch.

“I’ve been very thrilled with the project, but this is a gamechanger,” Anthony said. “My initial reaction was shock. The reason these JUMP bikes are of value to a city like Providence, is it provides people transportation, affordable transportation. Our bus system is not robust, and this gives people an opportunity to get from one place to another in a cost–effective manner. And that was the reason we allowed the JUMP bikes to operate here in the city. This makes the JUMP bikes really, really far less valuable to this city. And I think we as a city need to take a look at the contract.”

The City Council plans to take a look at the contract at its meeting Thursday.