Davidson College launches MoBike bikesharing program

Readers may have started noticing a few of the new silver bikeshare bicycles around town in Davidson.  Those are part of the new program launched recently by Davidson College in conjunction with the bikesharing vendor - MoBike.  The one pictured here was in front of Summit Coffee's "Outpost" on campus.

aShortChronicle reviewed the various bikesharing vendors operating in Uptown Charlotte (including MoBike) in this post.  Unfortunately, MoBike was our least favorite when it comes to ride comfort, but as we pointed out as well, the MoBike units look the least visible compared to the florescent colors of the other vendors.  That will be a good thing as these bikes eventually spread across town.

According to Yancey Fouche, Director of Sustainability with Davidson College, the College program has 50 bikes available for rent.  Like the MoBike program Uptown, they will eventually cost $1 per 30 minute ride unless the College works out some other deal for students.  That's according to this article from the Davidsonian last week after the program's launch.

After seeing how these bikes have flooded Uptown, aShortChronicle checked with the Town earlier this week to see if there were any enforcement plans by Town Hall to prevent these bikes from becoming an off campus nuisance  As of this writing, the Town has not responded, so it is unknown if there have been any issues so far.  From monitoring the MoBike app over the past few days it is clear these bikes are rapidly making their way into the larger community.  As of early Friday morning, the app shows 13 of the 50 bikes parked off campus over night.

Six just west of Main St

Seven in Circles@30 area

While 50 bikes in the program is not enough to make these bikes the same kind of ubiquitous sight they are in Charlotte, this is definitely something to keep an eye on for now.

Readers can download the MoBike app here if interested in trying them.  If you see any bikes parked inappropriately off campus and want to file a complaint, you can use the Town's SeeClickFix utility on the Town Civic Plus app.  Download that app here.