Uber’s Jump e-bike sharing kicks-off in Brussels

Uber has launched its Jump bicycle sharing service in Brussels with 500 e-bikes having been made available. Users may book the pedelecs through the regular app of the ride-hailing company.

Uber-owned Jump Bikes has released the e-bike fleet across Brussels City, Saint-Gilles, Ixelles, Etterbeek, Sint-Joost-ten-Node and Schaerbeek. The rate is €1 to unlock the pedelec and then €0,15 per minute spent on the bike.

Jump Bikes has the selling point of being booked through the Uber app. Users receive a PIN with which to unlock the bike and begin riding.The ride hail firm had integrated the startup in their offering this April (we reported).

In the Belgian capital, “Jump is not the first provider of electric bicycle sharing,” says Nikolaas Van de Loock, general manager of Jump Belgium, “but it is the first with a license,” he adds. The electric bicycles are free-floating, meaning they can be parked anywhere within the zone. This prompted Brussels Mobility Minister Pascal Smet to comment that “we still have to make customers aware not to leave bicycles on footpaths and to take pedestrians into account. But it is not the bikes that are the problem in Brussels. It’s the cars, of which there are far too many.”

The Jump e-bikes have a front-wheel motor with pedal-assist to up to 25 kph. The batteries can be swapped; a service Jump takes charge of by deploying employees on electric cargo bikes and a box full of charged batteries. The company says they all charge with green electricity.

Users can find an orange e-bike near them in Brussels via GPS locators through the app. Other cities with Jump Bikes in Europe include Berlin, Lisbon, Madrid and Paris.

In the US, Jump electric bicycles are available in Washington, San Francisco and Denver as well as in Santa Cruz, Chicago, Austin, Sacramento, and New York City.

siliconcanals.nl, brusselstimes.com, jump.com (cities)