When Mighty AI CEO Daryn Nakhuda spotted a runaway JUMP bike on a ferry in Seattle, he put GeekWire on the case. The dockless bike-share service, recently acquired by Uber, is operating in San Francisco, Washington D.C., and several Northern California markets but it has not launched in Seattle.
Saw a @jumpbikes bike on the SEA-BI ferry. Wouldn’t be notable except… they aren’t launched in Seattle. ?@geekwire pic.twitter.com/sBJLbQnMgO
— Daryn Nakhuda (@daryn) May 29, 2018
As it turns out, that particular bike has been on a long pilgrimage. Months ago, JUMP officials brought the bike up to Seattle for a series of demos after Uber announced plans to acquire the bike-share startup. The bike has been strutting its stuff for the Seattle Department of Transportation and Uber execs in the region, according to Caleb Weaver, Uber’s Northwest public affairs lead.
Weaver confirmed that the bike Nakhuda spotted on the ferry is one and the same. Someone working with JUMP was transporting the bike from Bainbridge Island to Seattle to give Weaver a demo.
Weaver said that despite this bike’s surprise appearance traversing Puget Sound, the JUMP service has not launched in Seattle. Uber declined to comment on JUMP’s Seattle expansion plans.
SDOT permitted three dockless bike-share companies to operate in Seattle over the past year as part of a pilot program. Spin, Ofo, and Lime were allowed to deploy 4,000 colorful bikes each in the city. SDOT is analyzing data from the pilot and says it will unveil a permanent bike-share program this spring. The three existing Seattle bike-share companies are allowed to continue to operate in Seattle during this period. Additional dockless bike-sharing companies are waiting for the green light from SDOT.
