St. Pete mayor test drives new electric bike hitting city streets next week
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch got to test ride a new electric bike Friday before it hits the streets next week.
The city is partnering with "Lime" to replace the pedal bike share program with electric assist bikes. Riders will have to pedal a little bit, but the bikes go up to 15 miles per hour.
Three hundred e-bikes will replace the pedal bikes next Wednesday across St. Pete. They’ll be in the same spots the pedal bikes are found in.
"We're already looking at ways that we can expand the bike share network to reach more people, and it's going to give even more people that option of using an e-bike rather than taking their car to get from point A to point B in our city," City Council Member Gina Driscoll from District 6 said.
During next week’s rollout, the first ride is free. After that, riders can use Lime’s app to rent a bike, or pay on the Uber app.
Driscoll said they have plans to expand and add more bikes in the future. There’s no set timeline for the expansion, but she said they’ll be looking for new parts of St. Pete to add the e-bikes.