Hartford’s first bike-share program is nearing an end.
LimeBike, a Silicon Valley-based bikeshare vendor, confirmed on Wednesday it’s leaving the Capital City after launching a two-year pilot program here in June 2018.
A timeline for its exodus has not yet been set, a LimeBike spokesman said.
LimeBike had placed 300 of its green bicycles across the city in early June before adding another 100 bikes to city street corners weeks later to meet local demand. Hartford, at the time, was only one of two New England city’s housing the bikesharing program.
LimeBike officials on Wednesday didn’t explain reasons for the departure.
In October, the company’s Hartford operations manager told Hartford Business Journal that bikes in the area had been vandalised and stolen, but the damage was not a major problem.
The bikes came at no cost to the city of Hartford. Riders with the Lime app are charged at a rate of $1 for every 30 minutes. All bikes have GPS and 3-G installed for riders to find bikes using the app.
The city of Hartford is currently seeking another bike sharing program, Mayor Luke Bronin told the Hartford Courant.
