In Aurora, you don't have to put the city bikes back where you rented them out.
It's part of a new 'dockless' bike program started by the city.
The only requirement is a smartphone. You have to download an app that shows the location of each bike on a map.
The bikes are tracked through a GPS.
Once you locate a bike, you can unlock it through the app.
This program evokes one very important question: what if the bike gets stolen?
"It is a risk, but it's something that the operator is working on," said city planner Brenden Paradies. He hopes the program motivates more people to go out and ride.
"It's more geared toward commuting, but we have seen a lot of activity on our recreational trails in Aurora, which we have a lot of," Paradies said.
The current bike-share operators in Aurora are LimeBike and ofo.
LimeBike is a dollar every thirty minutes, and ofo is a dollar for each hour. Students receive a 50 percent discount.
Though this is a new program to Aurora, it has existed in other cities like Washington and Seattle.
"There are a lot of lessons to learn from Seattle because they were finding them stacked up in weird places," Tom Tobiassen, an organizer of the program said.
The city will soon have 500 'dockless' bikes between the two permits.
Visit the City of Aurora's website for more information on the program: http://bit.ly/2x381JY
