An e-bike company that has had racks of rentable bikes in Encinitas since early 2022 is pulling out of the city this month, saying usage rates haven’t been as good as hoped. “We just weren’t getting the wheel spinning at the level that we needed” to make the program cost-effective, BCycle Executive Director Brian Conger said Wednesday. City officials said they’re sorry to see the company depart, but said they understood the challenges BCycle faced.
Gotcha Ride tried to start a regional bike share program that included Encinitas, but dropped that effort in 2020 during the pandemic, citing problems obtaining bike part supplies. When BCycle proposed its rental program in 2021, city officials were thrilled, saying BCycle offered something that Gotcha did not — its bikes would be electric-assist. “I’m over the moon with this, thinking it’s a really awesome deal,” then-councilman Joe Mosca said at the time.