Co Bikes announce opening of new dockless station in Princesshay
Published: 9 March 2021
Co Bikes, part of the Co Cars group of shared mobility services, has announced the opening of a new electric bike station in Princesshay Shopping Centre.
The station is located on Bedford Street, between Nationwide and Russell & Bromley, and is the latest in a series of ‘dockless’ stations. These need no fixed infrastructure for bikes to be locked into. Instead, they are rented and returned within a virtual geofenced space.
At Princesshay, floor vinyls have been laid to help identify the geofenced space, located outside Nationwide Building Society. Customers simply push the Co Bike into the space marked out by the vinyls then lock the bike and end their hire via the nextbike app.
Michelle Menezes, Princesshay Centre Manager, commented: “With the safe re-opening of the city centre expected to get underway in the coming weeks, we are looking forward to welcoming people back in Princesshay. Having a Co Bikes station right at the heart of the centre will be a great way for people to visit us in a sustainable way.”
Mark Hodgson, Managing Director of Co Cars, added: “Like much of the country, people in Exeter have embraced the electric bike revolution; we saw a 400 per cent increase in Co Bikes usage across 2020. I’m delighted that we’re now able to bring Co Bikes to Princesshay, helping support the reopening of the city centre with more zero carbon transport options.”
Princesshay is the third new Co Bikes station launched this year, following on from Sidwell Street and Exeter College’s Future Skills Centre near Exeter Airport. More new sites will be announced soon.
The Co Bikes network is powered by nextbike, who operate shared bike schemes in 200 cities around the world. Because Co Bikes are electrically assisted, they make cycling a breeze, even uphill.
To use Co Bikes, new customers need to download the nextbike app and register for an account. To activate the account, customers make a £10 payment which is then used for their first Co Bikes trips, giving them over 3 hours of cycling. From then on, it costs £1 per 20 minutes to hire a Co Bike or customers can buy a discounted BikeRider minutes bundle.
Co Bikes is part of Co Cars, the car club for people, communities and businesses across Exeter and the South West. Together, the cars and bikes form an economical, equitable and sustainable network of shared transport options to help reduce our dependence on private car ownership.