City Council Meeting | September 22, 2026
BikeShare Operations, Maintenance,
and Modernization
2 Current BikeShare Program
480
Pedal bikes in working
condition
250
Bikes are out of service
pending maintenance
79,000+ Rentals in 2025
1,042 Bike racks across 112 hubs
City-owned system. The City owns every bike, hub,
and rack in the fleet.
Two contracts. Pedal Movement for operations and
maintenance; Mobility Cloud for the Social Bicycles
(SoBi) hardware and software platform.
Pedal-only fleet. No electric bicycles and no
charging infrastructure in the system.
Funded by Proposition A. No General Fund dollars
are used. The program generated $210,615 in user
revenue in 2025.
Who rides. Student memberships and the BikeShare
for All equity program are the largest sources of
recurring riders.
3 Riders Are Choosing Electric
E-bikes are used more than the City's pedal bikes.
0.42 1.14 1.36
2.55 Pedal bikes Lime e-bikes Standing e-
scooters
Seated e-
scooters
Average trips per vehicle per day,
May to August 2026
The national trend is the same
237M
shared micromobility
trips in North America in
2025, the third record
year in a row
+11%
growth in trips on electric
devices in 2025, against
5% growth in trips overall
70%
of riders use shared
micromobility to connect
to transit
Source: NABSA 2025 State of the Industry Report
4 Request for Proposals (RFP) Goals
Introduce
electric bikes
Scale for the
2028 Games
Safer streets,
fewer vehicle miles
Equity and
underserved areas
Transparent
costs
Align with customer preferences
Ensure an efficient car free experience for event visitors Achieve goals from Bicycle Master Plan to replace car trips with bicycle trips Focus on ridership growth in North and West Long Beach
City is able to make more informed planning decisions within budget Program
Stability Create long term infrastructure, software, and customer service stability 5 RFP Process
Dec. 16, 2025
RFP PW-25-631 released
March 3, 2026
4 proposals received
April to May 2026
Multi-department panel review
of: written proposals, reference
checks, vendor presentations
May 15, 2026
Notice of Intent to Award
published; Drop Mobility
selected
Evaluation results
Proposer Base score Local preference Final score
Drop Mobility 91% n/a 91%
Pedal Movement Inc. 79% +10% 89%
Lyft Bikes and Scooters, LLC 73% n/a 73%
Bluesky Energy LLC 48% +10% 58%
June 9, 2026
Pedal Movement (one of the
respondents) filed a protest
June 29, 2026
Purchasing Agent determined
that "there is no basis to
support the protest"
Protest Period
6 RFP Response Overview
• Drop Mobility scored highest in three of four criteria: Method of Approach, Communications and Reporting, and Reasonableness of Cost. • Cost was one of four weighted criteria. First year costs, as proposed, include start-up capital and first-year operations as outlined within each vendor's proposal. Proposals also diverged in years 2 and 3 based on proposed fleet growth. • First year costs for Drop Mobility are approximately $5 million less than the next competitive proposal.
• Drop Mobility's proposal allows for existing bike parking infrastructure to be utilized, instead of substantial up front costs to install new infrastructure, among other cost drivers.
7 Drop Mobility
• Founded in 2017
• Operates in 65+ municipalities and campuses across 17 states, including 7 in California with over 10,000 vehicles delivered in North America
• Transitioned Albany, NY and New Orleans, LA from SoBi pedal fleets to electric fleets while keeping City -owned equipment in service
• Retrofit kits extend the life of the City's existing SoBi pedal bicycles
• New Orleans is expanding by purchasing 500 Drop e -bikes a year for five years to reach 2,500. Blue Krewe, a local nonprofit, operates the program; Drop supplies the bikes, docks, and software
• Surge experience for major events, including the 2025 Super Bowl in New Orleans
• Two full-time employees already reside in Long Beach; locally staffed model with 16 positions in Year 1
8 How Drop Works
• Drop's service model is set by each city
• The RFP allowed either option
• Drop proposed for and the City has selected the full service model Hardware and software Only
Drop supplies bikes, docks, and the
platform; a city, transit agency, or
nonprofit operates the system
Full-service operator
Drop supplies the equipment and
platform and runs daily operations
with local staff. This is the Long Beach
model
9 Modernized Fleet
• 700 Class 1 pedal-assist e-bikes deployed in Year 1
• 150 existing City pedal bikes retrofitted with new controller and moved onto the new platform, so the pedal fleet no
longer depends on parts that cannot be sourced
• Every bike is GPS-tracked, internet-connected, with a UL- certified swappable battery
• Bikes lock to docks and to the City's existing hubs, keeping current parking infrastructure in service
• Electrified docks and new hubs added as funding allows 10 BikeShare Access and Equity
• BikeShare for All continues
• Partnership with the Multi-Service Center
• Cash and non-smartphone payment
options for unbanked riders
• Multilingual app and customer service
seven days a week
• Options for cargo bikes and adaptive
bikes can be added in the future
• Westside and northside expansion
Access and equity continue to be a prominent part of Long Beach BikeShare.
The new program will maintain and expand on current priorities.
11 A New Contract Structure
The new contract pays for what the program actually costs, with visibility into thetrue cost of service and ability to scale as budget allows.
Current contract (2017 to now) New contract
The contract's not-to-exceed amount is the maximum authorized reimbursement for eligible expenses. It is not a guaranteed payment to the vendor.
• Fixed contract amount for operations and maintenance, regardless of fleet deployed
• Separate software contract with Mobility Cloud for the SoBi platform
• Limited visibility into program costs
• Replacement parts for the current fleet are no longer available; working bikes have fallen from roughly 650 to 480
• One consolidated contract for equipment, software,
operations, and maintenance
• Variable operating costs are invoiced, reviewed, and
reimbursed at actual cost
• Management fee is tiered to the fleet actually deployed:
up to 800 vehicles; 801 to 1,500; 1,501 and above
• Program revenue is applied to invoices thereby
streamlining operations
• Drop manufactures its own bikes and controllers; parts supply comes with the contract
• Management fee is reduced when fleet availability falls below 80 percent
12 Pedal Movement Contract
• The current contract No. 36734 with Pedal Movement expires on September 30, 2026 • Recommend a 3 month extension to December 31, 2026
What the extension does
• Keeps the current SoBi pedal fleet in service through December 31, 2026
• Same scope of work as the current contract
• Funded through appropriated Proposition A funding
• Allows time for the new program to stand up and roll
out
Cost of the extension
• The monthly ratehas been static for 3 years
• The extension increasesthe monthly rate by 12.5% for
three-months
13 Transition: No Gap in Service
Sept 2026 Oct Nov Dec Jan 2027 Feb Mar Early 2027
Pedal Movement operations and Mobility
Cloud software continues with the
current fleet.
Drop operates the existing SoBi
system; begins user migration
to the new platform; e-bike
operations are set up
New e-
bike fleet
debuts
Drop Mobility has agreed to interview existing employees on the Pedal Movement team for future employment.
14 Scaling: Ridership
Projected ridership and fleet size increases for contract term are based upon 1.0 to
1.25 e-bike trips per bike per day at 85% availability.
Description Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Pedal-assist e-bikes 700 1,400 2,000
Retrofit pedal bikes 150 450 500
Total fleet 850 1,850 2,500
Projected Annual rides 229,000 578,000 814,000
Year 1 is funded. Years 2 and 3 proceed only as revenue and grant funding allow.
15 Scaling: Capital Investments
$2.9M
$5.1M
$1.8M
Year 1 capital Years 2 and 3 capital
How expansion capital is funded
($ millions)
Future Prop A through CIP
ATP Cycle 8 grant (applied for)
Proposition A (appropriated)
• The contract authorizes a fleet up to 2,500
with a capital investment of $9.8M
• The City currently owns 1,042 bike racks
• Electrified docking stations will be added as
funding becomes available
• Existing prop A funding will be utilized for
year 1 (FY27) to grow the fleet to 850 bikes
• Prop A appropriations, potential
grant funding, and program
revenue will determine how large the fleet
will grow beyond year 1
• If ridership does not materialize, the City
operates a smaller fleet; it does not
overspend.
16 Fiscal Impact
New Drop Mobility contract
New Contract Year 1 3 years
Operations and maintenance, locked in for 3-
year term with 700 e-bikes and 150 retrofit
bikes
$1,900,000 $5,700,000
Options to increase fleet size up to 2500 $13,500,000
If current contracts were possible to be expanded – no new bikes or infrastructure Current contracts Annually 3 years
Current contract (based on Pedal
Movement extension) - 450 bikes $2,580,312 $7,740,936
Software contract (Mobility Cloud) $99,450 $298,350
Parts $150,000 $450,000
Total $2,829,762 $8,489,286
$8.5M
Three years of the current contracts
with no new bikes and no capital
investment
$5.7M
New program with 850 bikes
MORE BIKES FOR LESS MONEY!
17 Next Steps
• Execute the new contract
• Transition from current vendor to new
vendor
• Finalize program name and brand
• Stand up new website
• Order the e-bike fleet
• Launch the new program in early 2027
• Expand leading up to 2028 games
Thank You