Memorandum
Date: October 2, 2026
To: Thomas B. Modica, City Manager
From: Joshua Hickman, Director of Public Works
For: Mayor and Members of the City Council
Subject: Response to Questions from the September 22, 2026, City Council Meeting on the BikeShare Program
On September 22, 2026, staff presented two items to City Council: the adoption of specifications and award of a contract to Drop Mobility for the operation, maintenance, and modernization of the BikeShare Program under Request for Proposals (RFP) PW-25-631, and an amendment to Contract No. 36734 with Pedal Movement to extend its term through December 31, 2026 while the new program is established. City Council continued both items to October 6, 2026 and asked staff to respond to questions raised during the meeting. This memorandum provides those responses, grouped by topic, and supplements the September 18, 2026 memorandum, Bikeshare Request for Proposals PW-25-631 – Protest Determination and Response to Concerns Raised.
Procurement Process and Protest
1. Can you walk us through the procurement process for this RFP? The RFP was an open, fair, transparent, competitive, and equitable procurement process based on industry best practices and standards. The City publicly issued RFP PW-25-631 on December 16, 2025, through Long Beach Buys, the City’s eProcurement platform, which notified 116 potential proposers, nine of them local. Procurement Services also emailed 44 local, small, minority-owned, and women-owned business groups. An optional virtual information session was held on January 6, 2026. Written questions were due January 13, 2026, and all questions and answers were posted to every proposer on January 27, 2026. No questions were submitted regarding the minimum qualifications, evaluation criteria, or local preference. The City received four proposals by the March 3, 2026, deadline, from Drop Mobility, Pedal Movement, Lyft Bikes and Scooters, LLC, and Bluesky Energy LLC. After establishing responsiveness for all four proposals, which is a review and check by Procurement Services to ensure that all required documents outlined in the RFP are submitted, the proposals were sent to the evaluation committee. The evaluation committee, consisting of three Public Works subject matter experts and one Technology and Innovation expert, evaluated the proposals using the criteria and weightings published in Section 3.2 of the RFP: Organizational Capacity and Experience (25 percent), Method of Approach (40 percent), Communications and Reporting (20 percent), and Reasonableness of Cost (15 percent). The top three proposers were shortlisted and interviewed on May 4 and 5, 2026, and provided in person bike demos.
Reference checks were conducted and local preference credit was applied after scoring. Drop Mobility received a final score of 91 percent. Pedal Movement received a base score of 79 percent and a final score of 89 percent after the full 10 percent local preference credit. The Response to Questions from the September 22, 2026 City Council Meeting on the BikeShare Program
October 2, 2026
Notice of Intent to Award was posted May 11, 2026. With the highest overall score, City staff strongly recommend to award to Drop Mobility to ensure an open, fair, and transparent procurement process based on the qualifications, criteria, and scoring established when the RFP was posted in December 2025.
2. Can you walk us through what happened as part of the protest period? The Notice of Intent to Award opened a standard five-business-day protest period ending May 18, 2026. So that all parties had time to review requested information, the City extended the period on May 15, May 28, and June 3, 2026, to a final deadline of June 9, 2026. Pedal Movement filed a timely protest on June 9, 2026, with claims regarding responsiveness, evaluation criteria, and release of information after the evaluation was completed. The Purchasing Agent addressed each claim and, on June 29, 2026, determined there was no basis to support the protest. Under Section 5.5 of the RFP, the protest procedures are the proposer’s sole and exclusive remedy, and the Purchasing Agent’s determination is final. On July 22, 2026, Pedal Movement circulated a memorandum raising concerns beyond those in the protest, and on September 16, 2026, the City received correspondence from Pedal Movement’s counsel, which is under review by the City Attorney. The Purchasing Agent’s June 29, 2026, determination, which addresses each protest claim in detail, are included in the City’s September 18, 2026, memorandum.
3. Some of the series of public comments from Pedal Movement were around unfair assessments of the qualifications based on Drop Mobility, could you address? One of the criticisms was that they thought the assessment of Drop Mobility was unfair and not comparable.
The minimum qualifications and evaluation criteria were published in December 2025, were not changed by any addendum, and were applied to all four proposers on the same basis. In its June 29, 2026, determination, the Purchasing Agent found that Drop Mobility met both minimum qualifications Pedal Movement challenged: experience managing fleets of at least 1,000 vehicles, applied to the totality of each proposer’s fleets, and at least three years of bikeshare operations experience, based on Drop Mobility’s operations since 2017, including New Orleans since 2021 and Albany since 2023. The review found the scoring consistent, with no outliers among the four evaluators. For example, all four evaluators scored Pedal Movement’s Method of Approach identically.
Drop Mobility scored higher than Pedal Movement in all but one of the evaluation criteria. Drop Mobility was lower than Pedal Movement in Organizational Capacity & Experience, with a score of 20% vs 22%. However, Drop Mobility was higher in all other evaluation criteria: Method of Approach was 38% vs 30%; Communications & Reporting was 20% vs 16%; and Reasonableness of Cost was 13% vs 11% in favor of Drop Mobility. Even with the 10% Local Preference applied, Drop Mobility still scored higher than Pedal Movement with a score of 91%.
Response to Questions from the September 22, 2026 City Council Meeting on the BikeShare Program
October 2, 2026
4. What is considered in levels of eligibility regarding the one thousand (minimum requirement)?
Section 3.1 of the RFP requires a proven track record “managing fleets of at least 1,000 vehicles in urban environments comparable to Long Beach”. This qualification refers to fleets – plural – operated by the proposer. The City’s intent was the totality of a proposer’s fleets across the urban environments in which it works, and the City applied that standard to all four proposers. Under it, all four were eligible and responsive. Drop Mobility’s proposal reports bikeshare services in more than 60 municipalities and campuses across 17 states, and Drop Mobility has confirmed a total fleet footprint exceeding 10,000 vehicles. No proposer raised a question about the requirement during the question period.
5. If we are admitting that there was ambiguous language and regret that there was ambiguous language, what was the decision making process around choosing to continue with an award versus deciding to redo the RFP? In its June 29, 2026 determination, the City acknowledged that the language could have been clearer and will use terms such as “cumulative” or “in totality” in future solicitations. The intent, applied consistently to all four proposers, was always the total of a company’s fleets across the urban environments in which it operates.
The decision to proceed with the award rested on three findings. First, no proposer asked about the provision during the question period, and it was applied to every proposer on the same basis. Second, every proposer was responsive under the City’s reading, so the language did not exclude any proposer or change which proposals were evaluated. Third, the minimum qualifications determine eligibility and are not scored, so the language did not affect the evaluation scores or the ranking.
Reissuing, re-evaluating, and re-awarding this opportunity would cost the City significant resources and take several additional months with the LA28 Games quickly approaching. The recommendation to extend the existing contract would also subsequently need to be extended.
The Department recommends awarding a contract to allow for proper contract execution, a reasonable transition between the existing contractor and new service provider, and ensure operational efficiencies are in place well before the LA28 Games begin.
6. One request was to continue the item for 30 days. What impact would this have? And would 30 days allow any resolution between the city and the protest filed? City Council continued the items to October 6, 2026, and staff are returning at that meeting as directed. The protest process concluded with the Purchasing Agent’s final determination on June 29, 2026, so a continuance would not reopen or resolve the protest. Correspondence from Pedal Movement’s counsel is under review by the City Attorney. Any further delay would extend the current contract, push back the ordering of new equipment, and delay deployment of the electric bicycle fleet, currently anticipated for early 2027.
Response to Questions from the September 22, 2026 City Council Meeting on the BikeShare Program
October 2, 2026
7. What is the normal period of protest? Have we exceeded the process? The standard protest period for City solicitations is five business days following the Notice of Intent to Award. For this RFP, the City extended the protest period three times, from May 18 to June 9, 2026, so that all parties had adequate time to review requested information.
Each procurement is unique, and the time it takes to complete the process varies based on many variables including scope, the number of proposals received, if interviews or site-visits are required, if a protest is submitted, etc. In Fiscal Year 25, the average time it took an RFP from posting to award was seven months. This RFP was solicited in December 2025, approximately 9.5 months ago.
Local Business and Hiring Requirements
8. How do we ensure we are supporting local businesses? And how can we be sure that we are circulating resources within our community that is mutually beneficial to the city, our residents, and the community at large?
Procurement Services is proud to work with and support our local economy in a variety of ways, including our Local Preference Program. The City’s Local Preference Program adds five percentage points to the score of any Long Beach-based business and an additional five points for a business operating from a non-residential, brick-and-mortar location. An important distinction is that Local Preference is not an evaluation criteria, and a business's location cannot be an evaluable criterion. Therefore, being located in Long Beach has no bearing on the recommendation, as being a local business was not a condition of the RFP. Instead, Local Preference effectively works like extra credit. It is added to a proposer's score after the evaluation is complete. The Local Preference Program gives local business up to an extra 10%, but they still must be the highest-scoring proposer in order to receive the award.
Pedal Movement received the full 10 percent credit in this solicitation. Procurement Services also supports local businesses through community outreach events, language access, and technical assistance with Long Beach Buys. For this program, the RFP provides that the contractor will have W-2 local employees, or a local subcontractor, for field operations and a physical facility within City limits (Section 2.1.2.i). Drop Mobility will operate from a Long Beach warehouse and staff 16 local full-time positions, and its proposal includes a “Small Business Spotlight” social media series featuring businesses near bikeshare stations.
9. We don’t have any requirements of any entity that has a contract with us to hire from our community, to provide sponsorships, or to volunteer in our community. Is that correct?
Depends. Such requirements in any request for proposal must be tied to the request for proposal’s scope of work. A vague or broad requirement that a contractor hire or subcontract locally without any nexus to the scope of work would undermine the competitive bidding process by deterring bidders who may be otherwise qualified. Here, the RFP provides that field Response to Questions from the September 22, 2026 City Council Meeting on the BikeShare Program
October 2, 2026
operations will be performed by W-2 local employees or a local subcontractor, with a physical facility within City limits (Sections 2.1.2.i and 3.1). This was included in the RFP because there is a significant public benefit to the City and its residents to require a contractor have local employees or a local subcontractor for the deployment of the fleet before LA28 and to timely address and resolve service requests. However, the RFP does not require a contractor to hire from a specific group, such as incumbent staff, and it does not require sponsorships or volunteering; sponsorship proposals were optional (Section 2.1.1.b). The RFP also calls for a community outreach plan with a minimum of four outreach events per year (Section 2.1.3.d) and bikeshare support for major City-sponsored events (Section 2.1.3.e).
10. Was local hire of existing employees encouraged but not required? City staff did not encourage local hire of existing employees as part of the competitive procurement process. Rather, the RFP requires that field operations will be performed by W-2 local employees or a local subcontractor. It does not require the contractor to hire existing Program employees. Drop Mobility has since committed in writing to a three-stage hiring process for all Long Beach positions: first, a closed interview period open only to current Pedal Movement employees and others currently working in a related capacity on Long Beach bikeshare, with an interview for everyone in that group who wants one; second, any remaining positions opened to Long Beach residents only; and third, other candidates. All field staff will be W-2 employees working from a facility inside the City, with no subcontractors. Drop Mobility's written commitments are attached to this memorandum.
Drop Mobility Qualifications and Proposal
11. Where is Drop Mobility headquartered?
Drop Mobility is headquartered in San Francisco, and Toronto, Canada. Its Southern California operations are based in La Mirada. Drop Mobility has committed in writing to relocate its Southern California headquarters from La Mirada to Long Beach, bringing product development and hardware roles to the City in addition to bikeshare operations. Drop Mobility's Head of Western Region Operations and its National Director of Product Operations are both Long Beach residents.
12. Did you receive any references from other jurisdictions that potential contractors might have? Did you request any references? Did you have any conversations with third party entities?
Yes. The RFP’s proposal template requested five references, and Section 5.2 allows the City to contact references and any other available source. The selection committee conducted reference checks of Drop Mobility’s references.
Response to Questions from the September 22, 2026 City Council Meeting on the BikeShare Program
October 2, 2026
13. Regarding managers to employees ratios, given the experience of other bikeshare programs across the country, did we use any standards from across the country to get a census?
The RFP did not prescribe a staffing ratio. City staff compared the proposals on the hours of service dedicated to the Program. Drop Mobility’s proposal includes 27,040 hours for maintenance, rebalancing, warehouse, and customer service in Year One, compared to 26,624 hours in Pedal Movement’s proposal. Drop Mobility assigns three management positions to the Program, compared to six in Pedal Movement’s proposal. The difference in proposed labor cost comes from wage rates, benefit loading, and supervisory positions, not from fewer hours of service.
14. Did we note that we had an interest in management fee transparency? Was it clear that was a preferred way to receive information and to move forward with the most successful contract?
Yes. Section 4.2 of the RFP directed proposers to submit itemized costs, including staffing wages with fringe and overhead allocations, using the City’s Excel cost proposal workbook, which lists each operating expense on its own line with a separate management fee. The recommended contract follows that model. Operating expenses are reimbursed at actual cost and reviewed by City staff, Program revenue is applied against invoices before payment, and the management fee is tiered to the fleet actually deployed and reduced when monthly fleet availability falls below 80 percent. By comparison, the current contract is a fixed amount paid regardless of the number of bicycles deployed.
15. Was it clear that a hybrid model was the preferred model for the City? Yes. The RFP described Long Beach’s system as a hybrid of docked and dockless parking and directed proposers to provide a hybrid parking model plan that incorporates the City’s established parking hubs (Section 2.1.2.d). It also states that the contractor shall maintain public safety and ADA compliance through proper parking for a hybrid model of docked stations and dockless options (Section 2.1.2.f). Drop Mobility proposed a hybrid system in which bicycles lock to charging docks as well as to the City’s existing bicycle racks. Pedal Movement’s proposal required purchase of docking stations for all parking, allowing no retention of current infrastructure or flexibility to users. The cost and public-right-of-way space required for the 1400 parking spaces to be docked stations only is a significant factor in why the City requested a hybrid parking model.
The difference in cost of year one capital investment between Drop’s hybrid parking model and Pedal Movement’s docked station model was over $3 million. Being able to put allocated funds towards new and retrofitted bicycles instead of parking dock stations allows the City to purchase 70% more bikes. To purchase enough docking stations for a fully docked system model and retain the standard 2:1 parking to bicycle ratio, the City would be purchasing only 255 new ebikes, instead of the full 700 ebike fleet asked for in the RFP.
Response to Questions from the September 22, 2026 City Council Meeting on the BikeShare Program
October 2, 2026
Local Jobs and Community Commitment
16. With losing Pedal Movement, we lose 17 jobs within our community. Is there any way to be able to ensure that the new vendor would have the same kind of commitment to Long Beach?
Pedal Movement reports that the current contract supports 19 full-time positions. Drop Mobility's Year One plan staffs 16 local full-time positions from a warehouse in Long Beach, with staffing growing as the fleet grows. Drop Mobility has committed in writing to a hiring process that starts with a closed interview period for current Pedal Movement employees before any position is opened to other candidates, and to hiring all field staff as W-2 employees with no subcontractors. Drop Mobility has also committed to relocate its Southern California headquarters to Long Beach, adding product development and hardware roles to the City beyond bikeshare operations. Five Drop Mobility staff already live in Long Beach, including its Head of Western Region Operations and its National Director of Product Operations. The contract itself requires a local workforce and a local facility, and the City can enforce those terms.
17. Exploration of robust community benefits with any new vendor, including local hire, local small business plans, plans to engage the community beyond the four events, and any charitable and sponsorship activities.
The RFP requires a community outreach plan with a minimum of four in-person events per year, multi-lingual outreach, and equity zone accessibility. Drop Mobility's proposal exceeds that minimum with monthly community rides and demonstrations at farmers' markets and street festivals, equity enrollment drives with affordable housing and social service partners, bilingual bike education in partnership with local community organizations, multilingual materials and direct mail to households in underserved areas, and a launch week with a ribbon cutting and community rides. Drop Mobility's proposal also includes a "Small Business Spotlight" series promoting businesses located near bikeshare stations. In writing, Drop Mobility has further committed to a hiring process that prioritizes current bikeshare program employees and then Long Beach residents, to relocate its Southern California headquarters to Long Beach, and to provide free bike valet at community events as directed by the Transportation Services Bureau and free pop-up repair clinics. Drop Mobility did not propose charitable giving or sponsorship activities; the RFP did not require them, and sponsorship proposals were optional.
In a similar nature, Pedal Movement offered a community outreach plan that included “learn to ride” instructional courses, community rides to introduce residents to the program, helmet distributions, and outreach at farmer’s markets or other community events.
Operations and Equity
18. Around geofencing, when e-bikes are dropped off currently by our vendors, they have access to the Go Long Beach app and can go out and retrieve the bikes. Do we have that baked into the RFP or is that even covered?
Response to Questions from the September 22, 2026 City Council Meeting on the BikeShare Program
October 2, 2026
Yes. The RFP requires every vehicle to include GPS and to support geofencing, remote disabling, and digital enforcement of no-ride and no-parking zones (Section 2.1.4.b). The contractor must adhere to all City geofenced zones (Section 2.1.2.h) and provide rebalancing procedures as part of its operations plan (Section 2.1.2.e). The service area covers the entire City. Bicycles will be geofenced to the service area, and any bicycle that travels beyond it will be retrieved by Drop Mobility.
19. What would be the status of the BikeShare for All program if we went with Drop Mobility? Is it an assurance that it will continue?
The City, not the vendor, sets pricing for the BikeShare Program, including BikeShare for All, which currently provides eligible residents a $5 annual membership with three hours of daily ride time. The RFP requires the contractor to provide equitable pricing programs that continue or build upon BikeShare for All and are available to unbanked and non-smartphone users (Section 2.1.3.b), and to support City-directed fare changes at no additional cost to the City (Section 2.1.1.a.vi). Equity remains a City priority for the Program.
Next Steps
Both items will return to City Council on October 6, 2026. If City Council awards the contract, Drop Mobility will establish local operations, begin recruitment, and order equipment by the end of the year, and will work with the City and Pedal Movement to assume operation of the existing fleet. The new electric bicycle fleet is anticipated to be deployed in early 2027. The amendment to Contract No. 36734 would keep the existing fleet in service through December 31, 2026 during the transition. Drop Mobility’s letter of commitments is attached.
If you have any questions, please contact Willie Walker, Parking and Mobility Officer, at [email protected] or (562) 570-4649.
ATTACHMENT
CC: DAWN MCINTOSH, CITY ATTORNEY
DOUGLAS P. HAUBERT, CITY PROSECUTOR
LAURA L. DOUD, CITY AUDITOR
APRIL WALKER, ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER
TERESA CHANDLER, DEPUTY CITY MANAGER
MEREDITH REYNOLDS, DEPUTY CITY MANAGER
GRACE YOON, DEPUTY CITY MANAGER
TYLER BONANNO-CURLEY, DEPUTY CITY MANAGER
KEVIN LEE, CHIEF PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER
MONIQUE DE LA GARZA, CITY CLERK
DEPARTMENT HEADS
September 29, 2026
To Whom It May Concern:
Re: RFP PW-25-631, Long Beach Bike Share Program
At Drop Mobility, we pride ourselves in working with a partnership mindset with 65+ municipalities, supporting them in building their community-centric locally-branded bike share and mobility programs. Everywhere that we have deployed our products and services we have worked closely with local stakeholders to ensure sustainable programs that are curated and rolled out as per the needs of the constituents.
We are honored to have been selected to do the same, by the City of Long Beach, through the competitive procurement for the Bike Share Program. Throughout the process, which has lasted 9 months, since the RFP came out on December 16, 2025, we have provided information as required in accordance with the City's procurement guidelines.
Members of our team attended the City Council meeting on September 22, 2026, where we discovered, through the public interactions between Councilmembers and city staff, that there may be certain concerns.
With permission, we would like to take this opportunity to clarify a few points from our proposal and restate our commitments to the City in writing.
1. Commitment to the community
Drop has always been committed to the communities we serve. That commitment shows in the many systems we have helped start and helped modernize, including the Pioneer Valley region in Western Massachusetts, Albany Region in New York, City of New Orleans and Kansas City, Missouri, to name a few. In each of these systems, we have been working for many years with local stakeholders and community leaders, towards achieving their specific goals. As laid out in the RFP, and highlighted below, the following are some of the commitments we have proposed to the long beach community.
Bike Share for All continues. Through the City's Bike Share for All program, anyone who lives, works or studies in Long Beach and is enrolled in a qualifying benefits program, such as CalFresh or Long Beach Utility Assistance, can get an annual membership for $5. The RFP requires the new operator to continue or build on the program (§2.1.2(3)(b)). Drop commits to keeping Bike Share for All at $5 per year, with the same eligibility and daily ride time, from our first day of operation. We run a similar program in every market we serve. In New Orleans, nearly 20% of all trips are taken on an equity membership.
Access for everyone. Riders will be able to pay in cash and to ride without a smartphone using RFID tap cards, as they can today, and we will offer these options at more locations across the City. At least 20% of the fleet will be kept in each of the City's two equity zones. All service will be available in English, Spanish, Khmer and Tagalog. We will run community outreach with local partners, including at least four in-person events a year.
Community services continue. Drop will provide free bike valet for community events as directed by the Transportation Services Bureau and free pop-up repair clinics, so that residents keep the services they rely on today. Our detailed marketing plan includes a wide range of community engagement strategies including a “local business spotlight” to use the bike share platform to highlight other local businesses near transit hubs.
The City stays in control. The City owns the bikes and infrastructure, sets all user pricing, and keeps 100% of the revenue riders pay (RFP §3.2(F)).
Our incentives match the City's. Drop's management fee is tiered to the number of bikes actually deployed, and it is reduced if fleet availability falls below 80%. We earn more only when more bikes are on the street and working. We have no reason to remove bikes from any neighborhood. We have every reason to grow ridership in every part of Long Beach.
2. Cost savings to the City
As set out in the City staff memo of September 18, 2026, Drop's Year One cost is $4,998,040, compared with $9,738,771 for the next-ranked proposal. That is about $4.7 million, or roughly half, less. Drop was also the only proposer to offer to retrofit and return to service the City's existing bicycles.
Our proposals priced the e-bikes fairly compared to the other competitors, and included volume discounts for the city. The savings do not come from reduced service; Drop's proposal includes slightly more front-line service hours than the incumbent's. The difference comes from the system's design (see Section 6) and from leaner management overhead. Unit prices are fixed for the contract term, and operating costs are reimbursed at actual cost with rider revenue offset.
Drop has a history of building systems that are sustainable without unnecessary overheads over expenses and that is why our key municipal customers have renewed their original contracts with us for additional 5 year terms. For example, New Orleans.
3. Hiring commitments
Transitioning and modernizing an existing system and working with its experienced local staff is one of our areas of expertise. We have done it in other cities, and we will follow the same best practices in Long Beach. Drop has already agreed to interview current program employees, as noted in the City staff memo. We are stating below exactly how that will work.
Drop will use the following hiring process for all Long Beach positions:
1. First, a closed interview period open only to current Pedal Movement employees and others currently working in a related capacity to Long Beach bikeshare. We will interview everyone in this group who wants an interview.
2. Second, Long Beach residents. If any positions remain unfilled, they will be opened to Long Beach residents only.
3. Only after that will we consider other candidates as per acceptable hiring practices.
All field staff will be W-2 employees working from a facility inside the City, with no subcontractors.
Year One requires 16 full-time local positions, and staffing will grow with the fleet.
Relocating our regional headquarters to Long Beach. Drop will move its Southern California headquarters from La Mirada to Long Beach. This will bring roles in product development and hardware to the City. Today, Long Beach bikeshare jobs are operations jobs only. These new roles would support Drop's systems across the region and give people working in the program a path to other careers. Drop’s National director of Product Operations is a Long Beach resident of over 20 years, and leads a team of engineers and supply chain managers who design and deliver our products across the country.
4. Fleet and experience
The RFP asked for a track record of managing fleets of at least 1,000 vehicles. City staff and the City's Purchasing Agent have both confirmed that Drop meets this requirement. The facts:
• More than 10,000 bikes delivered and deployed on Drop’s software platform since we were founded in 2017, to more than 60 municipalities and campuses in 17 states. • More than 3,000 bikes currently operated directly by Drop’s employees across the country.
• More than 1,000 bikes in one system. In Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts, Drop took over ValleyBike's existing fleet of 750 e-bikes from the prior operator and has since added over 400 new Drop e-bikes.
Drop has extensive experience modernizing existing equipment from other vendors. In New Orleans, the City is extending its agreement with Drop for another five years, with up to 2,000 more e-bikes. Drop has also supported surges for Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest and the 2025 Super Bowl. Drop collaborated with Kansas City for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
5. Better equipment
The e-bike proposed for Long Beach is Drop's latest model, built on lessons from New Orleans and our other markets. These electric pedal assist vehicles are projected to greatly increase the utility and ridership of the Long Beach Bike Share system. • Secure. Each bike has multiple independent locks: front wheel, rear wheel, battery and a cable that locks to any rack. It also has GPS, motion alarms, tamper detection and remote disable. If the bike's computer is damaged, the electric assist stops working, so a stolen bike is of little use to a thief. On this model in New Orleans, theft and vandalism have been under 2% year to date, including Carnival season.
• Low maintenance. Airless tires that never go flat, sealed roller brakes, tamper-resistant hardware, and UL-certified swappable batteries.
• Self-reporting. Each bike runs diagnostics on itself and flags problems, impacts and tampering automatically, so issues are fixed before a rider finds them.
Less maintenance means lower operating costs and more bikes available. The contract backs this up: the management fee is reduced if availability falls below 80%, and three consecutive months below 80% is a default. We believe these controls, which do not exist for the city’s current vendor, will provide far more transparency and efficiencies for the constituents of Long Beach.
6. Why we can be more capital efficient for the city: the technology Smart bikes and smart docks make the hybrid model possible. Each Drop bike has its own computer, GPS and locks. It can end a trip at a charging dock, which locks and charges it, or at an ordinary bike rack. Not every bike needs its own dock. This is the hybrid model the RFP asked for, and it is far more economical. The City already has more than 1,000 bike racks, and our plan uses them alongside 350 new charging docks. The competing proposal required 1,400 docks.
Charging docks save labor. Bikes charge while they are parked, so staff spend fewer hours swapping batteries and more time on rebalancing and maintenance.
We build our own hardware and write our own software. The bikes, the docks, the City-branded rider app, the operations dashboard and the City's real-time data feeds all run on one platform that Drop builds. This makes the system far more efficient to manage. It also replaces the two separate contracts the program uses today, one for operations and one for software, with a single accountable partner.
Lower costs mean more for Long Beach. Every dollar saved on docks, battery swaps and repairs can go toward more bikes, more stations and service in more neighborhoods as the City grows toward its 2028 goals.
We are grateful for the City's consideration and ready to begin work on the timeline City staff have set out, given the readiness for a major world event like the Olympics. We would welcome any questions and would be glad to demonstrate the equipment and software in person.
Sincerely,
Amber Wason
VP, Growth & Innovation
Drop Mobility
202-640-9004
[email protected]