Dive Brief:

• Uber announced it will pilot Uber Bike by Jump, a new bike-share option, in San Francisco, beginning next week.
• The pilot will enable users to find and book Jump's pedal-assist electric bikes directly from the Uber app by clicking on the "bike" option in the app's menu. Once the ride is over, the app will navigate the user to a public rack in the bike zone for locking.
• There are only 250 Jump bikes currently available in the city; with limited supply, Uber is asking interested users to join a wait list for the service.

Dive Insight:

Earlier this month, San Francisco issued an exclusive permit to Jump Bike for the city's dockless bike-sharing pilot — to the dismay of many dockless competitors vying for the permit. The 18-month pilot will allow for 250 stationless electric bikes, with the potential to add an additional 250 bikes to the system after a nine-month evaluation. Uber will collaborate with Jump through the duration of this 18-month trial.

Uber's pilot with Jump will not only increase rider access to Jump bikes, but will also expand Uber's profile as an all-encompassing mobility service. In a blog post, Andrew Salzberg, Uber's head of transportation policy and research, wrote, "Having a greater variety of transportation modes at your fingertips helps make it increasingly easy to live life without a car. We’re particularly excited about bikes because they can provide a convenient, environmentally friendly ride even in dense cities where space is limited and roads can be congested."

Salzberg later echoed these sentiments during a call regarding the newly-announced Shared Mobility Principles for Livable Cities, which Uber and 14 other leading mobility companies signed to formally prioritize people over vehicles and advance transportation services. Salzberg expressed Uber's desire to reduce car ownership through various shared mobility opportunities, noting the value of partnership, like the one with Jump. 

"There's an enormous inefficiency in the system that we've built into personal cars. That's been the life blood of our business model, to unlock some of that efficiency. We also think there's huge benefit to teaming up with other companies and other actors in the space to help reduce the need for people to own and operate their own personal vehicles," he said.

Uber also shared this week it is partnering with Cincinnati to develop the Cincinnati Mobility Lab, an initiative that will study the impacts of shared mobility on public transit and position the city as a "center of innovation." After a rough year of internal scandals and lost revenue, these announcements suggest Uber is on an upswing in terms of innovation and outreach in both the public and private sectors.