NewsCut

End of the road for Nice Ride in Rochester

The ubiquitous Nice Ride bikes are disappearing in Rochester, Minn.

The Post-Bulletin reports the two stations where people could rent bikes to get around have been closed and the bikes put in storage.

Unlike the Twin Cities, people in Rochester didn't use the bikes.

But Nice Ride says its future is being impacted by new technology and private companies that unlock bikes by apps. No stations needed.

"What that meant for us as a nonprofit was that we could not continue to survive without making some big changes,” Nice Ride Executive Director Bill Dossett tells the paper.

What about the Twin Cities? Those stations may disappear too at some point.

Nice Ride will start a three-year experiment with dockless bikes in August in Minneapolis.