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It's Complicated for Ford GoBike

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It's Complicated for Ford GoBike Ford GoBike seems to be on top of the marketing and image of the product more recently. Just take a look at this post on twitter. The bike share program really seems to be pushing to improve their image and expand users. If your a business you can also partner with the bike share program so your employees can ride. This promotion is being pushed to businesses as an added benefit the company can do for their employees. But Ford faces a problem with other bike share programs. Here is a lime bike outside of the area where Lime bikes are distributed. And here is a map showing where Ford is and where the other bike share programs are. The point is that the Ford GoBike program is working to be a solution for the whole bay area but between competition, the bicycling share program's slow expansion through the Bay area and dicey politics surrounding contracts. It will be interesting to see if the program will be what the Ford would like o

Ford GoBike Teams Up With Alaska Airlines

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Bike Here, Fly There Ford GoBike announced this week their partnership with Alaska Airlines. Ford GoBike riders can earn 10 Alaska Airlines miles every time they ride a Ford GoBike. Through the Ford GoBike app, riders can link their Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan to track their miles, or sign up for free to start earning miles with each ride. Specifically, Alaska Airlines has over 60+ nonstop flights to and from the Bay Area.  To celebrate the launch of the partnership, Alaska Airlines and Ford GoBike joined Sam Liccardo, San Jose Mayor, community members, and regional officials in a lively event in the San Pedro Square Market. The attendees had the opportunity to hear first-hand details about the partnership, initiative, and impact this partnership will have on consumers.  “Alaska Airlines is committed to providing Bay Area residents with accessible, convenient and sustainable modes of transportation,” said Alaska Airlines’ External Relations Vice President Diana Birkett

What Do Ford Go Bike Reviews Say?

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Ford Go Bike yelp & App Reviews  With the bad press surrounding Ford GoBike, you would think the reviews would be negative, but that's not we are finding. last week we looked into user posts on Facebook showing the positive interaction many have been having with the bike-share program in San Francisco. So we decided to keep looking to see if this was the same for other ratings as well. What we found was...well the same. On every platform for rating apps, the user experiences tend to be great. Android showed a 4.2 .  While the Apple App Store showed nearly a perfect ratting on the current version of the Ford GoBike App. On Yelp the Ford bike-share program pulled a rating of 3.5. While not great it is much higher than the what the news surrounding the Ford GoBike would lead you to think. So why is the news so negative if users are having a good time with the new bike share? Well, it seems the issues are the adoption of change and overall issues in San Francisco spil

Ford GoBike User Speaks Highly of Service

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Ford GoBike User Speaks Highly of Service On October 1st, Dane Holewinski, a Ford GoBike user, wrote a Facebook post that some highly of the Ford GoBike. This has been one of the first posts from a Ford GoBike user that directly expressed their experience using the service. Dane had great things to say, sparked engagement amongst his followers, and overall, presented the Ford GoBike brand in a very positive light.  Below, you will find screen shots of his post. He points out how he feels "happier, healthier, more efficient and saves money" because of Ford GoBike. He discusses the benefits of biking specifically, then dives deeper into the benefits of bike sharing as a whole. He ends the post with screenshots of travels and of the bikes themselves. Shown below are the comments/engagements on his post. Overall, it brought about positive responses and great conversation.   From Ford GoBike's perspective, this is a great brand enhancer. T

Ford GoBikes Contract with SF begin threatened by Startups

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Ford GoBike Contract with SF Being Threatened by Startups There are a lot of bike sharing startups and many are working to cash in on a new trend, stationless bike sharing. A typical bike-sharing program has several bike parking stations throughout a city. This is the model Ford GoBike uses in San Francisco and surrounding areas. Stationless bike sharing is, well, what it sounds like. The bike sharing model gets rid of the bike kiosk and puts an electronic lock and GPS on each bike. The benefit of a stationless bike is a customer can go straight to their location and not worry about locking the bike up at a kiosk; which could be blocks away from the customers intended location. This ease of use is what helped Chinese bike share programs to balloon in users last year, but their success was not without a hang-up. Although user ridership grew rapidly it lead to the scene of mass piles of bikes in Chines cities like Shenzhen. This is something that has still not been solved. and San

Ford GoBike Program Registers 500 Low-Income Members

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Ford GoBike Program Registers 500 Low-Income Members Ford GoBike registered 500 new members in its low-income program in support of their "Bike Share for All" philosophy. Since launching, Ford GoBike has received criticisms that the program is not accessible to under-deserved communities. Ford is now taking the steps to prove otherwise. Bike Share for All is a program that gives "all low-income riders a chance to qualify for a $5 first-year membership, paying $5 per month after that." In addition, campus students have the option to purchase this membeship as well. Overall, this offer is significantly cheaper than the standard membership, which is $149 a year.  The article directly states, "In an email, city transportation manager Farid Javandel described the reactions to the Ford GoBike program as mostly positive, aside from the initial backlash that he said is typical of new bike-sharing systems in the first few weeks." “We have receive

FordGoBikes and Past Vandalism in San Francisco Bike Share

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Ford GoBikes and Past Vandalism Our second brand updated discusses the backlash the Ford GoBike received earlier this summer. In recent months not everything for Ford’s Bike sharing program has gone well. For some locals, the new bike program has become the embodiment of gentrification. Communities in the bay have seen rapid change in the last few years. The large tech companies in the area push many to move further out of the city and in some cases on to the street. The bikes are seen as a symbol for what’s pushing communities and heritage out of the Bay. Since the launch, there have been a number of vandalisms to the bikes. In Oakland, a Ford GoBike was through into Lake Merritt. Elsewhere, the tires at GoBike dock were slashed.    In Dolores Park in San Francisco, tires were also gashed. In the Mission, a GoBike was hung in a tree as if it were being lynched. Most vandalism has occurred around San Francisco and what interesting is Motivate expected the For