In Photos: OakDOT Staff Try Ford GoBike

When Ford GoBike launched last month, I was skeptical if I would use it. But my former colleague, Carlos Hernandez, encouraged me to sign up for a membership.

“Mennie,” — he used his nickname for me — “Mennie, it’s connected to your Clipper Card; you will love it! You hate locking your bike! This is a perfect solution!” So I signed up… and then I was scared to use it.

There have been several good critiques of bike share and shared mobility. For me, the technology was a barrier. I bought a membership but I was nervous to try the system. I gave it a go a few weeks ago with my coworker Carissa. We were headed from the civic center in the downtown area to a community meeting in Chinatown, and bike share gave us a good option to get from the office to the meeting quickly.

We looked at the Ford GoBike app and saw there were bikes available near our offices, and docks available at the Chinatown station near our destination.

First, we picked up bikes at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza.

We loaded up.

We made sure we had everything secure.

Both Carissa and I are members so we used our Clipper Cards to unlock the bike.

Then we were ready to ride!

And ride…

You get the idea…

We get it!

We got the green light when we docked in.

And had time for bubble tea!

We did it! Thanks to Carissa for letting me take a bunch of photos of her.

For more information about Oakland’s bike share program, please visit our program page. Thanks for reading!

This post was written by Menaka Mohan, Community Transportation Planner, Oakland Department of Transportation.