Since its introduction to campus, VeoRide has attracted many users and now the company is looking to further expand transportation options in the Champaign-Urbana area in the future.

According to Linda Jackson, communications director of VeoRide, over 5,000 users have signed onto the VeoRide app and the company has documented an average of approximately 2,500 rides per day.

Jackson said the VeoRide company plans to continue working with the University and surrounding communities in the future. The company hopes to expand their current fleet by introducing electric bikes, fat tire bikes and electric scooters.

Nathan Alvarez, junior in LAS, uses the VeoRide bike share service and said he finds it helpful as an extra travel option around campus.

“I never owned an e-scooter myself, but that would be super convenient for long distance trips where a bicycle probably won’t do the trick,” Alvarez said in an email. “I hope VeoRide goes on with this idea, because I think it would make traveling to places around campus even easier.”

Lily Wilcock, active transportation coordinator for the University, said VeoRide is currently the only bike share company that has applied and been approved to operate in the Champaign-Urbana area so far. The University has explored bike sharing options from other companies and dockless bikes are proven to be more cost effective in the area than shared bikes with fixed docks.

“Dock share companies will charge you for bicycles and docking stations. In general, roughly around $1 million per 100 bikes and 10 docking stations,” Wilcock said. “Those numbers are tough to come by in a tight budget.”

Even without docking stations to monitor dockless bikes, VeoRide is solely responsible for their bikes on campus. Wilcock said the company has three hours to respond to any reports that are sent in regarding any issues with the bicycles.

According to Jackson, the VeoRide operations team works to fulfill maintenance requests and check the bicycles each day.

“I’ve seen bikes accidentally tipped over, but that’s because I think the person before just didn’t park the bike properly,” Alvarez said. “Fortunately, I haven’t seen anything worse.”

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