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When it comes to movement, people will always choose the (bike) path of least resistance. Convenience and user-friendliness are king and queen. And while governance can't cross a region's jurisdictional lines, bikeshare systems can.

Five of the Lyft Urban Solutions (LUS)-operated bikeshare systems in the US are multijurisdictional, spanning 32 municipal jurisdictions and 34 public agencies across seven states and the District of Columbia — growth from just 13 jurisdictions when LUS took over operations of these programs in 2018. 

"Our bikeshare system is seamless across jurisdictional boundaries," says Sean Martin, the Program Manager for Capital Bikeshare (CaBi) in Arlington County, Virginia, which spans eight different jurisdictions in Washington DC, Virginia, and Maryland. "Riders don't stop at borders to switch modes, so people frequently use CaBi to connect to neighborhoods in adjacent jurisdictions. People are also using it to access the metro, and CaBi stations adjacent to metro stations are consistently among the highest-performing stations across all jurisdictions."

Learn more about the CaBi system in Washington DC

That seamless experience creates real value. Multijurisdictional bikeshare enables regional travel that would otherwise require driving, creating downstream benefits aligned with climate and transportation goals. It also complements existing transportation modes, extending network reach while saving riders time. The latest numbers bear this out: 81% of riders have used shared micromobility services to get to or from public transit. And with the growing popularity of ebikes, which allow for longer trips, the model takes on even greater significance.

Riding beyond borders

Bikeshare use is evolving as riders discover new ways to move around their regions. The CaBi system sees heavy usage in high-tourist areas, with many riders taking trips spanning several miles. "High tourist usage further endorses CaBi's success as a regional system, given that tourists are often unaware of jurisdictional boundaries," says Martin.

For residents, the pattern is just as clear. Nick Schmidt, Transportation Program Manager for Bicycle and Pedestrian Mobility in Cambridge, Massachusetts, says Bluebikes — which serves 13 municipalities in the Boston Metro area — "is really punching above its weight in terms of ridership and activity. Also in terms of regional patterns because there are connections that are just a little too long or inconvenient by train or walking or bus."

Tenzin Choephel, Cambridge's Active Transportation Coordinator, concurs. "Folks will just come up and say, 'Yeah, I use the Bluebikes system every day,'" he shares. "Some of the biggest bikeshare station request areas were by grocery stores and by doctor's offices — where people would be making their normal non-work-related trips. Many of our biggest and busiest stations are by commuter rail stations, which demonstrates the popularity of regional, multimodal movement. People are also really using this as their primary means of transportation instead of taking a car."

Learn more on Greater Boston's Bluebikes network

The data backs this up. Riders have sold, donated, or discarded almost 195,000 vehicles because of shared micromobility services, and 55% of bikeshare members with access to a personal vehicle say they use it less because of shared micromobility services.

What's driving growth

CaBi's record-breaking ridership — the system grew by 20.2% in the last year — provides, in Martin's words, "an easy justification for new jurisdictions to join the system, allowing success to breed more success." Choephel notes that Bluebikes benefits from strong regional buy-in across funding, logistics, and coordination, while Schmidt points out that the real estate development community has also supported network expansion, recognizing that bikeshare access makes properties more attractive to buyers. Regional transit partners have taken notice too, supporting Capital Bikeshare because of the mutual benefit of connecting riders to their services.

A major factor in that growth? Ebikes. They've been transformative for CaBi's ridership, accounting for 63% of all rides despite making up just 38% of the fleet. "Ebikes offer the health benefits of physical activity while making it easier to travel over hills and cover longer distances," explains Martin, adding that average trip distances have shifted from 1-3 miles (1.6 to 4.8km) to 3-5 miles (4.8 to 8km) or more since their introduction.

Choephel says ebikes were partly added to enable these longer trips, and shares a telling anecdote.

"There were these ebikes that showed up quite some distance away in Salem, and we asked the operations folks, 'Did you guys move these bikes to Salem?' They're like, 'No, someone rode them up to Salem.' People rode ebikes all the way up to Salem! It was interesting to us that someone took a more than 13-mile trip on an ebike and enjoyed it. And those bikes eventually made their way back as well."

Want more data? Get the latest Lyft Multimodal Report

How LUS makes it work

The complexity of running a multijurisdictional bikeshare system is real, but it doesn't have to be a barrier. Across our regional systems, LUS maintains a regular cadence of individual meetings with each jurisdiction to address local needs — from deployment coordination to event planning — alongside system-wide meetings to drive strategic alignment. Shared tools like work calendars and performance dashboards give all jurisdictions real-time visibility into operations, keeping coordination proactive. We maintain unified service standards across the network, because a system that works for everyone has to work for each community individually.

We also help jurisdictions grow. Our proven framework facilitated the seamless addition of the City of Fairfax to Capital Bikeshare in 2023, and it's the same framework that has helped Bluebikes expand from 4 to 13 municipalities and nearly double its service area. As ebikes extend trip distances and ridership grows more regional, having a partner who understands how to manage that evolution matters more than ever.

That's what LUS is here for. We don't just operate bikeshare systems. We help the partnerships behind them thrive.