Official RVA Bike Share 4+

From a $6 day pass that I purchased only to find that it had to dock the bike after 45 minutes or I would be charged $3 every half hour after the first 45 minutes. There was no dock where we were going, so we got charged an additional $18 for the round trip. Then we used the secondary lock at our destination which did not unlock when we were ready to leave. After roughly 30 minutes on the phone with a help desk person that we couldn’t understand, we were connected to his manager who spoke more clearly and was finally able to unlock the bike. Finally, when the bike was returned to the dock, the app did not “end” the ride. I had to call in yet again to confirm the ride had ended and to receive my very disappointing bill. Safe to say, I will never use this app or RVA Bike Share again. With other less expensive and more user friendly apps for scooters or ride share, I would urge everyone to consider an alternative to these rip-off artists.

This app is pretty much broken and needs to be fixed. Most things take a while once you click on them.

Besides the app barely working, once you get it to work, the actual bikes don’t have an electric accelerate function — causing you have to strike the pedals in a very specific way to get it to work. The weight of the bike makes it a pain to ride it without electric aid.

After reading the negative reviews, I was apprehensive about trying this bike share. But it worked out great! My family of four was able to go everywhere and had a blast. (St. Johns, Tredegar, Hollywood cemetery, the university, and more.) Docking a bike and not worrying about more complicated, expensive rentals was great.

The price was great too. $24 for unlimited, fun travel for a family of four? (Note that the “day pass” still needs to dock every 45 minutes. It’s not a bike rental, but more of a transit pass.)

It was not a perfect experience. Our first time was a mess — flat tires, disengaged chains, drive trains that wouldn’t engage. The baskets had trash in them, and some of the bikes were tagged.

But by the second time, we learned to keep an eye out for these, and it was no problem. Which is fine — it’s a city bike share, not a some resort rental.

As a tourist, I would absolutely recommend this. Ebikes are the ideal way to enjoy a beautiful city.