It's a bike! It's a scooter! It's a Boaz Bike, which is actually an electric scooter with a seat — and Detroit now has, like, 400 of them.
It's been three years since fleets of rentable smartphone-operated e-scooters began to invade Detroit's streets from companies like Bird, Lime, and Spin. But in recent weeks, a new company has gotten in on the Motor City's ride-share micro-mobility solutions. Boaz Bikes, which crowdfunded $900,000 earlier this year, first launched its pilot program in Detroit in 2019 but has recently expanded its fleet to include 400 vehicles to add to the hundreds of e-scooters already available.
Boaz Bike founder Emil Nnani says he saw the need for a safer ride-share option after witnessing a scooter accident.
“Watching that accident really changed me,” Nnani said in a press release. “I knew I could create something better.”
According to the company, Boaz Bikes has had zero accidents in over 25,000 rides. Like Bird, Lime, and Spin scooters (and unlike MoGo bikes), Boaz Bikes do not require a docking station but are equipped with a seat (to lower the rider's center of gravity), side mirrors, turn signals, bigger tires (for, you know, Detroit's many potholes and uneven sidewalks), as well as larger foot decks so you can put your feet next to each other more comfortably. Boaz Bikes also have baskets and industrial kickstands to prevent them from tipping over once parked.
So, why Detroit? Well, according to Shauna Armitage, Boaz Bike's chief marketing officer, Detroit was the perfect city to premier their e-offering because of our “underserved populations” — you know, because our public transportation is trash and the $5 million Q-Line is virtually useless unless you want to go from Midtown to downtown.
“The potential of this city and its communities hasn't yet been fully realized. The culture and activities are second to none,” Armitage says. “When we launched, the city was really open to new micro-mobility solutions, so Detroit was a no-brainer for us.”
To learn more about Boaz Bikes and how to navigate the app, visit BoazBikes.com.
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