Orlando’s first bike share company is calling it quits after three years. Juice is removing its bike stations and will stop service this Sunday.
Orlando isn’t souring on bike share programs, but Juice has been squeezed by rival Lime with its bright green bikes appearing all over the city late last year. Uber plans to roll out its Jump electric bikes in Orlando too.
Juice didn’t respond to a request for comment, but in an email to users, the company said it will "focus on introducing a new and improved dockless bike share program."
Juice said riders have taken over 115,000 trips on its fleet of orange painted bikes since 2016.
Ricardo Williams, who's ridden about 7,500 miles on a Juice bike, said he is sorry to see the end of the program.
“There’s a lot of folks who, if you had said four or five years ago, that there would be competing bike share programs, they would have laughed at you. Had it not grown, you would not have other companies coming into Orlando like you see now.”
Williams said he might hop on a Juice bike for one last ride.
“One of the reason that my numbers are so high in the program is that I did a lot of long trips," said Williams.
"And I guess I can say this now, I did some trips that were sort of out of the service area, out to Disney, up to Altamonte. Maybe there’s one last ride in me before they go.”
There’s still a chance you’ll see one of the orange bikes pedaling around the city streets. Juice is selling them for $499 apiece.