Dockless bike sharing lands in SSF

A bike share company that features $1 rides and dockless parking launched in South San Francisco Tuesday with plans to deploy 300 bikes this week.

LimeBike held a news conference Tuesday morning at the Antigua Café on Grand Avenue to announce the new transport option.

Customers can use LimeBike’s smartphone app to identify and unlock the bikes on the street.

Unlike the Ford GoBike program recently launched in cities throughout the Bay Area, LimeBike does not require customers to park at stations or docks.

The bike share company also operates programs in Seattle, Dallas and South Lake Tahoe, among other U.S. cities.

A similar dockless bicycle program, Bluegogo, received criticism from city officials in San Francisco earlier this year over concerns that the company planned to dump bikes on city streets, obstructing public sidewalks.

According to LimeBike’s website at www.limebike.com, people are asked to park the company’s bikes “only at bike racks and areas designated for bike parking.”