What America’s bike-share schemes tell you about venture capital

Over the past decade not many cities in America have won as many plaudits for investing in bike infrastructure as Minneapolis. Thanks to its extensive network of bike lanes, in 2015 it became the first (and so far only) place in America to win a place on the Copenhagenize Index, a list of the world’s 20 most bicycle-friendly cities. Yet that was not enough to save the city’s 13-year-old docked bike-share system. In March Lyft, the taxi firm which operated the scheme, known as Nice Ride, announced that because a sponsor had dropped out, it would close, and that they would begin removing the equipment.