JUMP is deploying 300 scooters in Baltimore this week

With spring’s arrival, JUMP escooters will start appearing on city sidewalks.

Uber, which owns JUMP via an acquisition deal last year, said the red scooters will begin deploying in Baltimore on Tuesday. Over the next several days, 300 scooters will be deployed across the city. The company is also planning a helmet giveaway in the coming days.

JUMP is the fourth provider to deploy scooters as part of a dockless transportation pilot program with the city that is allowing the companies to operate. JUMP and Spin were given the go-ahead to participate in March, joining Bird and Lime as part of a springtime extension through the end of the month.

The scooters can be located and unlocked via the Uber app, accessed by tapping “mode switch” from ridesharing to scooter on the home screen.

“At Uber, we are working towards a world where Baltimore residents can easily live without a car by taking advantage of a wide variety of transportation options, from scooters to rideshare and beyond, requested right from the Uber app,” Uber East Coast General Manager of Scooters Loic Amado said in a statement. “Today’s launch gets us closer to that vision by giving people in Baltimore an affordable, environmentally friendly way to get from point A to point B.”

JUMP scooters are free to unlock, with pricing of 15-cents per minute.

As the sidewalks get more crowded, pricing for scooters is increasingly entering the conversation. The other scooter companies charge $1 to unlock.

Another company is also showing a shift in per-minute pricing. As reported by Baltimore Fishbowl, Bird’s per-minute prices went up over the weekend from 15 cents per minute to 29 cents. Price hikes were also reported in Detroit over the weekend. Bird confirmed that changes are being implemented in multiple cities, including Baltimore.

“Similar to ride-hailing, big macs, and cups of coffee, our pricing now varies by city. The price for our environmentally friendly scooters has been updated to range from 10 cents to 33 cents per minute,” a Bird spokesperson said.

Baltimore City Department of Transportation spokesperson Kathy Dominick referred to Bird’s move as a “test of dynamic pricing,” which the city was unaware of prior to the reports.

“We are nearing the end of our Dockless Pilot Program, and remain committed to providing affordable, equitable and accessible transportation solutions,” Dominick said in an emailed statement. “The rates for the other vendors have remained the same, so with multiple service providers, the public can select the appropriate dockless vehicle based on price, availability, or any other factors.”