Quincy’s ofo pilot will bring dockless bikes to Boston’s southern neighbor

Quincy is the latest Boston-area municipality to get in on the bike-sharing game.

The city just south of Boston proper plans on May 30 to launch a pilot program with Beijing-based ofo, which bills itself as the world’s first and largest dockless (or station-less) bike-share company. The program will place 200 of ofo’s signature yellow bikes on Quincy’s streets, particularly around transit hubs and in residential areas.

Riders use an app to locate and unlock dockless bikes where they find them—unlike more conventional bike-shares, where vehicles are picked up and returned at designated kiosks.

Quincy’s ofo pilot comes as more dockless bikes than ever hit the streets of the Boston area and Blue Bikes—the official bike-share of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and Brookline— expands. The more-bikes-than-ever reality has raised legal and regulatory questions.

Some sort of grand regional detente seems inevitable. Now, if we can just get the whole bike lanes thing settled as well.

• Boston dockless bikes coming this summer: What to know [Curbed Boston]
• Blue Bikes: It’s Hubway’s new name under a deal with Blue Cross Blue Shield [Curbed Boston]
• Boston-area bike-sharing appears to be careening toward regional cooperation [Curbed Boston]
• Cambridge’s protected bike lanes here to say, though tweaks possible [Curbed Boston]