St. Augustine streets are about to get a lot more bicycles. The city is rolling out a new bikeshare program featuring 90 bikes, including 10 pedal-assist models capped at 15 miles per hour, with docking stations planned for downtown, West King Street, Anastasia Boulevard and St. Augustine Beach.
The program, called Drifters City Bike Share, is designed to support up to 170 docking stations across the city, according to staugustine.com. That network is expected to include 14 tower stations plus as many as 62 single-docking stations set up at participating local businesses, per the Ponte Vedra Recorder. Riders will be able to borrow and return bikes at any docking station using the Drifters app, with each bike equipped with a basket, an onboard lock-and-unlock mechanism and an integrated payment system, according to News4JAX.
Drifters owner Ian Guthrie designed the bike-share program, the staugustine.com report notes. Guthrie said the rollout took years of development, including custom bike design and building the rental app from scratch, per News4JAX. He added that the initiative is meant to benefit residents, small-business owners and tourists alike by cutting down on car traffic, a point the station's report also attributes to him.
Mayor Touts Mobility Benefits
Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline said the service gives residents and visitors an alternative to driving, offering them another way to get around the historic city, according to News4JAX. She also said the program helps the City of St. Augustine meet its broader mobility program objectives, a comment reported by the same account. The city has said the initiative is intended to reduce traffic, improve mobility and showcase local businesses, per an earlier staugustine.com report from last year.
Guthrie said the program is built around community and local business support, and that sponsors helped get it off the ground, per News4JAX. Drifters has described itself as locally owned and operated, with roots in St. Augustine dating back to 2017, according to the company's own website. The business says it first tested the bikeshare concept in 2019 with a pilot called Out Post before developing the current system.
Pricing and How to Ride
Rental fees begin at $5.50 for the first hour and $4.50 for each additional hour, staugustine.com reports. St. Johns County residents can also buy a City Bike Local Passport for unlimited rentals, priced at $90 for six months or $180 for a full year, according to the same report. Membership options additionally include annual and monthly subscriptions, hourly rental rates, and discounts for Flagler College students, per News4JAX. The rental app is available now on both Google Play and the Apple App Store, staugustine.com notes.
It's worth noting that plans for the fleet size have shifted over time. An earlier staugustine.com report from March 2025 described a planned system with 100 bikes across 14 stations, a figure distinct from the 90-bike fleet now moving forward. The bicycles themselves were custom-designed by Drifters' partners at PRIORITY Bicycles, according to the Ponte Vedra Recorder.
Ribbon-Cutting Set for This Week
The city plans to launch the program with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday at 10 a.m. at the Plaza de la Constitución in historic downtown, per News4JAX. City officials have said the program is intended to expand bikeshare access across the greater St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach area while improving outdoor and recreational experiences for residents and visitors alike. Drifters has made a map of docking stations, pricing details and sponsorship opportunities available at its website for anyone looking to plan a ride ahead of the launch.
