Even more ways to get to the polls for free on Election Day
If you still don't know how you're getting to your polling place on Election Day, you have more than a few options.
Lyft-owned bike-share company Motivate announced late Sunday night that its bicycles would be free to rent on Nov. 6 in the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Jersey City, New York City, Portland, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C. Those systems include Citi Bike in New York, Divvy in Chicago, Bluebikes in Boston, Capital Bikeshare in D.C., and Ford GoBike in the Bay Area.
The code BIKETOVOTE will work on the bike-share apps in all participating cities except Chicago. In Chicago, Divvy riders can use the code VOTE18. All provide a free day pass so you can pedal to the polls at no cost. But you do have to sign up and have a bike-share account and app.
Greyhound bus service is offering students with .edu email addresses 50 percent off bus tickets to go home, or wherever they are registered to vote. Students have to sign up with their school emails by the end of Monday. Once signed up for Greyhound's Road Rewards program, they'll receive a discount code on Tuesday and need to book half-off travel by the end of Wednesday.
The discount code is for all travel between Nov. 5 and 7, so students can head home, vote, and make it back to campus. Hopefully students far from home signed up for vote-by-mail ballots.
These voting transportation deals came after Lime gave out a promo code for a free bike or scooter ride on voting day. Uber and Lyft also have voting day promos, including free rides.
You're running out of excuses.
UPDATE: Oct. 31, 2018, 4:17 p.m. PDT Skip e-scooter riders in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Oregon, can get $5 ride credit for scooting to the polls next week, the company announced Wednesday.
To get the credit you need to follow Skip on Instagram or Twitter. Then on Election Day you can take a Skip to the polls. After voting, share a photo with your "I voted" sticker and include the hashtag #SkiptothePolls in the post.
Skip will send a promo code for a $5 ride to offset your ride cost to get to your polling place. The code will come via direct message and must be used for a ride by Dec. 6.
Topics Politics
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
