Uber for Bikes Is a Commuter Dream… When It Works

Grab any bike you can find, ride it wherever, ditch it forever. Sound too good to be true?

Dockless bike-sharing is likely coming to a city near you. To see what the world looks like from behind the handlebars, WSJ's David Pierce takes an Uber Bike for a spin around San Francisco.

Lately, everywhere I go in San Francisco, I just grab whatever bike I can find and take off. When I’m done, I ditch it... wherever. I snag a new bike next time I need one. While you might picture me as some kind of super-smooth bike thief (that’s certainly how I picture myself), it’s more like I have the master key to hundreds of locked bikes around town.

This is dockless bike-sharing, which a handful of companies, including Uber, are bringing to U.S. cities. Rather than living in stations around a city, these bikes can be...