Last year, Portland said goodbye to the popular, troubled Alta Bicycle Share, after the company was sold to a New York City outfit. Now, Alta's gone altogether—at least nominally. The company's new owners are swapping out the old name, which may have associations with the software bugs and accusations of poor management that have troubled some markets Alta operated in.

So now Alta has a less-obscure, less-Portland (Alta Bicycle Share was affiliated with the still-local company Alta Planning and Design) and cheesier moniker: Motivate. That decision came out in news reports last night, and was confirmed in a news release early this morning.

"Alta Bicycle Share is now Motivate, the global bike share leader bringing unparalleled experience in building and operating large, complex bike share systems," the release says.

Portland may have lost the company, but we're still counting on Motivate to forge a path for bike share in the Rose City. The city inked a contract with Alta Bicycle Share two years ago, but the company has been unable to secure the sponsorship money to purchase and operate bike share here. That's very much a local problem. Alta faced essentially the same scenario in Seattle, before city officials found millions in sponsorship money with a simple phone call. Now Seattleites have the Pronto bike share system.

If similar phone calls are being made in Portland, they haven't led to the same progress. (And lately, transportation officials are giving all their attentions to finding millions for Portland's roads.) Early rumors that health care giant Kaiser Permanente would sponsor "Kaiser Bikes" here don't look promising.

Portland officials, after repeatedly pushing back the launch of a bike share system, have said they'd like to get something running this year. You can check out the entire release from Motivate after the jump. It makes mention of a lot of cities its working in. Not Portland, though.

NEW YORK - Alta Bicycle Share is now Motivate, the global bike share leader bringing unparalleled experience in building and operating large, complex bike share systems. Motivate oversees all of the largest bike share systems in the United States, including Citi Bike in New York, Divvy in Chicago, Capital Bike Share in Washington D.C, Hubway in Boston, and Bay Area Bike Share in the San Francisco Bay Area. The name change is effective immediately.

The renaming comes on the heels of the company’s recent acquisition by a team of investors including the CEOs of Equinox®, a fitness and high performance lifestyle leader; Related Companies, one of the nation’s most prominent real estate firms; and other private investors.

The new ownership group has brought the financial backing and leadership to help the company meet the enormous demand for bike share in the U.S. and beyond. Motivate is led by a team of seasoned urban visionaries and technology innovators, with deep experience using technology to make cities more convenient and accessible. Led by CEO Jay Walder, one of the world’s leading transportation executives, the team brings bold ideas for bike share with the innovative technology, financial and sponsorship solutions to make them a reality. Motivate has a workforce of more than 600 dedicated employees who help to plan, launch, operate, market and provide customer service for its systems.

“Bike share has become an integral part of the 21st century city, and Motivate is the only company with the proven experience and expertise to effectively deliver and operate multiple large bike share systems,” said Jay Walder, Chief Executive Officer of Motivate. “As cities change and grow more rapidly than ever, only bike share is flexible and personalized to keep pace. Now, with the backing of new ownership, Motivate is positioned to deliver even better service to cities and bring bike share to scale.”

In the time since the first major US bike share system was launched four and a half years ago, Motivate has grown forty-fold. In every city Motivate operates, expansion is being pursued or considered by popular demand. And the establishment of regional systems – in places such as Boston, Washington, D.C., the Bay Area, Chicago and now New York – illustrates how growth won’t be contained by political or even geographic borders.

Motivate is a 21st century urban transportation experience, using the latest technology to create a service that is flexible and personalized to the way people live today. Motivate gets you from where you are to where you want to be, unrestricted by schedules or fixed routes or an outdated idea of how your city should move. Motivate is different each day and for every person, connecting the threads of the city, a new journey beginning as another ends.

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About Motivate
Motivate is a global leader in bike share. A full-service bike share operator and technology innovator, Motivate works to re-envision how people experience and move around cities. Motivate currently manages all of the largest bikeshare systems in the United States and many of the largest systems in the world, including Citi Bike (NYC), Divvy (Chicago), CoGo Bike Share (Columbus, OH), Capital Bike Share (Washington DC, Arlington, VA, Alexandria, VA and Montgomery County, MD), Hubway (Boston, Somerville, Cambridge, and Brookline, MA), Bay Area Bike Share (BABS, San Francisco Bay Area), Bike Chattanooga (TN), Bike Share Toronto and Melbourne Bike Share, Australia. Motivate recently launched Pronto Cycle Share in Seattle, Washington, and was recently selected to launch a new system in Jersey City, New Jersey that will be compatible with Citi Bike.