Melbourne crushing oBikes for scrap metal

"$50 per bike collection fee"

I think I see the problem.

time for a bit of tell and show - my experience is that Melbourne's pavements are regularly blocked by construction work and asssociated vehicles, motorbikes can be parked anywhere - only a couple of months into oBikes and rather than work out how to make it work just scrapping them because nobody likes a bicycle is the easy answer..... but takes 6months to move a truck abandoned on a very well used cycle lane:

Quote:

"The vehicle, which was missing a front numberplate, was hanging over into the left traffic lane, causing a risk to traffic and making cyclists swerve around.

One shop owner told the Herald Sun the unmarked Isuzu was left more than a month before council issued a tow-away ticket on September 21, giving 60 days’ notice.

“I get stuff in the mail to tell me to vote for them in the election. Why don’t they move this truck and then I’ll vote,’’ she said.

Bicycle Network chief executive Craig Richards said that if the truck was blocking a traffic lane, it would have been towed away a long time ago.

“It’s ridiculous that an abandoned truck has been left to languish in a peak hour bike lane — putting the lives of bike riders at risk.

“This is a busy, central bike route and the truck is a dangerous hazard forcing bike riders to swerve out in to the traffic lane.”

Under local government regulations, the street is not a tow-away zone, such as King St, so any vehicle is given 60 days to be removed.

Mr Cutter said the bike lane was not a tow-away clearway."  

 .......... etc etc etc 

source below but probably behind paywall - credit for above quote  goes to:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/abandoned-truck-on-exhibition-...

or possibly google      abandoned-truck-on-exhibition        to read the detail  if hit a paywall 

Although scrapping them is a bit extreme I can understand people being frustrated by abandoned hire bikes, there was an abandoned Mo bike near my friends place in Manchester for about 5 days and it probably stayed there for a while after I went home. I considered using it to go to town the one day but the gear ratios are so crap you can't really get up much speed and by the time I'd read the instructions on how to hire the thing the bus turned up.

O-bikes appear to have the same attitude as UBER in failing to deliver the duty of care that a responsible company balances with the imperative of profit. This is the reason that taxis, buses, goods vehicles etc are licensed by a regulator and we have for both personal hired transport (Private Hire Cars, Pedicabs, Bike Share schemes &c)  a massive void in the framework for regulation - TfL to their credit has rapidly produced guidance for London Boroughs on creating Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) and potnetially licences/concessions/contracts with those providing dockless bike schemes to set Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and remedies for their relationship with any operator placing bikes in a Borough.

In Scotland we are fortunate in having greater clarity in the roads legislation and Section 97 of the Roads Scotland Act provides for the licensing of commercial activity on the main roads network. London's devolved status might also provide the window to introduce similar conditions for all bike hire - and they might also consider regulation of sub 3.6T vans as well.

Of cours the further option is to follow the lead of General Booth and the Salvation Army (Why should the Devil have all the best tunes?) and set up a borough-controlled bike scheme in partnership with (a) responsible supplier(s), and do likewise with a passenger finding app for their local Private Hire Car Operators.  Note here that In Wolverhampton the locally run equivalent of UBER  has a far greater driver buy-in and UBER is a relatively insignificant player. It can happen elsewhere too

Miss the 1970s? Go to Australia (never been, but pure perception, rarely ever hear a positive story to do with either cycling, or modern values for that matter).