Google is losing up to 250 bikes a week from California HQ

I think the point is the combination of

(a) Google is a hugely wealthy corporation with a massive income against which the value of the bikes is tiny, and...

(b) they don't really show much sign of caring that strongly about this problem and haven't done a great deal to prevent it happening.

   I think that from those facts many people have concluded that they have Google's tacit consent to 'borrow' the bikes.  I don't think it's much more complex than that.

Besides, I get the impression that the largely wealthy, young, techno-evangelist/hipster types that work for Google are not hugely popular among the wider population in the areas they are based, and I think it would be a shame if the use of bikes comes to be entirely associated with that crowd.  That's the sort of thing that any number of "I'm a prole, me, even though I'm earning several hundred thousand quid a year" newspaper columnists use to bash cyclists.

If Google provides them for lower-earning locals to get into the habit of using bikes that would be a positive thing.

Do you think if it wasn't google, say a responsible tax paying local company that had the bikes for their employees then the locals would look at things differently?

Google stated they would build infra that was more joined up locally, they haven't, they were so blind to how others behave that it's cost them more than having a system in place like a simple Anchor Las that could be used by employees only to reduce theft. The tel no. on the bikes aren't answered according to some sources who say they've reported dumped bikes in the past (In the creek was a very common place that was gaining the attention of locals and the authorities) and Google haven't done shit to retrieve them.

Yes people shouldn't take the bikes but if google had done just a smidge more with the money they didn't pay out in tax dodging they could have transformed the whole area and people locally might actually respect their property more.

That's what happens when people percieve you as a money grabbing conglomerate, they have no respect and will quite happily 'steal' or use their stuff.

I don't have a huge amount of tears to shed to be perfectly frank.

BTBS, are we not going down a dangerous victim blaming oath that we as cyclist hate so much here?

If my best bike was stolen we could argue that I could have purchased 10 Halfords specials and still had a grand for a decent bike and potentially reduced an appropriate groups likelihood to steal mine.

They've basically put something on site that's a little better for the environment, their staff and fun. The fact that Shazza thinks it's ok to nick it is a bit rich. If I entered her house, raided her fridge but came back the next day to take a shit, I think it'd be frowned upon...

The title is a terrible misrepresentation of the situation.

Google aren't 'losing' the bikes, they are being misappropriated/stolen, if they were lost at around 250 a week with the just over 1000 bikes in total they'd have 'lost' all the bikes in under 5 weeks.

That the article then goes on to say that up to 250 a week go off site in any given week and being recovered makes a mockery of the rubbish title.

Clearly the person/s introducing this who didn't think that the unsecured bikes wouldn't find their way into the locality/off site must live in a bubble. 

If Google had bought 'google' bikes for all impoverished kids in the locality and bikes for people wanting to get a job but no way of travelling to interviews/work and built a massive cycle infra network (the network is massively disjointed in the area) then they would have been on a win-win.

People less likely to steal the bikes and dump them in the creek, fewer costs on the security guards that are supposed to keep an eye on the bikes, no costs on GPS trackers to track down the STOLEN (not lost) bikes. They'd also be seen as a responsible and community orientated employer that really is interested in all the benefits that cycling bring.

I'm quite surprised that this Sharon character is quite happy for it her details (and employer)to go on the record that she's kicking stuff. Surely this doesn't reflect well on the employer and most employers will have a clause in their employment contracts about bringing the company into disrepute.

That bike looks like Google bought it in Benetton in 1989... 

As longs as it's by white males presumably...

But Google deserves to have stuff stolen from them.

'One local, 68-year-old Sharon Veach, who works for Oracle, freely admitted she regularly uses one of the bikes to ride home from the train station after work, keeps it overnight, then rides back in the morning ahead of her commute.'

In fairness, Google borrowed a far amount of Sun/Oracle code for Android so they  can't complain about Sharon's borrowing.

Erm... Sharon's a twat and many are thieves, depending where you draw the line on permanently depriving. But when a company with a slightly skewed moral compass is putting ecologically friendly, healthy and practical transportation into its site, people taking the piss isn't exactly cricket...

They can afford it....