London e-bike hire provider Forest is to begin installing ‘number plates’ on the back of their bikes to make it easier for members of the public to report users for “dangerous riding” or parking issues.
Approximately 500 bikes in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames are to be installed with “number plates” showing the bike’s individual ID code used by customers to unlock the dockless bikes. But it is unclear whether the number-plated bikes are a trial initiative or whether they are set to be expanded across the city. Since June, Forest have had a monopoly over e-bike provision in the borough, where around one third of the e-bike fleet will be fitted with the plates.
Forest declined to comment on this or the choice of Richmond as a first location when approached by road.cc, but did refer back to an article in The Daily Telegraph that first broke the story, where a spokesperson for Forest explained, “The way it works is that if there’s an incident and the number is shared with us, just as with the bike number, we can immediately identify the bike and who was riding it at the time, and take the required action faster.”
The roll-out of rear number plates is the latest action Forest is taking to strengthen their accountability to members of the public and their customers. Last month, the company announced it would begin providing third-party insurance to riders, bringing Forest in line with Santander Bikes and other dockless e-bike providers such as Lime and Bolt.
However the company did not clarify the terms of its insurance policy when approached for comment. The Telegraph also suggested that if a Forest bike user was repeatedly reported for “misuse’, then they could be banned from the app. Forest itself has been criticised and fined by councils in the past for failing to take sufficient action on parking provisions and rider behaviour.
> E-bike operators including Lime and Forest slapped with £210,000 in fines for sloppy parking
Forest’s recent actions follow a high-profile incidents where a pedestrian hit by an e-bike riders was unable to claim compensation after she was seriously injured. Sandy Peters told BBC London that there was also very little chance of getting financial redress from the rider as he was under 18 years old, despite Forest’s terms and conditions requiring only adults to use the e-bikes. Forest subsequently indicated support for industry-wide efforts to improve the insurance frameworks around e-bike hire in the UK.
