Bike-sharing startup oBike faces strict safety rules as Melbourne city councils take action

Three Melbourne city councils have announced strict new rules for bike-share service oBike that will allow the councils to confiscate abandoned bicycles and issue fines for the startup’s bikes found breaching these new rules.

The Melbourne, Yarra and Port Phillip councils came together to sign a memorandum of understanding with oBike in a bid to prevent the safety hazards and inner city clutter posed by dockless bikes being strewn across gutters, thrown in rivers and oceans, and even ending up in trees.

The Singapore-based bike-sharing service was introduced in Melbourne in August, deploying 1250 dockless bikes that were soon subject to criticism for clogging footpaths, edging out space on existing bike parking racks, and becoming safety hazards when incorrectly parked.

These issues haven’t been isolated to Australia, with Beijing and Shanghai experiencing the same problems on a larger scale, prompting government agencies to claim tens of thousands of shared bicycles in an attempt to restore order on their city streets and footpaths. Read more

Angela Castles - Smart Company - 20 Oct 2017