this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2024
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[–] OrlandoDoom@feddit.uk 1 points 1 year ago

So in Barcelona they have a fantastic cycling service (bicing), there are racks that lock the bikes automatically, and all bikes have to be left in a rack. Using an app, you can see where all the bikes are and where all of the open bike rack spaces there are. Because they are locked up, people can't just take them out and start riding them (ever heard a clicky lime bike? They're easy to pinch).

The problem isn't the lime bikes themselves, it's the execution of the storage plan, leave them in this spot and send a photo of it parked clearly isn't cutting it, just put some fucking racks in so they can be kept tidy.

[–] sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They keep conflating public disorder issues with Lime Biker issues and all for what? To further empower cars?

[–] inspectorst@feddit.uk 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This isn't a problem with bikes that individuals own. This isn't a problem with the Santander bikes either. This is a specific problem with Lime bikes and the likes, because the Lime bike system is set up to encourage people to dump their bikes anywhere and Lime does nothing to discourage this. Lime is a multi-million pound private enterprise that is profiting on what is effectively the littering of our public spaces.

Personally I'd favour using punitive market-based mechanisms to solve this - fine Lime £100 or £200 for every mis-parked bike, which would align their incentives with society's and quickly lead them to being a lot more discerning about who they rent their bikes out to and how they enforce against misuse of the bikes. But I suspect this would destroy their business model anyway - the overwhelming majority of Lime bikes I see out and about are not parked in an orderly way, so what you're calling a public disorder problem must account for the vast majority of their customer base - it's a business model set up to cater to hooligans. So maybe just banning the product outright is the better option. The Santander bikes are very widely available for anyone who needs them and they operate with a system that overwhelmingly enforces orderly parking.