Irresponsible oBike Users Are Vandalising And Dumping Bicycles Across Klang Valley
What did the bikes do to you?!
By Samantha Khor — 21 Nov 2017, 02:28 PM
In a series of photos that have gone viral, several yellow bicycles belonging to bicycle-sharing company oBike were found to have been left behind haphazardly or in horrifying conditions across Klang Valley
The Singapore-based company introduced the bicycle-sharing service in Malaysia in mid-April this year, aiming to ease transport woes for city folk who do not own private transport (e.g. students and foreign workers) as well as to reduce traffic congestion and environmental pollution in the city.
Users are also required to pay a refundable deposit to ensure their responsibility for the bike. As for usage of the bikes, they will be billed RM1 for every 15-minute block. The service currently operates in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, and Kuala Terengganu.
Via the oBike app, users can reserve and unlock bikes from designated oBike parking areas or one that's nearest to them. At the end of the ride, they just have to drop it off at a legally designated area and lock it with the app.
By "legally designate area", they mean anywhere that's accessible to the public that does not block traffic walkways. In its FAQ, oBike urged users to refrain from leaving the bikes at private areas such as residential parking lots and housing compounds.
It's one thing to simply dump rubbish by the side of the road and into bushes, but quite another when the thing you're dumping is not even your property
Apparently, this is not a Malaysia-exclusive problem. The lack of fixed docking stations for bicycle-sharing systems have also led to bikes being haphazardly abandoned or vandalised in Australia and China.
Contractors retrieving hundreds of oBikes dumped in Melbourne's Yarra River.
Image via Joe Armao / The Age Australia
People in China are reportedly destroying bikes after use. Broken bicycles are then dumped in a pile.
Image via Silent Hill / Imagine ChinaHowever, that does not mean we should be following bad examples. Let's strive to be more civilised and responsible than that, okay?
