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How to use bike-sharing services without being a nuisance

Photo: oBike
Photo: oBike

If you walk or drive around your neighbourhood or in the city, chances are you have encountered rows of brightly-coloured bicycles parked neatly – or sometimes, haphazardly.

These two-wheelers are part of a bike-sharing service boom that has been popping up in major cities.

Singapore’s first homegrown bike-sharing company, oBike, has seen its orange bicycles become a favourite plaything among vandals, with several bikes ending up battered, damaged and stolen. Cases of missing seats, bikes repainted to a different colour and thrown into a river or drain are common to the operator.

In Malaysia, about 2 per cent of its bicycles have been vandalised and damaged since the company began its operations there in mid-April this year. Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore recently sat down with oBike’s Malaysian team to find out more about how the company is coping with vandalism, and making the bike-sharing service friendly for all.

Be oBike’s eyes and ears

According to oBike Malaysia business development manager, Ian Goh, it was a business risk oBike was willing to make in introducing a healthy cycling culture to Malaysians. He assured that the situation is manageable and the oBikers play a pivotal role in pushing for a pleasant bike sharing culture. oBike has clocked more than 100,000 users in Malaysia.

“The oBikers are our eyes and ears. They help to notify us if our bicycles are damaged, parked indiscriminately or stolen. As much as it hurts us and each of our ‘babies’, we believe in the benefits of having an improved cycling culture or cycling as a form of alternative transportation to solve the first and last mile. That is what we are here for.”

The 26-year-old added, “Vandalism is nothing new and, even in advanced countries, there are similar cases, too. In Singapore or Malaysia, there are bound to be some bad apples… At the end of the day, that’s a risk we are willing to take. It takes education and, through awareness, this will help to reduce the abuse.”

A bicycle with a missing seat. (Photo: Shahirah Abdul Hamid)
A bicycle with a missing seat. (Photo: Shahirah Abdul Hamid)

Education goes a long way

oBike Malaysia marketing manager Elaine Chan shares a similar sentiment. Chan believes more needs to be done to educate the public on using this service with proper care to avoid any public nuisance. She finds that the majority of the operator’s riders are responsible and courteous.

“We are still continuing with our educational messages. We understand that people are not used to the bicycle-sharing service yet. But, when they fully understand the concept and use it on their daily commute, sooner or later they will start to take good care of the bikes,” said 28-year-old Chan.

Please park the bikes at the designated parking bays

Although these dockless biking systems may require some adjustments and improvements to make the service friendly for all, users need to practise good cycling etiquette. One common faux pas users make is to park the bikes haphazardly after use.

Recently, 250 of oBike’s bicycles were seized by a local city council and the company was slapped with a RM 17,000 fine (S$5,490). The two-wheelers were confiscated for causing an obstruction on pedestrian walkways.

oBikers are discouraged from parking the bicycles in secluded areas, as this makes it harder for other users to locate the bikes. Instead, they should find the nearest public and designated parking bays through the app. They should look for the nearest bus stop or train station, places that are visible and convenient for other oBikers.

“We advise our users to return and lock the bikes at any designated oBike parking bays and public bicycle parking spaces. We extremely discourage users to park the bikes in private places such as in front of their house, as it would make it difficult for other users to locate the bikes,” explained Chan.

Enjoy discounted rates for your next ride if you see cases of vandalism

The bicycle-sharing operator implemented a credit rating system to deal with vandalism and haphazard parking. With the system, each new user will be credited 100 points. Having a higher credit score will allow users to enjoy discounted rates on rides. If credits are reduced to zero, the user will be banned from the service.

oBikers will get brownie points if they report any bad behaviour, such as vandalism or theft. When users have a higher credit rating, they will be able to enjoy rides at discounted rates. Users can even enjoy cheaper rides if they notice the bicycle that they are about to use is faulty.

“At the moment, we don’t impose fines on users because we want to discuss with the local authorities and councils on how to manage this more effectively. Part of our discussion is to have more dedicated oBike parking bays,” said Chan. “For those who park the bicycles at their house, that is also partially our fault because there aren’t any parking bays near their housing area. So, it’s a chicken-and-egg thing. We need to get approval to have more parking bays at housing areas for residential users.

We hope in the future when we have more coverage areas and parking bays, it will reduce the issue of indiscriminate parking,” shared Chan.

Don’t know how to ride a bicycle? No problem

Goh is pleased that the usage of this bike sharing service is slowly picking up speed. He joked that a handful of oBikers use their bikes to learn how to cycle.

“[Some] people who don’t know how to cycle learn how to do so through oBike,” he said. “We even have more bikes in Kuala Lumpur than New York. We are in it for the long term. No one would simply say, ‘I want to introduce this concept’ and just put 50 bikes and see how it goes. Instead, we put 10,000 bikes – it shows that we are serious and we want to create this cycling culture and everyone to be a part of this journey with us.”

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