On ya bike: Share rider complaints on the rise

They’re supposed to be a cheap way to get from A to B around Sydney, but inconsiderate share-bike riders dumping bikes in roads and footpaths have led to a spike in complaints.

Nurse Molly Fallon has the dumped bikes make it difficult to negotiate the footpath. Picture: Thomas Lisson

They’re supposed to be a cheap way to get from A to B around Sydney, but inconsiderate share-bike riders dumping bikes in roads and footpaths have led to a spike in complaints.

New data from complaints service Snap Send Solve has shown an 80 per cent jump in complaints from August to September this year. Lime, which operates through Uber’s app, saw the biggest rise in complaints of all the operators.

The flood in complaints come from frustrated Sydney locals like 27-year-old nurse Molly Fallon, who is sick of tripping over piles of bikes on her commute to work.

“I feel like I’m always walking in the roads, you see them pushed over and it takes time to get around them,” she said.

“The footpaths aren’t wide enough to push a pram down sometime in Surry Hills … so when there’s a bike completely crossing your path, I just don’t think the people who use them care.”

Molly Fallon says London’s strategy of bikes being parked in designated racks works better. Picture: Thomas Lisson.

Ms Fallon, who hails from London, said her home city’s strategy of housing share bikes in designated racks rather than on the side of the road wherever they are last used would be a better solution for Sydney.

It’s not just Ms Fallon who is seeing more and more bad behaviour with the share bikes.

Waverley Council, which five years ago declared war on share bike operators by promising to impound damaged or dumped bikes, has seen another increase in complaints.

Dumped share bikes on Elizabeth St in Surry Hills.

A council spokesman said 40 complaints were received in the past 12 months. “Share bikes have been an issue for Waverley in the past because they were being abandoned in high numbers and their distribution was not being properly managed,” a spokesman said. “We have noticed an increase recently in inconsiderate placement of share bikes, often in places where footpaths are blocked, restricting access for wheelchair and pram users.”