Waverley Council looking at penalties and new rules for share bikes

WAVERLEY Council is reviewing commercial bike-sharing, including issuing fines and impounding bikes left in dangerous places. They are also preparing a report to assess the demand for the new service.

Pile of bikes at Waverley Park. Picture: Jack Vassallo

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WAVERLEY Council is reviewing commercial bike-sharing, including issuing fines and impounding bikes left in dangerous places.

Council officers are preparing a report to assess the demand for the new service, complaints, guidelines for operators and users, bike storage and more enforcement.

Share bikes at Rushcutters Bay. Picture: Lois Brown.

Former Mayor Sally Betts moved the motion about bike sharing at last week’s council meeting because “Bondi Beach has experienced a large number of these bikes being abandoned”.

“It appears that bike users are riding downhill to the beach and then getting a bus back to Bondi Junction,” she wrote. “Because there are no guidelines for renters of how they should safely leave their bikes at the end of their journey, bikes are being left in the middle of footpaths, at corners near pram ramps and in some cases many bikes are being left carelessly at the same location such as the bus rail interchange.”

Former Mayor Sally Betts has seen a few of the bikes abandoned at Bondi Beach. Picture: Lois Brown.

Some are competing by leaving the bikes in strange places. Picture: Lois Brown.

Bondi ward councillor Leon Goltsman said locals were also having competitions on social media, leaving bikes in unusual places and leaving them in piles.

A council spokeswoman said it would like to see the State Government adopt an approach to work positively with councils and operators.

A bike was left in a peculiar position at Rushcutters Bay recently. Picture: Lois Brown.

An OBike spokesman said they had an open dialogue with councils. “Bike-sharing is still in its infancy stage now,” he said.

“As such, many cyclists are still not fully aware of the correct behaviours required to develop a socially-gracious and courteous community of riders.

“This leads to issues such as the indiscriminate parking and vandalism.”

A ReddyGo spokesman said they would work with councils to address concerns.

“We understand that more operators lead to a larger number of bicycles in Sydney, which will lead to more imposed regulations by the local government,” he said.

Hire bikes over flow out of a bike rack at Goldstein Reserve at Coogee Beach. Picture: John Appleyard

“As a start-up business we are learning from our mistakes every day and are keen to improve our service to satisfy all stakeholders.”

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