Gold Coast electric bike scheme takes off as council report reveals riders prone to dumping bicycles outside zones

New mapping has revealed where electric bikes are being dumped across the city - as council decides whether to expand the program.

THE Gold Coast’s electric-assist bike share scheme has been a huge success and should be expanded, according to a new report.

But there are two obstacles in the pathway to it being a total runaway success.

Councillors at a transport committee meeting on Tuesday will be given an update briefing by officers on the e-bike scheme first introduced in December 2020. The bikes can travel up to 25km/h and used in a dockless system where they are unlocked by using a Lime App.

The number of bikes in service had increased from 159 to 588 through to July this year, the report says.

The only barrier to the expansion, according to the officer briefing notes, from feedback by residents is the large number bikes being found dumped outside the service area. The other complaint is about the lack of helmets.

Current service areas are from Biggera Waters, Runaway Bay and Arundel in the city’s north south to Robina and Burleigh Waters.

Mapping shows the bikes have been dumped as far north as Coomera and at Coolangatta in the south.

Officers noted there were “potential benefits in expanding to other urban areas to the south, west and the north”.

Some riders are regularly making trips from Surfers Paradise to Burleigh each day but the average distance is 1.48km or a nine-minute trip.

Research shows 52,800 people have used the bikes, travelled 435,700km in a huge environmental win for a city dependent on the motor car.

Deputy Mayor Donna Gates at committee asked about safety aspects in terms of the bikies being collected when outside the designated use zone.

Officers said the operators responded to prioritys calls when the bikes were left in unsafe areas and “outside geographical areas they were sweeped up quickly”.

The vast majority of users were residents and there had been very few complaints, they said.

Cr Hermann Vorster requested a histogram which showed how long bikes had been left idle.

“I just think principally that the route of the majority of our questions,” he said, explaining that his colleagues wanted more information.

Follow @PaulWestonGC