Tough new penalties to be put in place for oBikes across the nation

Victoria and NSW unveil tough new penalties to stop oBikes from being dumped on streets and in rivers.

Melbourne City Council Deputy Lord Mayor Arron Wood with a collection of discarded oBikes at a depot in Collingwood that will soon be crushed. Picture: David Geraghty.

Abandoned oBikes in Victoria will be classified as litter and their operator will be liable for fines of $3000 a bicycle in the wake of a nationwide crackdown.

The new fines regime announced yesterday by Victoria’s Environmental Protection Agency follows recently unveiled plans in Sydney to fine oBike $2500 a bicycle via a new code of conduct.

Melbourne City Council has been responsible for most oBike collections and Deputy Lord Mayor Arron Wood has welcomed the new fines, set to be introduced from June 6.

“We absolutely support cycling but this business model has not worked. We think literally thousands of bikes have gone missing … many of these bikes have ended up in the Yarra,” he said. “We absolutely welcome these fines … oBike needs to lift their game.”

The bike-share company will have two hours to remove individual bikes blocking the streets or receive a $3171 fine. It will have 24 hours to remove clusters of bikes, and seven days to take oBikes out of rivers and creeks.

The City of Melbourne has collected 134 oBikes since Oct­ober; 82 have been crushed and 52 have been collected by the operator at a total cost of $2600.

Volunteers pulled 76 bikes, up to one tonne’s worth, out of the Yarra last month.

EPA chief executive Nial Finegan told Melbourne’s 3AW radio he was left with little choice as oBikes had not been co-operating with his agency.

“We’ve tried to work with oBikes, we’ve written to them, we’ve tried to get information through statutory notices and so on, to little avail,” he said.

Of the $3000-a-bike fine, he added: “That should encourage them to run their service in a more appropriate way and stop annoying people in Melbourne.”

The EPA has also announced oBike will also face a fine of $3171.40 a week if it does not produce a management plan for abandoned bikes or promote a customer service hotline and email address by June 13.

The NSW government has ­announced it will give councils “enhanced powers” to penalise operators up to $2500 a bike through an enforceable code of conduct.

“The details of the new ­enforceable code and penalty amounts are being developed,” a Transport for NSW spokesman said.

Waverley Mayor John Wakefield from Sydney’s east said he impounded 100 bikes over three weeks, 50 of which had been recovered by operators at $70 each.

“We have had very good legal advice that we could charge ­operators similar fees — $2500 — under preventive pollution ­orders. I don’t know enough to know what is being proposed ­exactly, but we welcome significant monetary fines,” he said.

Inner West Council Mayor Darcy Byrne said it was “absurd” that the state government had spent six months saying the ­dockless-bike industry did not need regulation. “These operators are taking Sydney for a ride. The fine we’re allowed to impose is about $80, but the cost of systematically ­collecting them is much more,” he said.

Victoria’s Environment Minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, said the new rules would help to prevent further oBike dumps across ­Melbourne. “oBikes needs to take responsibility for their bikes and this set of rules will make them do that,” she said.

The Australian contacted oBike for comment but did not ­receive a response.