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One Mobike incident a day was reported to Manchester police during bike-share firm's time in the cityMoBike in Heaton Moor (Helen Kevill).jpg

One Mobike incident a day was reported to Manchester police during bike-share firm's time in the city

Police said they had been “committed” to working with Mobike
by Alex Bowden
Sat, Oct 13, 2018 11:11
9

Between July 2017 and August 2018, Greater Manchester Police were called to more than 400 incidents involving Mobikes. The force recorded 274 of those as crimes.

Mobike pulled out of Manchester at the start of September, saying that losses resulting from vandalism and theft had rendered its operation in the city “unsustainable.”

Speaking at the time, Greater Manchester cycling and walking commissioner Chris Boardman said antisocial behaviour was not a problem unique to Manchester. “It has been encountered in other UK cities and other bike operators have found ways to deal with it.”

He added: “The problem here has been that we just haven’t seen the right level of engagement from Mobike or a willingness to work to implement tried and tested solutions.”

Chief Superintendent Wasim Chaudhry said Greater Manchester Police had been "committed" to working with Mobike before the firm’s departure.

"When we were made aware of incidents involving their cycles, our approach was to investigate reports of suspected theft and vandalism just like we would if someone made a report about their own bike."

The BBC reports that 124 Mobike-related crimes were listed under "criminal damage and arson offences," while 87 bike thefts were recorded.

Other offences involved suspected offenders used Mobikes to get around and "rowdy or inconsiderate behaviour."

A Mobike spokesman said the firm was "very grateful" to Manchester for being the first city in Europe to host the scheme.

He said that both Mobike and the authorities had "learnt valuable lessons that will help cities continue to make urban life more sustainable through cycling".

Mobike
Manchester
dockless bike share
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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9 comments

Avatar
vonhelmet | 6 years ago
0 likes

Dockless bike schemes are crap. You’re just asking for the bikes to go missing. You skip out on paying for the docking infrastructure and without that the system is destined to failure.

Can anyone give an example of where a scheme like this works?

Avatar
NPlus1Bikelights | 6 years ago
0 likes

It was just a good excuse to move the fleet somewhere more profitable with less expense fixing bikes. This is only about investment and returns. Ofo in Norwich increased the number of bikes so they could say usage rate per bike was too low and leave, which they did in the middle of an already paid for marketing campaign in Norwich. I personally won't miss them (I was never their target audience) because so many were left on cycle paths and in ridiculous places. They did however, move, recover and fix them well.

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longassballs | 6 years ago
0 likes

Think the truth is somewhere inbetween

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Zermattjohn | 6 years ago
1 like

This scheme was unfortunately always doomed in Manchester - nothing gets the hordes of scallies there frothing more than the chance to steal something, anything, and if it's a bike they literally can't sit still. Proof here: even when the bike itself is barely rideable by someone taller than 5'8", can barely get above decent jogging pace and has solid tyres that makes riding it on any of the roads in Manchester utter misery they just have to nick it. I imagine if you put anything there that's vaguely nick-able this will be the result.

Unfortunately I know what I'm talking about, having lived there for nearly 20 years. 

Avatar
davel replied to Zermattjohn | 6 years ago
2 likes

Zermattjohn wrote:

This scheme was unfortunately always doomed in Manchester - nothing gets the hordes of scallies there frothing more than the chance to steal something, anything, and if it's a bike they literally can't sit still. Proof here: even when the bike itself is barely rideable by someone taller than 5'8", can barely get above decent jogging pace and has solid tyres that makes riding it on any of the roads in Manchester utter misery they just have to nick it. I imagine if you put anything there that's vaguely nick-able this will be the result.

Unfortunately I know what I'm talking about, having lived there for nearly 20 years. 

Nonsense: as St Chris says, Manchester is no worse than plenty of cities. Mobike have made a tit of it. They admitted defeat a while before pulling the plug completely, when they withdrew the boundary to the city centre. It's been half-arsed and they were looking for excuses. 

Avatar
FlyingPenguin replied to davel | 6 years ago
0 likes
davel wrote:

Zermattjohn wrote:

This scheme was unfortunately always doomed in Manchester - nothing gets the hordes of scallies there frothing more than the chance to steal something, anything, and if it's a bike they literally can't sit still. Proof here: even when the bike itself is barely rideable by someone taller than 5'8", can barely get above decent jogging pace and has solid tyres that makes riding it on any of the roads in Manchester utter misery they just have to nick it. I imagine if you put anything there that's vaguely nick-able this will be the result.

Unfortunately I know what I'm talking about, having lived there for nearly 20 years. 

Nonsense: as St Chris says, Manchester is no worse than plenty of cities. Mobike have made a tit of it. They admitted defeat a while before pulling the plug completely, when they withdrew the boundary to the city centre. It's been half-arsed and they were looking for excuses. 

Only if plenty of cities mainly includes Caracas, Cape Town, Detroit and Homs... 3

Avatar
davel replied to FlyingPenguin | 6 years ago
1 like

FlyingPenguin wrote:
davel wrote:

Zermattjohn wrote:

This scheme was unfortunately always doomed in Manchester - nothing gets the hordes of scallies there frothing more than the chance to steal something, anything, and if it's a bike they literally can't sit still. Proof here: even when the bike itself is barely rideable by someone taller than 5'8", can barely get above decent jogging pace and has solid tyres that makes riding it on any of the roads in Manchester utter misery they just have to nick it. I imagine if you put anything there that's vaguely nick-able this will be the result.

Unfortunately I know what I'm talking about, having lived there for nearly 20 years. 

Nonsense: as St Chris says, Manchester is no worse than plenty of cities. Mobike have made a tit of it. They admitted defeat a while before pulling the plug completely, when they withdrew the boundary to the city centre. It's been half-arsed and they were looking for excuses. 

Only if plenty of cities mainly includes Caracas, Cape Town, Detroit and Homs... 3

Disagreeing with me is normal. Disagreeing with St Chris is heresy. 20 hail marys and 3 cat & fiddles, my child. 

Avatar
bob.sweet | 6 years ago
0 likes

Well done Zebulebu,

I was just going to say something along the same lines.

 

bob

Avatar
Zebulebu | 6 years ago
3 likes

"When we were made aware of incidents involving their cycles, our approach was to investigate reports of suspected theft and vandalism just like we would if someone made a report about their own bike."

Really? When my mate had his bike nicked from Manchester, the police *literally* told him they didn't have the resources to investigate.

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