Hundreds Of Bikes Dumped At Dallas Recycling Center

[dbnm]

I recently posted about being in San Diego and seeing the mess that has become of ride-share scooters and bikes. I was really shocked by the amount of these two-wheels terrors and how people use them and dispose of them.

Well, this popped up yesterday
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/07/636347531/hundreds-of-bikes-dumped-at-dallas-recycling-center-as-ofo-leaves-market

This is crazy.

[AngryScientist]

quite shameful.

couldnt they at least be donated to good will or some other organization that could get them into the hands of someone who need them?

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2018/08/07/38403360_10215688088148154_1139943870079959040_n-16a41d7dac4994d17403c8ee066e60ffad126595-s300-c85.jpg

[charliedid]

In Chicago the Ofo bikes ended up in the hands of few Non profit bike Co-ops and they are in turn re-donating them. They are pulling all the proprietary stuff that had to do with Ofo.

What a train wreck.

[pjbaz]

quite shameful.

couldnt they at least be donated to good will or some other organization that could get them into the hands of someone who need them?

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2018/08/07/38403360_10215688088148154_1139943870079959040_n-16a41d7dac4994d17403c8ee066e60ffad126595-s300-c85.jpg

They did donate a lot of them, and the ones in the recycling center are the broken ones according to several stories I saw on this in recent days. NPR predictably "buried the lede" by focusing on the few hundred in the recycling facility in the headline and not the fact they did donate tons of them, OR that Ofo pulled out after the local government decided to create a new tax.

From the NPR story - Ofo says that as it shut down its Dallas operation, it donated usable bikes to two local causes: CitySquare and Bikes for Tykes. According to the Dallas Morning News, the company promised 250 bikes to anti-poverty group CitySquare — which has yet to figure out precisely what it will do with them.

A few hundred bikes are a small fraction of the 5,000 bikes, according to the Morning News, that Ofo once had in Dallas.

[dbnm]

I just googled Lime Bikes and they apparently dumped a bunch of bikes in Denver without permission and have done the same in other cities.

While I was in Pacific Beach (just north of San Diego), I saw Bird scooters dumped all over the place, including the side of the beach cliff. They are allowed on the sidewalks and I saw a young girl, about 15 or so, crash into a man who was walking on the boarding. Poor guy got taken out from behind and literally had no idea what hit him.

[bicycletricycle]

I just googled Lime Bikes and they apparently dumped a bunch of bikes in Denver without permission and have done the same in other cities.

While I was in Pacific Beach (just north of San Diego), I saw Bird scooters dumped all over the place, including the side of the beach cliff. They are allowed on the sidewalks and I saw a young girl, about 15 or so, crash into a man who was walking on the boarding. Poor guy got taken out from behind and literally had no idea what hit him.

Bird just dumped scooters in providence.

[AngryScientist]

it sounds like these bikeshare/scootershare programs are near universally mismanaged.

is any US city doing it right?

do these types of programs exist in the European cities?

[DRietz]

it sounds like these bikeshare/scootershare programs are near universally mismanaged.

is any US city doing it right?

do these types of programs exist in the European cities?

I think you mean that the “dockless” shares are mismanaged.

Any docked bikeshare has to be pretty well managed...

[RFC]

Interesting. I'll have to watch what's happening in Phoenix metro. I see them all over and have been told that the program has been very successful and demand is much higher than anticipated.

[Lewis Moon]

quite shameful.

couldnt they at least be donated to good will or some other organization that could get them into the hands of someone who need them?

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2018/08/07/38403360_10215688088148154_1139943870079959040_n-16a41d7dac4994d17403c8ee066e60ffad126595-s300-c85.jpg
The State Capitol complex where I work is about 200m away from our major downtown homeless shelter. I see jimmied OFO bikes every day.
It would be nice if they would just give them away to folks who need them.

[CDollarsign]

In St. Louis a good chunk of the Ofo bikes got donated to a great organization that Buldoogge (where you been? I moved back to STL!) called Bworks (http://www.bworks.org/).

[ultraman6970]

Are so many bikes that you can sell that for weight in a metal scrapping place. They could have at least recover some money from them to buy some pizzas.

[pasadena]

Yeah but you can't use level headed statements of fact with easy tabloid style clickbait.

I'm for any and all bikeshare/alternative transport schemes.They will develop because the market is there.

With anything new, especially on a mass scale, there will be a lot of pushback because change=fear.
Any and all public transport schemes are met with protests and vocal opposition. With bike schemes, the end result is a better quality of life in every place I have personally been.

Any mass move away from cars is okay with me. Even if it's for short trips or tourist areas.
The more that paradigm shifts, the better, imo.

They did donate a lot of them, and the ones in the recycling center are the broken ones according to several stories I saw on this in recent days. NPR predictably "buried the lede" by focusing on the few hundred in the recycling facility in the headline and not the fact they did donate tons of them, OR that Ofo pulled out after the local government decided to create a new tax.

From the NPR story - Ofo says that as it shut down its Dallas operation, it donated usable bikes to two local causes: CitySquare and Bikes for Tykes. According to the Dallas Morning News, the company promised 250 bikes to anti-poverty group CitySquare — which has yet to figure out precisely what it will do with them.

A few hundred bikes are a small fraction of the 5,000 bikes, according to the Morning News, that Ofo once had in Dallas.

[11.4]

Dallas also had almost twice as many bikes as any other city, apparently in the world. Here's an interesting article on the issue:

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/rise-fall-dockless-bike-sharing-dallas/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20State%20of%20Texas%2008-08-18&utm_content=The%20State%20of%20Texas%2008-08-18+CID_cf7f174e0175aba672a69fc798119459&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=The%20Rise%20and%20Fall%20of%20Dockless%2 0Bike%20Sharing%20in%20Dallas

[Tickdoc]

quite shameful.

couldnt they at least be donated to good will or some other organization that could get them into the hands of someone who need them?

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2018/08/07/38403360_10215688088148154_1139943870079959040_n-16a41d7dac4994d17403c8ee066e60ffad126595-s300-c85.jpg

Funny you say that because I was in downtown Dallas about a month ago and there were a metric $**** ton of homeless dudes riding yellow bikes that looked just like those. I'm guessing their public bike plan is backfiring.

[hollowgram5]

Bird just dumped scooters in providence.There's a bar in Downtown San Diego I was in this past weekend offering a new shot.. they are calling it "Flipping the Bird" in response to the scooters.

I got a chuckle out of it.

[joosttx]

Funny you say that because I was in downtown Dallas about a month ago and there were a metric $**** ton of homeless dudes riding yellow bikes that looked just like those. I'm guessing their public bike plan is backfiring.

It’s a disaster. I went to Highschool in Dallas and my high school friends post a lot of memes about these city bikes. There are two things that bring Dallas folk together 1) Dallas Cowboys 2) hatred toward these city bikes

[pjbaz]

Hartford, CT, also has Lime bikes as of the last two months or so. So far, I've seen a few broken or beatup ones but otherwise they're being used, and by a lot of city people and school-aged kids which is great. Although, on the first weekend one popped up for sale on Let Go lol

I have the app but haven't ridden one yet. One of my non-cycling coworkers has taken them out a few times, though, so they are being used as intended in some respects.

I think the issue isn't so much that these programs exist, rather, it's that too many companies are just dropping them without the city knowing they're coming. From what I've read (not that many stories) there are several companies in Dallas and that causes a load of confusion and anger. It's a shame.

[MikeD]

I find the whole thing rather sad and a poor commentary on our society as a whole. Instead of providing a reasonable form of transportation, people trash the bikes. This won't work in the US anyway because people are too fat and lazy to ride them, and so dishonest that they vandalize them and have no respect for other's property. Criminals roam free and rarely get caught sealing or vandalizing. They decriminalized car breakins in San Francisco for instance, and these types of crimes are out of control. I don't have much sympathy for China, but clearly those companies lost a lot of money over this.

[joosttx]

I find the whole thing rather sad and a poor commentary on our society as a whole. Instead of providing a reasonable form of transportation, people trash the bikes. This won't work in the US anyway because people are too fat and lazy to ride them, and so dishonest that they vandalize them and have no respect for other's property. Criminals roam free and rarely get caught sealing or vandalizing. They decriminalized car breakins in San Francisco for instance, and these types of crimes are out of control. I don't have much sympathy for China, but clearly those companies lost a lot of money over this.

It did not work in Amsterdam either at least in the 60's when they tried to employ a bike share program. When I lived there the Dutch laughed at the government's attempt to socialize their bikes. - at least that was how it was told to me.

Dallas is not the place for bicycles as transport. Dallas is sprawled out, its either freaking hot, or cold or wet. There are not too many 70F days ideal for bicycle commuting. When the weather is nice, it is too far to get anywhere on a bike in a reasonable time. I dont think fat and lazy has to do with why the bike share doesnt work. I dont think Texans are by culture lazy people. I think characterizing them as hard working by culture is a better description. Obesity is an issue. But being fat should not stop a person from riding a bike a short distance. I saw plenty of fat Dutch people riding their bikes across town.

In Junior High and most of Highschool I didnt own a car, so I biked everywhere. I biked 7 miles one way to play basketball and I biked 15 miles one way to highschool when I didnt ride the bus. That is ridiculous mileage to get around and an illustration of the sprawl (which has gotten worse) of the DFW metroplex.

One last thing regarding decriminalization. It is not exclusively these roaming criminals that a vandalizing these bikes. It is everyone in Dallas doing it. Everyone hates them.

[redir]

Sounds to me like 'dockless' is the problem. Who ever thought that was a good idea?

[MrDangerPants]

Bird just dumped scooters in providence.

They did the same thing in Cambridge and Somerville (https://boston.curbed.com/2018/8/1/17635604/cambridge-bird-scooters). Neither municipality was very pleased.

[MikeD]

Sounds to me like 'dockless' is the problem. Who ever thought that was a good idea?


I agree. I see the docked type in NY and SF. They don't appear to be clogging the sidewalks. There also doesn't appear to be that many of them either, which is the other part of the problem. Not sure if they get used much either. When I was in Manhattan, I didn't think it particularly safe to be riding a bike in the streets there that mostly lacked bike lanes.

[Mark McM]

A couple of questions about dockless bikes:

Can they be used without a smartphone (and a dockless bike specific app)? Can they be used without an electronic payment system?

It seems that the possession of a corporate tracking and personal information gathering device, um, I mean a smartphone, is becoming a necessity to interact with even the simpliest utilites of our modern world.

[biker72]

The Dallas Morning News reported that there were closer to 20,000 bikes in Dallas. I still see them abandoned on the sidewalks in various suburbs.

[charliedid]

A couple of questions about dockless bikes:

Can they be used without a smartphone (and a dockless bike specific app)? Can they be used without an electronic payment system?

It seems that the possession of a corporate tracking and personal information gathering device, um, I mean a smartphone, is becoming a necessity to interact with even the simpliest utilites of our modern world.

You already know the answer to that ;-)

[charliedid]

The Dallas Morning News reported that there were closer to 20,000 bikes in Dallas. I still see them abandoned on the sidewalks in various suburbs.

Wait, 20,000? You have a link?

[biker72]

Wait, 20,000? You have a link?

Second paragraph.
Here (https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/08/06/ofo-play-dallas-rules-tossed-bicycles-trash-heap)

[texbike]

Anyone interested in 1000 new ex-OFO bikes? :rolleyes:

Texbike

[m_sasso]

Somebody appreciates these things, The Bike Share Museum, https://bikesharemuseum.com Some interesting articles there about the state of bike share business, https://bikesharemuseum.com/blog/

https://forums.thepaceline.net/picture.php?albumid=129&pictureid=602

[thirdgenbird]

$100 for a new bike with fenders, a rack, and dynamo lighting?

Yeah, I do kind of want one.

[oldpotatoe]

quite shameful.

couldnt they at least be donated to good will or some other organization that could get them into the hands of someone who need them?

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2018/08/07/38403360_10215688088148154_1139943870079959040_n-16a41d7dac4994d17403c8ee066e60ffad126595-s300-c85.jpg

West Dallas Bike Co-Op..

Disregard..I guess they did donate some..thanks pjpaz..

[nickl]

Dallas also had almost twice as many bikes as any other city, apparently in the world. Here's an interesting article on the issue:

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/rise-fall-dockless-bike-sharing-dallas/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20State%20of%20Texas%2008-08-18&utm_content=The%20State%20of%20Texas%2008-08-18+CID_cf7f174e0175aba672a69fc798119459&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=The%20Rise%20and%20Fall%20of%20Dockless%2 0Bike%20Sharing%20in%20Dallas

Lived in the Dallas area off and on over a twelve year period. The wanton destruction of bicycles is not surprising. The DFW metro area overall is likely one of the most uninviting cycling areas in the country.