Nothing to see here, move along!!

Thanks to Kelly for sending this brilliant shot from Columbia Heights.

spotted in Georgetown last weekend

Been getting a lot of emails from folks passing on this Verge article:

“Dockless bike-share service leaves France after ‘mass destruction’ of its fleet

Wrecking bikes has become ‘the new entertainment of underaged individuals,’ the startup says

Hong Kong-based bike-sharing service Gobee is shutting down in France after suffering what the company is calling “mass destruction” of its fleet. Gobee, which had 2,000 bikes in Paris and claimed around 150,000 users across the country, says 3,400 of the company’s bikes have been damaged and more than 1,000 have been stolen, according to The Guardian.”

I’m imagining s/he rolling luggage along side them while they bike to catch their flight. We’ve seen stranger things. Thanks to Hillary for sending.

Photo by PoPville flickr user Joe Flood

“Dear PoPville,

I came out of a meeting in Dupont to hop on my bike to my next meeting to find a Mobike on top of mine. I pulled it off and tried to go on my way but the back tire wasn’t moving because the Mobike had broken my back brake and smashed it into the tire to the point that it can’t move! Now I also can’t easily push my bike to a shop. Has anyone succeeded in getting Mobike assistance in repairing the bike or at least identifying the Mobike user who did the damage?”

“Dear PoPville,

Here’s a video showing a team of guys stealing a bag from a car parked in Shaw. This happened Monday around 3:40pm. Hopefully MPD has asked that bike share company for the account information used to rent the bike.”

Of course it seems possible…: “Here is a dockless bike share seen last night outside safeway on the Hill. This guy must have really wanted it to bother spray painting it like that. He forgot the back of the seat though.”

“Dear PoPville,

We live in a rowhouse in Petworth and it appears our neighbor is renting out the alley space behind their house to one of the dockless bikeshare companies called Ofo. Every other day another batch of 7-8 bikes shows up on the small strip of land between their fence and the street. The bikes are occasionally blocking traffic in the alley and can make it difficult for other neighbors to park.

Is this legal? Can one rent out this space to a private company? If they don’t have a permit, would DCRA or DDOT be the enforcement agency in the District to deal with these bikes? Any advice your readers have would be helpful.”

From an email:

“2018 is going to be a big year for station-free bike sharing in the US and even bigger for ofo. To kick off the year and share some ofo love, we’re offering free rides in all US cities for the entire month of January.

That’s right, every ofo ride in the DC area in January is free!

As ofo continues to rapidly expand across the country, we wanted to take a moment to thank our first US cities and give something back, so starting today through January 31, all rides in the DC area are on us.

How it works: Read More

Thanks to Eric for sending from Petworth:

“Twas the eve of Xmas, and under the tree
Was a spray-painted (dockless) bike share, unsurprisingly”

Thanks to Katherine for sending from Rock Creek between Dupont and Adams Morgan. Also a good reminder, to not be a dock.