In today’s modern world, few things are certain. One thing that is certain however, is the share bike. They refuse to not exist, they refuse to not be in the way, and they also refuse to actually work half the time or benefit society in any way.
I hate share bikes ok? That’s why I’m extremely excited to be writing this important news article right now, because two bike sharing companies are shutting down in Sydney. That’s right! After oBike shut down in Melbourne, it’s finally Sydney’s turn to trim the herd.
Reddy Go (That’s the red ones) have been offering users the opportunity to take bikes from their warehouse in Alexandria for free according to The Australian. The entirely Australian owned company warned members that the company will be restructured very soon too. We actually talked to Reddy Go after they launched last year and they seemed pretty confident about everything, so that’s a shame.
Ofo (I assume this stands for “Oh, fuck off!” – the natural reaction anyone has to leaving the house and finding a third broken share bike in the tree outside their house.) have also announced they will cease operating in Sydney and Adelaide over the next two months.
“As part of this process Ofo will begin to remove bikes from cities and consolidate them to our warehouses.” Spokesperson Ben Shipley told Time Out. This is exciting news for many people in Sydney who are sick of these bikes being left everywhere.
Related: The Inner West Council is impounding all those share bikes littering the streets
Whilst oBike is still managing to hang on at the moment, this is another nail in the coffin of the weird share bike trend that hit Australia over the past 12 months. Whilst everyone had a lot of opinions about the bikes and they appear to be everywhere, it turns out no one was really using them.
Nine News reported that share bikes in Sydney were being taken on 0.3 trips a day… When compared to the average of 2-6 trips a day overseas, it gives you a pretty good idea of why these companies are closing down.
Then again, it’s not really that easy to ride a bike if it’s stuck in a tree, or a river, or missing a wheel, or mangled… So that’s also something to consider.
