Dockless bike share: privacy and safety concerns voiced ahead of Sydney launch

Cycling advocates and transport consultants have warned that Sydney’s first dockless bike-sharing service will need to resolve questions of privacy, safety and public clutter before its planned launch in July.

A number of dockless bike startups, modelled after services that have become extraordinarily popular in Asia, are launching or have recently launched in Australia.

Reddy Go, founded by Sydney resident Donald Tang, will start in Sydney next month, Fairfax Media reported, while the Singaporean company Obike launched in Melbourne last week in competition with the state’s publicly funded Melbourne Bike Share program.

The companies allow users to locate bikes on a smartphone app and leave them wherever their journey ends, instead of returning them to a fixed docking station as in long-established schemes such as those in London and Paris. The bikes are locked and unlocked with a QR code or combination generated by the app.

Source: Dockless bike share: privacy and safety concerns voiced ahead of Sydney launch | Australia news | The Guardian