Deadline nears but oBikes are still around

Town councils told The Straits Times they have been taking action to remove those that are parked improperly.

oBike announced on 25^th June that it was closing down, and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has set a deadline of 4^th July for the Chinese-founded company to remove its fleet of bicycles.

oBike said it was closing down because of difficulties in meeting LTA's new licensing requirements for bike-sharing firms. The new LTA framework, announced in March, set standards such as capping the number of bicycles offered by each company.

Many town councils said the bicycles are still lying around. Sembawang Town Council Chairman Vikram Nair said, "There are still some bikes around, and I don't particularly see them being taken away. We are still waiting to see if the operator will claim them by 4^th July."

A spokesman for Tampines Town Council said it was difficult to gauge if there were fewer oBikes in the estate, although they were still present as of yesterday. "Nonetheless, the town council is mindful of LTA's instructions to oBike to carry out removal of its bicycles from public spaces by 4^th July. The town council shall be monitoring this interim period," the spokesman said.

Mr. Ang Hin Kee, Chairman of Ang Mo Kio Town Council, said there were 1,600 oBikes in the area as of last Saturday. Around 40 percent were parked improperly, and the operator did not remove them despite reminders.

The town council acted to remove improperly parked or discarded bikes since the operator did not respond.

Mr. Zainal Sapari, Chairman of Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council, said the oBikes in his area were being removed progressively, especially when they caused obstruction.

He said, "It will take some time because there are many bicycles, but what we do is inform the company where the bicycles are."

Dr. Teo Ho Pin, Coordinating Chairman of 15 town councils, said that since December last year, they had informed bicycle rental firms if their bicycles were parked indiscriminately. The firms would normally remove them within four hours.

But if they failed to do so, the town councils would remove the bicycles themselves but not before issuing a summons to the firm. oBike already faces at least $120,000 worth of fines from town councils for indiscriminately parked bicycles, according to media reports. Notices of the fines, some of which date back to 2017, were also seen plastered at the company's premises yesterday.

oBike chairman Shi Yi told The Straits Times that it would not be able to meet the deadline for removing the bikes, but aimed to do so by the end of the week.