Inner West Taking Lead on Bike Share Regulation
Inner West Council will bring together metropolitan councils to develop a regional response to bike share schemes that are spinning out of control on Sydney streets.
Mayor of Inner West Council Cr Darcy Byrne said that commercial bike share schemes offered an opportunity to increase the take up of cycling and to combat congestion in the city.
However, the success of the schemes hinges on proper regulation and control of the bikes.
“We would love to see successful bike sharing schemes operating in the inner west,” he said.
“It’s great to see commercial operations moving into Sydney, but we need a consistent regulatory framework across the metropolitan area.
“We have to protect the safety and accessibility of our footpaths and roads.”
The chief issue of the bikes is what people do with them when they are finished.
“People are just parking bikes wherever they finish their journey,” said Cr Byrne.
“Councils need to come together across Sydney to figure out a consistent way to allocate spaces for bike parking.
“We need simple and sensible rules of the road which will protect the accessibility of streets across Sydney, whilst allowing bike share operators to succeed and grow.
“Allowing a free-for-all with no allocated parking or protections for residents will only result in the industry losing popularity and losing patronage.
Inner West Council has met with two of the major bike-share providers, Obike and Ofo.
Council will now be convening a meeting with all operators as well as Waverly, Randwick and Woollahra Councils and the City of Sydney to develop a workable system of regulation for the whole of the inner city.
Obike has been in operation in the inner west since mid August 2017. Council Officers have already met with them to ask that Obike provides a plan around how they will deploy bikes and respond to issues.
Ofo has approached Council and suggested a regional response to bike sharing.
Reddy Go also have bikes available in the inner west.
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