Dublin bike-sharing operator forced to rename bikes…

Dublin bike-sharing operator forced to rename bikes after backlash

A Dublin bike-sharing operator has been forced to rename bikes after backlash for using the term “ride” in addition to Irish female names.

The issue came to light when Dr Eemer Eivers tweeted about the Moby's use of female names for the bikes. People using the bikes received a prompt to say 'you are riding' the female name of the bike, causing Dr Eivers' reaction.

Speaking to Dublin Live, Eivers said: “I emailed them to ask if they would reconsider reverting back to numbering the bikes which they previously had done, which I thought was a fairly basic request.”

She received an initial response defending the policy, saying that the term was “empowering” for women cyclists.

Eivers said that the problem itself was not that the bikes were named after women, but that the use of the term "ride" was "tone-deaf."

“Anybody in Ireland knows exactly what that term means. I’m sure some people find it funny but it has consequences, especially when women only cycle at about a third the rate that men do. It is massively discouraging for women who want to cycle and move around Dublin City in a safe way,” she added.

Although Eivers had heard reports that the app used both male and female names, she could only find evidence of bikes named after women following an extensive search on the app.

In a statement to the Irish Mirror, the General manager for Moby Bikes in Ireland, David Maloney said that naming bikes is a trend across the industry which encourages more ridership.

“It is standard practice across Europe and the UK that bike sharing apps humanise their bike names to personalise the experience and facilitate easier customer service reporting, rather than users read out long barcodes when reporting issues. In the same way the Irish Navy has vessels named Ciara, Roisin, Niamh and Aer Lingus has planes named Maedbh, Brighid, Ailbhe, we also used Irish sounding names such as Maeve,” he said.

Maloney said that Moby used male and female names for its bikes saying: “We and other operators across the industry have found this to be a fun and engaging way to connect with our customer base as often users will specifically rent the bike with their own name or a name that they have a connection with.”

In relation to some taking issue with the use of the word “ride” in addition to female names used for the bikes, Maloney said that the word “ride” is synonymous within the Micro mobility industry and that almost every piece of data that is shared across the industry has the word 'Ride' within it.

“I understand within Ireland the word 'Ride' has been taken also in a slang manner, however, this has nothing to do with the real meaning of the word which as I say, is completely normalised and synonymous within the industry right across the globe,” he said.

Moby took the decision to remove the names and uses numeric IDs instead following backlash.

“Unfortunately a sexualised or slang interpretation of ‘to ride’, was immediately seized upon and caused outrage on Twitter, while it was also incorrectly claimed we only used female names, when in fact there was a Liam, Luke, Thomas and many more on the app over the weekend.

“However, in light of this controversy, yesterday afternoon we decided that the 350 new pedal bikes in Dublin City are better off being labelled as inanimate objects and the names were reverted to 0051, 0052, 0053 etc,” he said.

Moby is an electric bike sharing scheme that first launched in Dublin in 2019. The company received over 10,000 sign ups in its first year of operations. Moby was also responsible for giving healthcare workers free access to bikes during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

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