Andy Burnham has appealed to the people of Greater Manchester to stop vandalising Bee Bikes after a recent spike which has left most of the rental bikes requiring repairs. The Greater Manchester mayor said he does not want the city-region to gain a reputation as a place that 'can't have good things'.
It comes nearly five years after Mobikes were removed from the city due to vandalism and theft. The Chinese company behind the bike-sharing scheme suspended its service after around 15 months on the streets of Manchester.
But the latest cycle hire scheme, which is run by British firm Beryl, is backed by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and is part of the Bee Network – the new London-style public transport system which is being rolled out in the city-region. Mr Burnham insisted the Bee Bike scheme has been a 'success' so far.
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However, he said the recent rise in vandalism is a 'really sad state of affairs'. He said: "These are your bikes, everybody. They're not some private company's bikes. They're your bikes. They're the city-region's bikes. And they're there to make life better for everybody here. When they get damaged, it's like we're damaging our own backyard.
"Sadly, I think it was linked to some of the big events in the city in June. There was just a huge spike in damage and that has taken bikes off the road temporarily.
"Please look after it everyone. We want a city-region where people have got choices to get around. They're a really cheap way of getting around. If you damage one, you're just taking away people's ability to use one.
"I know we had Mobike and all that experience. Let's not get this place a reputation for being a place where you can't have things like this, you can't have good things because they just get damaged.
"We're better than that, aren't we? As Chris Sutton would say. We're better than that. Come on. Protect this bike scheme.
"Let's not have a culture of casual vandalism. We are definitely, definitely better than that. And I'm making an appeal to everybody here to actually look after the Bee Bikes.
"They're going to be a big part of the Bee Network. They're going to help people get around more cheaply, mixing it with tram and bus.
"We need you to look after them. While it's not all vandalism, a large part of it is and we need to change that."
Mr Burnham said the Bee Bike scheme is outperforming TfGM's own estimates and similar cycle hire services elsewhere. There are now 62,563 active users of the scheme which launched in late 2021, according to TfGM.
So far, more than 1m kilometres have been cycled on the Bee Bikes with usage around three times higher than expected throughout May, TfGM says. In April, there were around 1,000 bikes available as part of the cycle hire scheme.
But as of June 23, there were 564 bikes in the depot waiting for repairs or maintenance with just 379 out on the network. This does not include the Bee Bikes which have gone missing – a figure which TfGM has not yet disclosed.
