City region is branded worst in Europe for eco-friendly transport
www.theguardian.com
Embarrassing...
“And there are still problems, like the Bee bikes. Last week,
Transport for Greater Manchester admitted that 564 out of the 1,000-strong fleet were out of action, blaming “wilful and malicious damage”. “
There was a Bee bike dumped near my house in Burnage, Trashed and damaged. They will be pulled eventually just like the Mobike's were.
“The Greater Manchester Cycle Hire Scheme,” Nickson says, “has been hugely popular so far, with almost one million kilometres ridden since its launch, and the majority of people are using the bikes as they should.
“Unfortunately, a recent spate of vandalism has meant that fewer bikes are available than normal and we would like to apologise to anyone that has recently been unable to access one.
“TfGM owns and manages the scheme, which is operated by Beryl, and we are working together to restore the availability of bikes as soon as possible.
“The increase in vandalism has resulted in a backlog of bikes in need of repair in the Trafford depot, as well as those in need of routine maintenance. Beryl has increased depot resources to speed up bike repairs and get them back out on the network for people to use.
“In addition, we have been experiencing increasingly high demand for our bikes, with usage around three times higher than expected, and following the opening of thirty new stations in the last month in Trafford and Manchester city centre we are also seeing a change in how they are being used.
“We would appeal to the small minority of people are misusing the bikes to please respect them and help us ensure our bikes remain available for other people to use.
“TfGM is working closely with Greater Manchester Police through the TravelSafe Partnership to minimise incidents of vandalism, theft and anti-social behaviour.”
No specific answers there and the message ends with an appeal to bike abusers to stop and be nice.
Nope, it means there are scarcely any bikes to hire.
One of the flagship Greater Manchester travel schemes, Beryl bikes, is presently not fit for purpose
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