The rental bikes you might have seen dotted around Sydney or Melbourne are supposed to be the equivalent of Uber for cycling. You open the app and find the nearest bike, scan the code, ride to a location and literally leave it wherever you get off.
They're an easy and cheap method of transport which also doubles as a great way to exercise.
Advert
It seems like the idea behind the bikes came from such a good place - yet some people just don't seem to want others to experience them.
There have been dozens of photos of the bikes being found in all sorts of places in Sydney and Melbourne.
This huge pile was spotted on Waverley Oval near Bondi Beach, with Jack Vassallo uploading the image to Facebook accompanied by the caption: "Marvellous artwork that".
Advert
There have been plenty of bikes thrown into rivers, harbours, trees and even street poles.
Contractors pulled more than 40 bicycles out of the Yarra River in Melbourne in the space of four hours.
Someone has gone to considerable effort to actually bend the metal frame of this bike, rendering it completely useless.
The bikes cost $1.99 every half hour, but a user has to fork out $69 for a deposit with oBikes and $99 for the ReddyGo ones, which is refundable on request. They have GPS trackers, which allows people to look up where each individual bike is on the map.
It's a much freer option to the system seen in places like London, where there are docking locations scattered throughout the city. But the main issue with that is if that particular dock is full, you're forced to ride further away from your destination and possibly pay more money for that extended time.
Regardless of that pitfall, Sydney's Randwick City Council wants that system to stop these bikes being flung anywhere.
Mayor Lindsay Shurey has told news.com.au: "These problems stem from the fact there is no obligation for the hirer to return the bike to an appropriate and secure location.
Advert
oBike's head of marketing, Chethan Rangaswamy, has told AAP: "The reality is that our business model is dockless. The whole concept came out of research in 600 cities that showed people find bikes that aren't locked and parked in a dock station more convenient."
It looks like our cities are only going to get more bikes with the introduction of Chinese company Ofo - great, more competition. They've just dropped 200 in Sydney's Waverly council and another 200 in the inner west.
Sources: news.com.au
Topics: Melbourne, Funny, Sydney, Community, Weird, Australia