Quarter of Bee Bikes already missing for good in seven months since scheme launched

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Data shows that a quarter of the city's Bee Bikes have gone missing and not been found since the launch of the scheme last November.

Environmental Information Regulation (EIR) data obtained by the Manchester Evening News shows that of the 201 Bee Bikes active in Greater Manchester up to 23 June, 58 have gone missing and have not been retrieved. This is equivalent to just over a quarter of the bikes in operation.

Figures also show that there have been 306 incidents of damaged and subsequently repaired bikes since the start of the scheme - this is equivalent to each bike being damaged and repaired 1.5 times.

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Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) said they are "generally very pleased" with how the cycle hire scheme, which allows people to rent out a bike or e-bike for a small charge per minute. However, they did acknowledge that a "small minority" choose to "abuse the system", and said they are looking to reduce bike numbers in areas with high rates of anti-social behaviour.

The highest numbers of damaged bikes were in the Salford area - a patch of the scheme that is relatively small compared to the Oxford Road site. In June '22 alone, there were 42 damaged bikes in this vicinity, compared to 38 on Oxford Road and just 5 in Media City.

The Bee Bikes scheme was introduced as part of mayor Andy Burnham's 'Bee Network', which aims to see all transport in Greater Manchester connected under the same ownership.

It came after Mobike, a privately owned bike-hire scheme, pulled out of Greater Manchester in 2018 following high levels of theft and vandalism. The scheme is managed and funded by TfGM, on behalf of Greater