Lot’s of things to address here, but quickly:
1) Yes, bike theft from CaBi is a thing that escalated with the introduction of dockless bikes to our market in Oct. 2017. Other factors include increase in “Shake & Take” method success rate with aging stations; and increased Credit Card fraud (which resulted in cell phone authentication last year). Many bikes come back to us after the original use has ended and they are abandoned and reported.
2) CaBi had a couple of staff dedicated to bike recovery in 2018-19, but I don’t know if that task force is still operational, or if those staff were folded back into the rebalancing operations.
3) Don’t have exact numbers, but many bikes were also lost during last summers emergency shut downs during the protests.
4) Yes, please report abandoned bikes. The App is the best tool, but Twitter is another option.
5) There is an equity program that gives users more initial ride time (Capital Bikeshare for All). Please be careful making assumptions about who “looks like” they should have a bike as some of our Community Partners Programs (like Back on My Feet) work directly with the homeless populations.
6) Any REGULAR CaBi bike locked up outside the stations is in violation of the use agreement and should be reported. E-bikes are allowed to be locked away from the stations as long as they are “locked-to” something. You may report “free-locked” e-bikes (i.e. those that simply have the rear cable inserted into the lock, but not locked to anything).
Henry
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