City Council confiscates oBike bicycles in Petaling Jaya

Apart from ride-sharing services such as Grab and Uber, Malaysia is now seeing more bicycle sharing services around the Klang Valley. These are great short distance commuting alternatives where you can rent a bike for a mere RM1 for 15 minutes via a mobile app. Unfortunately, the local city council of Petaling Jaya has begun seizing such bikes around their city areas.

According to the Star, oBike is deemed an illegal service by MBPJ (Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya) as they have not applied any license to operate in Petaling Jaya.

The Petaling Jaya mayor, Datuk Mohd Azizi Mohd Zain, said that the council is in support of this idea as another mode of public transport and it can benefit the city but it has to be properly regulated. He added that if there’s no form of monitoring or regulation, things can get out of hand when more bike sharing operators start popping up around Petaling Jaya.

The mayor also explained that there’s no proper regulation specific for bicycle sharing operations but they are working towards drafting it soon. Their biggest concern is obstruction and nuisance to other pedestrian and road users where there are no proper zones for bicycle parking.

When The Star contacted oBike, their marketing manager says that they are working closely with MBPJ to solve these issues. At the moment, there are no regulations or licenses for bicycle sharing platforms at most councils since this form of service is still new. They added that they are allowed to operate at Subang Jaya based on a letter of approval.

To be fair, oBike like Uber is new form of disruption and they operate in a grey area of the law when it first started. The council’s concerns are quite valid as there are incidents of users dumping their bikes irresponsibly. According to oBike, they encourage users to return and lock their bicycles at designated oBike parking zones or at public bicycle/motorcycle parking spaces. We are seeing more bicycle lanes in Petaling Jaya, which is great but we do need more dedicated parking zones.

What do you think of bicycle sharing service? Have you tried it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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