Shared bikes in Singapore used as clothing racks, dangled from bridges and abandoned at shipyards
Bike-sharing operators deploy marshals around Singapore to retrieve bicycles, some of which turn up in surprising places
By Cynthia Choo
A bicycle locked outside a flat and used as a clothing rack; another dangling from a bridge, just above a pond. Others left behind in shipyards.
These are just some of the bizarre places where shared bicycles have been found, bicycle marshals and operation leaders in Singapore told TODAY.
Hired by bike-sharing operators, these marshals are deployed across the island to locate and rearrange indiscriminately parked bicycles, repair damaged parts and redistribute the bicycles to areas with high demand. Most use a mobile application to locate these bicycles.
Operator Ofo, for instance, deploys around 200 part-time bicycle marshals and operational zone leaders daily. The team is split into six zones around the island, with each leader overseeing an area.
“The bicycles don’t get rearranged magically. Someone goes around to tidy them up … we are committed to growing the marshal team if necessary,” said the bike sharing operator’s head of policy and communications for Southeast Asia Christopher Hilton.
Mr Lim How Kiat, 28, an Ofo zone leader in charge of the Central region, covering the Marina Bay and Suntec area, had once found a bicycle that was dangling from a bridge.