Residents worried new e-bike program in Surrey is being abused

buzzer.translink.ca | City of Surrey/Instagram

It’s been just a few months since a new sharing system rolled out in Surrey, and a mystery has been brewing after someone spotted e-bikes parked in what they consider an odd place. Now, people are already worried that some riders are abusing the program.

A Reddit user recently shared a photo of four e-bikes parked on the sidewalk of the Pattullo Bridge.

“Bird Bikes and a garbage bin left on the only sidewalk of the Pattullo bridge this morning,” the Redditor wrote.

Surrey’s bike share system was launched less than six months ago, and Bird Canada was selected as its exclusive supplier and operator.

Bird Bikes and a garbage bin left on the only sidewalk of the Pattullo bridge this morning.
byu/downtown117 inSurreyBC

Some people who saw the photo assumed someone may have been attempting to steal the bike and garbage can “and trying to move them across the bridge to New West overnight to sell stuff.”

“This is why we can’t have nice things… Society 🙄,” another person asked.

However, a few others were prompted to ask if the bikes were left there on purpose.

“Do the bikes stop giving power once you leave Surrey? And that’s why they are all left there facing towards New West? Honestly I’m curious,” one person wrote.

So, we asked Bird Canada if the parked bikes on the bridge were the rider’s failed attempts to cycle towards New Westminster.

Austin Spademan, head of government partnerships for Bird Canada, told Daily Hive that geo-fencing is one tool the company uses to prevent people from taking the bikes outside Surrey or the bike share’s service area.

He said the bikes people see near the bridge are just another designated parking area.

“For a lot of people in Surrey, this is their first time interacting with any micro mobility program. So generally speaking, we have seen times where they’ve attempted to do what they wanted to do, because, to them, it’s a bike,” Spademan said.

He added that there have certainly been some bumps in the road since the program was introduced to the city’s most central and densest areas.

Surrey bike share with e-bikes. (Bird Canada)

At times, people have attempted to ride the bike wherever they wanted. In some cases, people who are frustrated abandon their bikes if they’ve taken them out of bounds.

However, that is why Bird Canada implemented a few tricks to incentivize people not to abuse the system.

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For example, in one instance, a rider attempted to ride the Bird Bike across the Pattullo Bridge. As they tried to make it towards New Westminster, the bike’s device would have started beeping. The rider would have gotten a notification to say they were riding in a “no-ride zone” and suggested the rider turn back towards the operational area.

“So the device yells at you … so you can end your ride,” Spademan said. “We’re creating an incentive for you to turn your bike around and go back into the operational area and back to a designated parking area to end your ride.”

Nikitha Martins/Daily Hive

As you get further away from the “invisible fence,” Spademan added, “basically the battery then provides no power to the device, so it becomes exceptionally difficult to ride. It’s heavy … it becomes more difficult the further out of bounds you get.”

When a bike is left behind, Spademan said the user who left it will be charged 30 minutes after the last activity, and the operations team will retrieve the bike.

All that said, Spademan said, “We’ve had really great compliance to the rules and regulations of the program [in Surrey].”

Thanks to the overall positive response from Surrey residents, Spademan added, Bird Canada is even open to expanding the program to service more areas of the city.

However, it is still up to the City to approve any more expansion plans.

Are you a Surrey resident trying to rely less on your car and more on alternative modes of transportation? Tell us about your experience in the comments.