Wheels come off Gobee. bike hire service in France

Paris: People wanting to get on their bikes in France have one option less to do so after the Gobee. bike hire service said Saturday it was closing following a welter of thefts and vandalism. “It is with great sadness that we are officially announcing to our community the termination of Gobee. bike service in France on 24 February 2018,” the Hong Kong- headquartered service said. “Over the months of December and January, the mass destruction of our fleet has become the new entertainment of underaged individuals,” said Gobee. bike, which had rolled out 2,000 two- wheelers in Paris alone and had some 150,000 users across France. The company said that “more than a thousand bikes” had been stolen and almost 3,400 damaged nationwide, with almost 300 complaints filed to police and 6,500 repairs needed. Gobee. bike had already thrown in the towel in the northern cities of Lille and Reims as well as Belgian capital Brussels for the same reason. The bright green bicycles were located via a smartphone application and hired for 50 cents ($ 0.6) an hour by swiping a barcode to open the safety lock. The user, who paid a 15 euro deposit, could then leave the bike anywhere, unlocked. “It was sad and disappointing to realise that a few individuals could ruin such a beautiful and promising project. We had to come to the conclusion that it could not be viable and there was no other choice for us than shutting down, nationwide,” Gobee. bike said.