The Society has written to RBKC as follows:
Hired electric bikes are still being parked on pavements and in other places where they cause obstructions, and hazards to pedestrians. They are also encroaching upon spaces reserved for residents’ and visitors’ parking.
RBKC has authorised places where these bikes can and should be parked, but they are not always being respected.
We know that the Council has seized more than 1,000 bikes and fined the operators, but it does not have the resources to monitor this irresponsible behaviour on a sufficiently frequent basis. However the hiring companies do have the ability to “geo-fence” the authorised areas very accurately.
If they did this, hirers would not leave the bikes outside those areas because their credit-cards would continue to be charged.
If the hiring companies refuse to do this geo-fencing, their licence should be suspended or revoked.
In the case of the few hirers who would still leave a bike outside an authorised area, a fixed penalty should be imposed on the rider and collected via the credit card which the hiring company has taken, and the bike should be impounded until the hiring company pays for its release.
