London boroughs using the FixMyStreet reporting service have been given a new capability for people to report abandoned hire bikes and e-scooters.
The reporting app – developed by the SocietyWorks subsidiary of civic technology charity MySociety – has been equipped with a new category that can be used to alert operators Lime, Dott, Forest and Tier.
The service was already available to send reports of abandoned Santander bikes to Transport for London.
It makes it possible for the person reporting the issue to provide their details and geographical location through the nearest postcode to a pin on the app’s map.
Nuisance for residents
Angela Dixon, managing director of SocietyWorks, said: “The provision of cycle and e-scooter hire schemes helps councils to support greener local travel and alleviate capacity pressures on peak time public transport services. However, when incidents of abandonment occur they create a nuisance for residents and put an unnecessary strain on council customer services, who have to manually triage reports to their contracted operators.
“We hope this new feature of FixMyStreet and FixMyStreet Pro helps to ease some of that pressure and its associated costs by ensuring reports of abandoned bikes and e-scooters are sent straight to the people who can deal with them, and in turn get neighbourhoods tidied up faster for residents.
“While currently only available in London, we hope to be able to replicate this across the UK in the future for the benefit of more citizens who live in areas where such schemes are in operation.”
FixMyStreet, which was launched in 20077, can be used by the public to report other environmental problems such as potholes, fly tipping and broken streetlights.
