A year on from Mobike’s arrival in Florence, the Chinese-owned bike sharing system has taken up the fight against bad parking practices. The cases are many and varied of the orange bikes being left on sidewalks and private properties, in parking spaces and narrow streets, or lazily grouped together in places that impact pedestrian traffic. Mobike’s new Parcheggia Bene campaign is an answer to the problem, which includes raising awareness about proper ways to leave the bike at the end of use by inviting riders to observe a few simple rules, like parking it next to other bikes “in order to create a compact line” or in the areas designated on the Mobike app, which every rider has access to.
“The beauty of station-less bike sharing is that it allows people to leave the bikes anywhere,” says Alessandro Felici, CEO of Evlonet, who distributes and manages Mobike in Italy. “But we want to encourage our uses to park responsibly. Mobike must be synonymous with user responsibility towards society and the environment.”
Part of the new campaign also includes restrictions on the geographical confines of where the bikes can be parked. While riders can travel outside the operative area, the City of Florence, parking is not allowed. When a bike is left in a restricted zone, the rider will be charged 7 euro for its recovery, and in case of a negative balance on their account, the user won’t be allowed to use Mobike until the debt is paid.
