Police are investigating after more than two dozen bike tires were slashed at a bike-sharing station in East Vancouver.
The incidents at the Mobi bike station on Commercial Street and 20th Avenue happened over several days, according to Vancouver Bike Share Inc. general manager Mia Kohout.
About 30 tires were punctured, says Kohout.
“We took the damaged bikes out of circulation for repairs and reported them to the VPD,” she wrote in a statement.
Police confirm they have received the report and are investigating.
“We motorists want our parking spaces back”: letter
Neighborhood residents appear to be writing letters pleading for an end to the vandalism.
On Wednesday, Julian Mentasti, who lives in the area, saw an anonymous letter hanging at the bike station that read: “Please stop deflating the tires. I need these bikes to get to work.”
The next day, he saw a profanity letter covering one of a neighbor’s letters, which read: “Too bad, so sad. We motorists want our parking spaces back.”
The letter added that instead of using a bike-sharing service, people should buy a car, buy their own bikes, walk, use public transport, or join a car-sharing service.
“I think it’s a bizarre situation,” Mentasti said in an interview. “It just saddens me because a lot of people rely on it [bikes] and if we want more people to cycle and adopt healthy habits, it would be good to have a permanent base here.”
Mentasti sent photos of the letter to his friend, who then posted it to Twitter.
The Mobi station at Commercial Street and 20th Avenue was installed in October 2022 and replaced three parking lots (two regular lots, one for motorcycles), according to the City of Vancouver.
“Of the space on this street that is reserved for vehicle storage, this street accounts for about 25 percent timed parking, 69 percent unregulated parking and 6 percent is the Mobi station, meaning that 94 percent of this street is dedicated to parking dedicated to vehicles. memory,” wrote Kai-lani Rutland, the city’s senior communications specialist.
Lucy Maloney, a Vancouver cycling advocate, says bike-sharing services are useful for many reasons, including allowing people to dock their bikes when they arrive at their destination.
“They don’t have to worry about storing a bike, say in an apartment or possibly unsafe bike storage, and they also overcome the issue of people not necessarily being able to afford their own bike,” she said.
“It’s really extraordinarily illogical to destroy mobi-bikes.”
