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Baltimore's Docked Bike-Share Program (2016–2018)

It lasted under two years. Some cities lost half their fleets to theft and vandalism before the first winter was over.

The Complaints Department

The Complaints Department

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A row of docked bike-share bicycles
Photo: Oran Viriyincy (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Baltimore Bike Share launched with docking stations across the city, and ran into trouble almost immediately — vandalism and theft forced a temporary shutdown and a relaunch in October 2017.

It didn't last. The docked program was permanently discontinued in 2018, and the city moved to dockless bikes and scooters from Lime and Bird instead.

Baltimore wasn't unusual. In Washington, D.C., officials said some dockless operators lost up to half their fleet to theft and vandalism within a year of launch. Vienna seized 780 dockless bikes under a crackdown that pushed operator Ofo out of the city entirely. Sheffield, UK reported vandalism rates on its scheme far above other cities running the same program.

The docks, it turned out, weren't just for parking. They were the only thing keeping the bikes accounted for.

Filed from public reporting:

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