I recently moved to a smaller city in eastern Taiwan and outside my apartment building are stacks and stacks of o-bikes. I started grabbing them and using them to bip to PX mart and back instead of driving (Iām saving the planet). This old man claims he owns all of the o-bikes , but said it was okay that I ride them, up until yesterday when I saw him kicking the shit out of a stray dog and I got up in his face and embarrassed him in front of his old man crew.
The dude canāt own the obikes right? They are just abandoned, broken bikes that heās stealing/collecting for whatever reason. Iām not going to stop fighting with this dude, but i will stop using his bikes if it is in fact against the law.
TLDR
Whatās the deal with abandoned obikes now? Who legally owns them? Can anyone use them?
Abandoned Obikes are everywhere in Yilan. If you ever get stranded between Yilan city and the coast, I know the locations of a few bikes left to rust by some rice fields.
Interesting. Iāve spotted a couple of decent looking ones in parks near my apartment. If they are all unlocked now Iām going to claim one to use for Liquor Runs.
oBike Singapore went under but the status is indeterminate in other countries. They are still operating in HK and never announced they were closing in Taiwan, but the app doesnāt work anymore. As far as I know, they are all locked and couldnāt be opened without a bold cutter or other device.
As for ownership, they would still be owned by the company, but they were managed by local companies. The āold manā may be claiming ownership based on that. Also, bikes that are seized, and some near me have been, might be auctioned off for scrap. That would make sense if someone is able to ride them without the app. oBike went under in Australia, and I read that several thousand bikes were seized and sold for a few thousand dollars.
Iām thinking about prying one of bike lights off of one.
