I was excited when nextbike launched in Cardiff in 2018, but things quickly went downhill. Due to a bizarre amount of vandalism they had to pull out of the city. This is a video about that.
Here in Chiang Mai 🇹🇭 we have a few racks of 5 bikes available at selected points around the city. Strangely there's little to no graffiti here, and the bikes are not vandalised. I love the respect that Thais have for their culture and historical ephemera, which has allowed rental bikes to survive too. Your video has motivated me to try riding around while the traffic is COVID-19 "light", before the tourists come rushing back once more 😀
Sad. I wonder why locals didn’t like the bikes. We had the same thing kind of happen with the electrical scooters in the States. I thought people vandalized them or threw them away for fun, bc they know they were unlikely to be caught. But in this story, they literally piled hundreds of bikes to, like you said, “make a point”. Do they think the bikes are an eye sore? Perhaps they were economically hurt by so many people using these bike rentals? We may never know. Thanks for sharing this story Andrew, well told.
I thought it was Nextbike who piled hundreds of bikes outside the castle to make a point, not the vandals, unless I’m misunderstanding things. Maybe we can get some clarity on the matter.
I live just below one of the stands, It was kids. I saw a lot of people trying to defend them including one time a biker looking fellow parked up his SUV and started to threaten the kid with a hammer. The kids have no respect. This was probably exacerbated by covid with schools and all the youth entertainment closing.
Thanks Jake! Just to clarify it was the Nextbike company who piled the bikes up to basically say: "look what we gave you and look what you've done." It's difficult to tell why Cardiff turned on them but I think a big part was mindless violence. They were a shiny, new target for that sort of thing.
while working for Nextbike Germany, we did encounter a simillar issue in Cologne (Germany) with people, mainly teens trashing and breaking the bikes open with rocks to ride for free. Out of 3000 bikes we had to repair 1800 and make the east side of Cologne a "No Return Area" for months. I am glad it's over..until some other Video goes viral that shows such vandalism as a "trend". Still a lovely Video :)
Hi. Obviously easy to google.But if you are from Köln:is there a bicycle shop in Köln where it's easy/cheap to rent a bike?Mountain bike perhaps?Thinking of cycling along the Rhine river sometime. Danke.
Fascinating video, love the vibe thanks for sharing!! I used to love the bike share program that they had in the Spanish city I taught English at two years ago. It’s a fabulous way for people to get around.
@@AndrewMadeAFilm It was treated so much better than what your video showcased in your city and it has been around for 7 years now! Plus it’s so inexpensive and an easier (and more affordable) way to move around the city. The city even added addition bike lanes to accommodate for the growing beed of bike share program. Makes me sad that it got so bad in your area that they stopped it completely.
You said it yourself, Cardiff indeed can be a strange city at times. Now, I'm not from Cardiff myself, but I've visited several times in the past. When a similar scheme was introduced here in my city in Slovenia, I was afraid a similar fate would befall it as well, but my fears were unfounded. Since its introduction, the network has expanded to twice the original size, with new stations and bikes being added at least once a year. I really hope Nextbike return to Cardiff and that people realise that rental bikes are not a threat to anyone. Stay safe and much love from Slovenia!
The rental bike problem seems pretty international. It was the same way in Singapore. The bikes weren’t trashed but they were left all over the place. I guess people didn’t treasure the bikes as much because they didn’t own them, which is a sad attitude to have. Also, the Luddites of Cardiff resenting the presence of rental bikes somehow strikes me as a salient metaphor for current events: people taking up arms against a thing that is only meant to help them.
That's a good point. Lots of them ere left in random places far from stations which suggests when people were done with them they were ditched and became someone else's responsibility. a shame there wasn't a feeling of communal ownership. And that is a very apt observation!
What the actual f... lovely video as always, Andrew, but what the fuck is wrong with people? I live in The Netherlands, we do practically everything by bike. You can rent them at most train stations and many other places. Why people hold some sick grudge to bikes is a mystery to me. I do hope that the spirit will turn around, and Nextbike can do their life-improving thing again :)
I've only visited the Netherlands once but it was amazing how many bikes there were on the streets and how much they were embraced by everyone. Is there a similar scheme available where you live or is it unnecessary because everyone has their own bike?
@@AndrewMadeAFilm Let me put ot this way: amount of Dutch people: 17.5 million. Amount of bikes in The Netherlands: 23 million. Yeah, pretty much everyone has their own bike (and regularly an old reserve as well). In all the bigger cities and vacation sites you can rent a bike as well. It was only after I learned of the channel Not Just Bikes how rare our extensive non-car infrastructure is! I truly hope more countries will invest in (safe use of) bicycles.
Teens. Lived above a stand it was not uncommon to hear a banging outside only to look out and see some little [insert your go-to name for suck kids]. I was usually too far away to do anything, shouting would not stop them and by the time I was to them, they would be long gone. Saw enough more upstanding individuals try to defend the bikes with mixed results. The kids just did not care. The optimist wants to say it was just because of closed clubs other distractions what do you do when there is nothing to do. I will not say that the pessimist in me thinks.
Last time I walked around Cardiff, I could walk. What the actual fuck is wrong with people, trashing what now would be my only practical way of getting around the city, overwhelmed by buses as I am. I hope everyone who damaged a bike trips and falls in the Taff.
Is you channel dead? Hopefully it isn’t, because that would be extremely disappointing. Hopefully it’s because your working on something large, that takes a while.
Fideo diddorol. Diolch. Cardiff not good enough. Minority of idiots spoil things for the majority. Really enjoyed discovering Dublin and Belfast this year:nextbike and Dublin bikes. Were any of the idiots/vandals who damaged the bikes punished?! I hope so. Sorry but Caerdydd/Cardiff not very interesting at times.
