News / Transport
YoBikes no longer available for hire in Bristol
Bristol’s dockless bicycle hire scheme is no more, with YoBike quietly pulling the plug on their operations in the city.
The YoBike website has been deleted but the app is still available to download.
Customers across Bristol are now asking how they can get money back which is still on their accounts within the YoBike app.
Launched in a fanfare of publicity in 2017, the scheme was quickly beset by problems including theft and vandalism.
In 2019, a teenager admitted killing a motorcyclist in Hartcliffe by deliberately putting a YoBike in his path, causing a fatal collision.
Theft and vandalism were constant problems for YoBike – photo: Bristol24/7
Unlocked via an app, YoBikes cost £1 per hour to use. They needed to be left at designated locations, unlike in other cities like London where ‘Boris bikes’ need to be ‘docked’.
In August 2019, YoBike pulled out of Southampton, the second UK city they launched in, after less than a year of operation.
Dumped canary yellow bikes are still a familiar sight across Bristol.
No-go areas meant that bikes could be picked up and left, for example, on Clarence Road in Redcliffe but not the other side of the banana bridge on York Road in Bedminster; with Southmead Hospital within the map but not Southmead, nor Henbury, Sea Mills or Stoke Bishop.
The bikes did become such a recognisable part of Bristol’s cityscape that they featured in music videos:
Bristol24/7 has attempted to make contact with YoBike operators to confirm if they have left Bristol and how customers can get their money back from the app if so.
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read more: Could coronavirus signal the end for YoBike?
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