Inverness e-bike scheme set to return with half fleet from next week after vandalism chaos
The Hi-Bike Inverness scheme is set to return to the streets of the Highland capital next week, after being suspended for a month.
HiTrans, who runs the e-bike sharing network, was forced to temporarily halt the service after an “obscene” amount of vandalism left less than 8 bikes available of its 56-bike fleet.
Chris Finlay, project manager at HiTrans, said the reintroduction will be a “soft launch” which will see some new measures included to prevent further vandalism on the vehicles.
He said: “We have managed to repair all the bikes over the past weeks, however we will reintroduce them gradually to the network so that we have more available in case any need to be substituted.
“We have reduced the basket size to stop them being used to carry passengers. We have also introduced security measures in the bikes and the docking stations to mitigate bikes being stolen.”
Customer service opening hours will also be extended to enable anyone to report when they experience misuse of the bikes or other issues more easily.
“We hope we will gradually go back to full capacity. We have also been working with Police Scotland to identify the people carrying out the acts of vandalism in the first place, and we will be working with Inverness City Centre BID, Highland Council and ScotRail to promote the scheme and reduce the amount of vandalism on our bikes.”
