Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, September 24 2019 – In the last three months the Municipality of Milan, through the local police, has collected 372 bike sharing bikes without fixed parking. The latest recoveries were made last week.

These are the vehicles of the Ofo company, in 2017 among the winners of the Administration's tender for the free standing bike sharing service, which following evident disservices last March had received an initial warning and in May was warned not to continue the service and invited to recover their vehicles.

To put an end to the degradation, and in response to various reports from citizens, the Administration has decided to proceed directly with the collection of bicycles: since July, within the abandoned vehicle recovery plan already active in the city, 372 have been collected, from time to time taken to storage where they remain available to Ofo for 60 days. If the company does not collect the vehicles, they will become available to the Municipality which will decide whether to recover or scrap them depending on their state of conservation.

“The collaboration between municipalities, citizens and local police – says Anna Scavuzzo, deputy mayor and councilor for safety – has made it possible to make the recovery of abandoned bicycles left on the street more efficient. The interventions of the Local Police made it possible to clear the streets of these vehicles, in most cases damaged and unusable. We ask municipalities and citizens to continue reporting in order to facilitate recovery. We are at a good point and we would like to collect them all."

"Free-flow bike sharing is a service widely used by the Milanese and now an integrated part of the Milanese mobility offer - declares Marco Granelli, Councilor for Mobility -, but efficiency and functionality depend on the quality of the companies. Unfortunately one of these it was evidently not up to par, and for this reason the Municipality revoked the authorization and is now recovering the still abandoned bikes to avoid degradation. A special thanks to the citizens who help us with their reports to maintain order in the city".

Please remember that it is possible to report abandoned vehicles on the road, including bicycles with the Ofo sign, to the email address of the local police pl. ufficiocentraleveicoliabandonati@comune.milano.it  who will proceed to organize the collection service.