‘We should have binned dockless bikes earlier,’ admits Dallas transit boss

Micromobility innovations such as dockless bikes have been welcomed by users – but in many cases have been dreaded in the cities where they have been launched, as abandoned bicycles and scooters have caused problems for local residents.
March 22, 2019 Read time: 1 min

It is not just that the mess is unsightly - pavement clutter has already been the subject of lawsuits from disability rights groups.

Speaking at ITS International’s MaaS Market conference in London this week, Gary C Thomas, executive director, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), was asked to highlight initiatives which have been unsuccessful on his watch. “We should have jettisoned dockless bicycles before we did,” he admitted.

While the authorities are keen to create an open culture in Dallas to innovation, it was proof that not everything can work unchecked.

“It was really that free market approach,” Thomas told delegates. “Within a matter of months there were five companies and 25,000 dockless bikes. They were in front of our trains and littering platforms. In a year they were totally gone. You can’t find them now.”

Mass Transit & MaaS

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Technology and finance shapes up to make MaaS happen
    June 7, 2017
    The technology and finance aspects needed for Mobility as a Service (MaaS) to become widely adopted are taking shape as Geoff Hadwick and Colin Sowman hear. Sampo Hietanen, CEO of MaaS Global and ‘father’ of MaaS, started his address to ITS International’s recent MaaS Market conference in London by saying: “All of the problems that can be solved by a company or group of companies have already been solved, and now we are left with the big ones such as housing, transport and health. He called MaaS the “Netfli
    Read More
  • How ITS can help world out of lockdown
    June 2, 2020
    Ticketing, reallocation of street space, transport’s place in urban ecosystems – it's all up for grabs as we emerge from pandemic
    Read More
  • MaaS by any other name
    February 6, 2020
    Has the roll-out of Mobility as a Service stalled - or could it just be that multimodal travel is simply happening under a variety of different names?
    Read More
  • Go Denver opens up a world of seamless mobility and better data-driven decisions
    June 5, 2017
    Denver’s pioneering Go Denver mobility-as-a-service app has attracted 7,000 users in a matter of months. Geoff Hadwick heard how at ITS International’s recent conference. If Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is ever going to work, it needs to have “one universal platform everywhere” according to Sean Mackin, former manager of parking and mobility services at the Denver transportation and mobility department and now Colorado branch manager for ABM Parking & Transportation. Speaking at the recent MaaS Market confe
    Read More

Highlighted Content