BCycle docks appear empty and with caution tape in Santa Cruz County

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION-TV) — A troubling development for BCycle riders in Santa Cruz.

Significant theft and vandalism having to do with e-bikes. 

Currently around 100 bikes are unavailable and approximately 20% of the docking stations are damaged, wrapped in caution tape.

"I noticed that there has been more caution tape kind of over the summer," Helena Wehr a frequent BCycle rider said. "Then when school started, I think it really picked up a lot, there's a lot less bikes available and it's just made it harder to kind of get around town, harder to get to work on time, to get on class."

The city says that the increase in theft and damages to both the bikes and their docking stations, has forced them to go offline.

"The last 6 to 8 weeks, we've seen a fairly substantial uptick in the level of theft and vandalism with bicycles," Claire Gallogly Transportation Planner for the city of Santa Cruz said. "The type of theft and vandalism has changed, and it's been now forcibly removing bikes from docks, breaking the docks, damaging the bikes and leading to the docks being out of service."

Some riders have even lost their bikes in seconds.

"It within a minute of me not checking, it got swiped," Cheeto Kassav a frequent BCycle rider said.

For students, BCycle is not just a convenience but a necessity.

Despite the challenges, people remain hopeful about the programs future.

"I ride these bikes pretty often, it's how i get to work and to class," Wehr said. "I'm a student at UCSC, so I try to ride them usually like every single day. I hope that they are able to kind of get more out because I think it's a great way for people to be out and biking."

As BCycle looks to expand into more areas, riders express frustration over the limited availability.

One rider even describing her recent experience trying to find a working dock.

"4 or 5 different stops and we couldn't use any of them around here, so we had to go over the bridge, over to city hall and there was still just one and the rest were covered in caution tape," Kassav said. "My friend had to come all the way back here it just it ruins the whole point of having the docks here."

BCycle is working to redesign the docks making a hardened version that will further deter theft and vandalism.

"They have to get to work to get to school, the grocery store and this has been a substantial disruption in that," Gallogly said. "We do look forward and feel confident, that we're going to be able to get back to the type of system that we know the community deserves."

BCycle is currently in the city of Santa Cruz, the county of Santa Cruz and UCSC, and will be expanding into the city of Watsonville soon.