Facebook, with all good intentions had provided bikes to its employees to facilitate mobility within its widespread campus in California. However, these very bikes are now being found dumped in dangerous spots and causing trouble to the locals.
Every month, almost 60 Facebook bikes go missing, even though almost 20 per cent are equipped with GPS tracking devices. But since locals found riding them can be detained by the police, these bikes get discarded all over the place, at bus stops, outside food outlets, in street corners, even in the bay areas and the San Francisco creek. More often than not, their spare parts are also missing.
Facebook is now working on ways to help recover and repair the bikes to placate the locals. Although a feasible and permanent solution is yet to be arrived at.
Residents of the area feel that these bikes are dumped by Facebook employees themselves once they are done using them, while some are stolen from the campus. Since the bikes are not locked, anyone walking around the campus can pick them up and ride out with them and use them in the city. Once the bikes have served their purpose for the users, they tend to get discarded or abandoned, like litter.
