Bike share workers allege wasteful destruction of 400 Biketown bikes

Gen 2.0 bikes in 2020. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Employees of Shift Transit, the company that operates Portland’s Biketown bike share system say they were given an order to chop 400 bikes in half with a table saw and throw them away.

The allegation was shared with BikePortland anonymously because the workers say they’ve been threatened with legal action if they speak out.

Lyft, the company behind Biketown, hired Shift Transit in March 2023 to operate the bike share system. Shift Transit refers to themselves as a “leader in bike share services” and manages 60,000 bicycles, scooters and other vehicles in 10 cities across America.

11 days ago a Shift Transit employee messaged BikePortland on Instagram with a troubling allegation. The employee said one worker was told to “throw away 400 bikes that could be donated or at the very least recycled for aluminum.” The worker allegedly chopped the bikes in half with a table saw and left them in a pile — even after telling their boss they felt doing so made them uncomfortable and went against their code of ethics.

“[The worker] was told they don’t have a choice,” our tipster said.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation hasn’t responded to a request for comment and I’ve so far been unable to contact Shift Transit’s Biketown general manager.

Asked to respond to the allegation, Lyft shared this statement:

“The local operations team recently decommissioned some damaged and unusable bikes. The team ensured that usable parts were salvaged for reuse, and parts that could not be reused were recycled where possible, while some parts had to be scrapped.”

That statement differs from the allegations from the Shift Transit employee (who also said they’re currently involved in a labor dispute with the company over unrelated issues).

“It’s pretty shitty they’re just throwing the bikes away, unwilling to recycle,” the employee shared. “Basically, it’s PBOT money getting wasted and all the workers are pissed about it.”

It’s unclear why bikes were decommissioned or destroyed. They could have outdated hardware or other issues that Lyft has deemed would be more expensive to fix than repair. It might also have something to do with what appears to be a new version of Biketown bikes that are about to hit the streets. Today on the BikeLoud PDX Slack channel I came across a graphic of what appears to be a new Biketown model that’s significantly different than the second generation models we have now. The photo shows a grey bike that’s known as Lyft’s “Cosmo” version currently used in New York City.

In 2021, when PBOT had a large number of outdated, first-generation Biketown bikes gathering dust in a warehouse, they opted to donate them to a bike share system in a city in Canada.

I’ll update this post if/when I can confirm any further details.

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, contact me via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a paying subscriber.

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Beth H
1 month ago

If this is true it’s a horrible look for an already beleaguered agency.

Jeremy
Jeremy
1 month ago

This is one of the problems with having for-profit companies running publicly-funded programs without sufficient oversight and audits. So much waste.

Stephen Gomez
Stephen Gomez
29 days ago
Reply to  Jeremy

Unless something has changed, there’s no public funds in Portland’s bike share program.

dw
dw
1 month ago

The other night I saw a Biketown bike that someone had torn the battery, cell receiver and rear fender/lock off of so they could use it like a regular bike. Honestly not bad as a regular city bike. Too bad they couldn’t do something like that – though, sanctioned – and sell them off for cheap. I’d buy one for $100, it would be a great guest bike for friends visiting.

Kangas
Kangas
1 month ago

Hopefully the “table saw” part isn’t right!

I mean, technically, you can cut aluminum with a table saw. Been there, done that, pro tip: don’t do that. For this job you’d have to jack the blade sky high and remove all of the safety to get halfway through one of those bicycle frames.

On the other hand, if someone was thinking through worker injury liability as hard as they were thinking through disposed product liability, the job (and liability) would have been outsourced. That’s something for their current and aspiring employees to consider.

Cale
Cale
1 month ago
Reply to  Kangas

I bet they meant demo saw, agreed on table saw likely not being correct.

was carless
was carless
1 month ago
Reply to  Kangas

Maybe a chop saw, but does it really matter?

Dan
Dan
1 month ago

Table saw is not the first thing I’d think of to use for this, interesting. Why not an angle grinder or sawzall?

Nick
Nick
1 month ago
Reply to  Dan

If you’re already at the point of deciding to chop up 400 bikes, it wouldn’t surprise me if the same sort of critical thinking skills lead you to telling someone to use a table saw to do it.

Dan
Dan
1 month ago
Reply to  Dan

I’d go with the sawzall for sure. The suggestion that they were using a table saw is the real scandal here.

Will the last bike commuter turn off their lights
Will the last bike commuter turn off their lights
1 month ago

“Profit over People” should be Portland’s new motto.

Lois Leveen
Lois Leveen
1 month ago

Or just “Property over people.” I mean, we need a lot of (mostly free) public parking to make sure privately owned cars have a place to live. But those people without access to stable housing? Let’s just demonize and criminalize them!

Rh
Rh
1 month ago

Maybe it’s just me, I miss the first generation analog bikes. Cheap, fun, and parked in a dedicated bike town rack. Progress??

mosmill
mosmill
1 month ago
Reply to  Rh

They should have kept (at least some of) them and added the e-bikes (Montreal has a mixed fleet, as I’m sure do other cities).
But they could also be parked out of the biketown racks. Back then, however, a membership waived the ‘out-of-station’ $1 fee; now everyone pays.

Bike Guy Ty
Bike Guy Ty
1 month ago
Reply to  Rh

Yeah, I don’t understand why Portland only has e bikes in their fleet. In Both Chicago and San Francisco, which both have “Lyft Bikes”, have analog, “simple” e bikes (the ones here in Portland), and this newer generation. In very flat Chicago, I love the analog variety, and I wish I had that option here.

Steve
Steve
1 month ago
Reply to  Rh

Free rides each day with a membership was the absolute best thing. I used to ride multiple times a day. Now it’s 1-2x a month.

Zack Rules
Zack Rules
1 month ago

Not surprised because these Watson bikes are older and more difficult to repair. Citi Bike just removed the last of their Watsons for that reason.

Todd/Boulanger
Todd/Boulanger
1 month ago
Reply to  Zack Rules

Zack, I have not heard of these bikes being called “Watsons”. Curious were you saw that term. Thx.

Burner Account
Burner Account
1 month ago

Metal from the 400 bikes in Portland should have been recycled, if it wasn’t then that’s on Shift Transit and Lyft. This is how modern shared mobility operates. Lyft’s first generation of ebikes had to be recalled because of a braking issue that resulted in some serious injuries and lawsuits. They were unable to develop an economical solution so the entire fleet was scrapped and replaced with the next generation ebike that Portland has now. I don’t recall the exact numbers but it was in the thousands. There were 400-500 which were about to be deployed in Minneapolis that had to be scrapped. These were new bikes that had never been ridden. When the Minneapolis system went belly up in 2022, most of the pedal bike fleet went to a metal shredder, probably 1400 bikes in total. The were paid less than $10 per bike by the recycler. The bikes were shredded, aluminum and steel was separated for recycling and the rest went to the landfill. Yes this seems like a terrible waste but it’s important to note that most of these bikes had been in service for 12 years. A small number were sold to the public at very low cost but bike share bikes are not a good fit for private use. For example, without proprietary tooling you can’t remove the wheels so if you get a flat tire, your only option is to patch it while it’s still on the bike. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if your the type of cyclist who thinks owning a 47lb bike is a good idea, then you’re probably not the kind of cyclist who’s down with patching your own flats.

The economics of micromobility are really tough. Often when a system shuts down the bikes are scrapped because it’s more costly to refurbish them for use in another city versus replacing them with new bikes. Having multiple types or models of vehicles in your fleet greatly increases your operating expenses. For example there are few interchangeable parts between the bikes Portland has now and the newest generation of Lyft bikes so they would need to double their parts inventories to support both. Cities or transportation agencies can and have tried to regulate this, penalizing operators for short vehicle lifespans but if this increases costs too much and the system goes bankrupt, then you’re left with nothing and all your bikes will go to the shredder.

Loki
Loki
1 month ago

It’s not wasting PBOT’s money. PBOT doesn’t own the bikes, Lyft owns the bikes. They are allowed to replace them as they see fit at their own expense. I thought people were aware that there is no public money in this system. Not that I agree with that…I think it should be a publicly-owned and publicly-run system. But it isn’t, not really. It’s a public system that is privately owned and operated in terms of the fleet.

mcg
mcg
1 month ago

This is probably why the bikes that used to be all around the Gateway/Hazeldale area have disappeared. Right when I started depending on them being around all the sudden they were all gone with just a few scooters left.

Jeff Rockshoxworthy
Jeff Rockshoxworthy
1 month ago

Funny how e-bikes seem to become obsolete about 40x faster than traditional bicycles.

Beth H
23 days ago

Comment of the week

Josh "Poison" Sumac
Josh "Poison" Sumac
1 month ago

Given how “sensitive” Nike is about its brand / image I can’t help but wonder if that had a lot to do with the destruction. I doubt they’d want undesirables representing their swoosh or particular shade of orange.

Anus Khan
Anus Khan
22 days ago

Agreed, this has more to do with protecting Nike IP, and trade secrets. They’d rather destroy the bikes than allowing the competition to get their hands on the “tech”, even though e-bike tech has proliferated everywhere.