Which is exactly the point: I don't use those bikes, and still I have to get them out of my way. That's the nuisance.
That's exactly why parking in such places is illegal in the first place. But with those rental bikes this is very hard to enforce (because it's virtually impossible for the police to tell who parked the bike). And I think Gobee should have been banned in Paris because their whole business model encourages such a behavior in cities where there is so little parking places.
> Perhaps not always right in front of the place one wants to be, but still..
I agree, but that's precisely the issue. The problem here is that the model encourages users to just not care about the bike (because they're anonymous and because they don't care about the bike). Sure, in the end, if users were perfect Gobee would be great. But you know this is never the case as soon as there is some level of anonymity (why do would most websites have captchas then?).
In theory, it should be easy: Gobee has that info. Has the police asked?
How so? Gobee can just check where it was the moment the renter locked it.
the renter is quite likely to be a foreign tourist (fining them is near impossible without the benefit of a license plate like you have with a car).
Gobee uses digital payment systems, which are not anonymous.
(I've talked to the people who move the bikes about this as well, since they have a hell of a time finding them sometimes)
Well, actually, the nuissance of the people not knowing how/where to put the bike away properly and/or being too lazy to do so or just being too selfish and not caring about others at all. Just like there's always this couple of car drivers parking where they shouldn't etc. But with these bikes it's just way easier to do. Just like it's also way easier for you or any one else to pick up the bike and put it away 2m further if that's less annoying, which is what I'd do if it would be in my way.
In the end I think the only solution is a mentality shift and more bikes, contradictory as that may sound. When enough people realize their behaviour is super annoying they might actually do something about it. In cities with a thousand times more bikes than in Paris there aren't too much problems like this because most are in the same boat.
there is such little room in the Parisian streets
Hmm, I'm not sure what part of the city exactly you're talking about and yes there aren't too many official bike parkings but in general I'd say there's plenty of room to tuck away a couple of bikes. Perhaps not always right in front of the place one wants to be, but still..