“We also feel that this is unacceptable,” wrote responsible alderman Krabbendam and mayor Penn-te Strake to the Liberale Partij Maastricht (LPM) regarding Swap bicycles “littering” the city. According to LPM, the system is anything but sustainable because more and more Swap bikes come to the city and in the meantime the municipal depot is chock-full of ‘blue-tire bicycles’ due to them being abandoned or wrongly parked. The city had set up a study into “the impact of these bicycles on the city and the environment, into the business implementation of Swap, and the behaviour of the hirers”. They are contemplating possible legal follow-up steps, the alderman writes in his answer to written questions of LPM.
The problem: Swapfiets Maastricht stopped collecting the bicycles six months ago because it is “not cost-effective”. There were clear agreements, but Swap “is not honouring them”, according to the alderman. Of all the bicycles removed by enforcement officers, more than one quarter is from Swapfiets.
On the Swap website, renters are advised to collect the bicycle from the depot themselves (if they are sure that it has been taken by the municipality and not by a bicycle thief). If that doesn't work, Swap will come to their home to deliver another bicycle. They charge 40 euros for this service, including delivery and a new lock.
On Wednesday afternoon, the company informed Observant that there was contact again between the municipality and Swapfiets “and arrangements have been made to collect the bicycles. Swapfiets is happy that they can refurbish the bicycles again and offer them to Swapfiets members”.
In the written questions the LPM refers also to the role of the university, because don’t they have the “responsibility” to speak to students about the bicycle pollution in the city? According to the city, there has been good contact with the university regarding this matter for the past two years. The UM has two depots where students can leave their bicycles when they no longer need them, in Randwyck and at Tapijn. Communication is also clearer: “The university has put up signs indicating where its own bicycle sheds are in order to increase their use and ensure that bicycles are not parked against the walls of other homes. Bicycle coaches are also being introduced.”