Dozens of Mobi bike tires slashed in East Vancouver

Police are investigating after more than two dozen bike tires were slashed at a bike-sharing station in East Vancouver.

The incidents at the Mobi bike station on Commercial Drive and 20th Avenue have occurred over several days, according to Mia Kohout, general manager of Vancouver Bike Share Inc.

About 30 tires have been slashed, says Kohout. 

"We have removed the damaged bikes from circulation for repair and have filed a police report with the VPD," she wrote in a statement. 

Police confirm they have received the report and are investigating.

'Us motorists want our parking spots back': letter

Residents of the neighbourhood appear to be writing letters pleading for the vandalism to stop.

On Wednesday, Julian Mentasti, who lives in the area, saw an anonymous letter hanging on the bike station that read, "Please stop taking air out of the tires. I need these bikes to get to work." 

The next day, he saw a letter with profanities covering one of the letters from a neighbour which read, "Too bad, so sad. Us motorists want our parking spots back."

The letter added that instead of using a bike-sharing service, people should buy a car, their own bikes, walk, take transit or join a car-sharing service.

"I think it's a bizarre situation," Mentasti said in an interview. "It just makes me sad because a lot of people rely on these [bikes] and if we want more people biking and building healthy habits it'd be good to have a consistent station here."

Mentasti sent photos of the letter to his friend who then posted it on Twitter. 

The Mobi station at Commercial Drive and 20th Avenue was installed in October 2022, and replaced three parking spots (two regular parking spots, one for motorcycles), according to the City of Vancouver.

"Of the space on this street reserved for vehicle storage, this street is approximately 25 per cent time regulated parking, 69 per cent unregulated parking and six per cent Mobi Station, which means that 94 per cent of this street is dedicated to vehicle parking/storage," wrote city senior communications specialist Kai-lani Rutland.

Lucy Maloney, a Vancouver cycling advocate, says bike-sharing services are useful for many reasons, including allowing people to dock their bikes when they get to their destination.

"They don't have to worry about storage of a bike, say, in an apartment, or with a bike storage room that might not be secure and they also overcome the problem of people not necessarily being able to afford their own bike," she said.

"It's really extraordinarily illogical to be destroying Mobi bikes."