It seems we have come to this. All the ridiculous shenanigans and reckless behavior involving rental bicycles from the likes of ofo, oBike, and what not — they have all led to a Bulgarian hero named Zhivko Girginov taking on the responsibility of scouring Singapore to retrieve damaged rental bicycles.
The 32-year-old, who has lived in Singapore for nine years, is the founder of a group called Volunteer Bike Patrol. As its name suggests, it’s a volunteer initiative that rounds up damaged bikes from bike-sharing companies that have been scattered across the country, thanks to careless users. He started it in September this year, after realizing the problem of discarded bikes being parked in a disorderly manner around neighborhoods was worsening.
According to Yahoo News Singapore, Girginov puts in the time and effort to do this once a month, using a rented lorry to load up the bicycles, which he then deposits at a designated area for them to be picked up.
With the group in its early stages, it’s mostly Girginov and one or two other volunteers doing the heavy lifting, which can take up to 12 hours. Other struggles he faces include finding a spot to park the lorry, locating reported damaged bikes, and bad weather, Yahoo News Singapore noted.
But still, even though he only collects for oBikes (it’s the only one to collaborate with him so far), he remains positive about helping to promote a more civic-minded bicycle community in Singapore.
“Even though I come from another country, I don’t think it matters. After all, we all live here and we want to enjoy good public order. Be it a foreigner or local, we need to care about this,” Girginov said.
“I’m not trying to teach people what to do. If possible, I would like to inspire other people to do this. I’m just showing them it could be done. I don’t want to be the hero.”
So if you’d like to lend him a hand, check out Volunteer Bike Patrol’s Facebook page for details on the next meet-up.
