Trin Trin, the country’s first public bicycle sharing (PBS) system, which has been operational in the city since June 2017, has been suspended until further notice as part of the precautions taken to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Registered users of Trin Trin received a message about the suspension of services on Friday. “We wish to inform you that Trin Trin operations will be temporarily shut down starting from March 20 till further notice to avoid community spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sorry for the inconvenience,” said the SMS.
Asha Kerakatty of Green Wheel Ride, which operates Trin Trin, told The Hindu that for now, the suspension of services is till March 31, following an order from Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar. “We have been asked to temporarily shut down services till March 31. We will review the situation and consider offering services again from April 1 if there is an improvement [in the situation],” she said.
She said it is not considered safe when the bicycles change hands from one user to another. “It will be impossible to clean them after every use.” Also, Trin Trin will not be able to trace the history of use.
Removed
Soon after announcing the shutdown of services, the Trin Trin bicycles were removed from the docking stations across the city. “We will get them cleaned and sanitised before we bring them back to the docking stations whenever the services resume,” Ms. Kerakatty said.
A total of 450 bicycles are usually available for rent across 50 docking stations in the city. Ever since Trin Trin was introduced in Mysuru in June 2017, more than 13,500 people have registered for the service.
On an average, 1,200 to 1,500 rides are recorded every day. “Most users are students going to schools and colleges, besides office-going employees. Ever since the government declared a holiday for schools and colleges, the ridership had declined by around 40%,” she said. The ridership has been in the range of 600 to 700 in the past few days, she said.
