oBikes have been described by Melburnians as clutter, litter, a nuisance and even "visual pollution".
Now the City of Melbourne has officially declared them as such, removing bikes it considers illegally dumped less than three months after the bike sharing service began swamping the city's streets.
Several pictures emerged on Friday of the infamous yellow bikes wrapped in City of Melbourne tape declaring them "illegally dumped rubbish under investigation".
A City of Melbourne spokeswoman confirmed the council had begun removing some hazardous bikes blocking footpaths.
"We have made it clear to oBike that we need to protect the amenity and safety of the city while balancing the ongoing need to encourage cycling," she said.
"As part of these discussions we have informed oBikes that too much clutter can cause a hazard and that in these instances we will remove the hazard to maintain public access and amenity."
'lllegally dumped' OBike 'under investigation #livability @nikdow pic.twitter.com/Xu0ybGDjJ3
— Geoff Browne (@CubisticNevada) September 1, 2017
The Singaporean bike share company has been blasted by many Melburnians who describe the bikes as clutter and a tripping hazard. Concerns have also been raised about oBike crowding bike parking.
Melbourne lord mayor Robert Doyle last month told small business operators he was at "the end of his tether", according to a CBD News report.
"We entered these discussions with them in good faith," Cr Doyle said. "They've made promises, including the provision of data and that has not been forthcoming."
"As recently as yesterday, there was real, I would say, anger amongst councillors that they haven't tried to do the right thing."
In an interview with Fairfax Media, Cr Doyle described them as "clutter that must be fixed" and signalled he would ban the dockless share bikes if the problem could not be fixed.
Pictures of the bikes dumped in the Yarra River, in trees, next to tram lines and – as spotted on Friday – on a barge in the middle of Albert Park Lake, have become popular internet fodder.
Councils in Amsterdam and London have banned oBikes in recent weeks, claiming they are a public nuisance.
Wandsworth Council last month confiscated more than 130 bikes and told the company it needed a "drastic re-think" after a flood of complaints, the Evening Standard reported.
Amsterdam city council has also temporarily banned the bikes.
oBike launched in Melbourne in June and trumpeted itself as a high-tech rival to the city's RACV blue bikes thanks to their dockless feature which means they can be parked anywhere.
oBike Australia head of marketing Chethan Rangaswamy acknowledged the company had struggled with "civic awareness" about bike sharing.
"We are actively liaising with local councils to have a sustainable solution to current problems," he said.
oBike says it has an operational team which collects dumped and misplaced bikes.
Hi @obikeau and @yarratrams you might want to collect this bike from stop 126 Montague on the 109 tram line. pic.twitter.com/Nzw1hLPEkt
— threadpaperscissors (@threadpaperscis) July 24, 2017
@AustraliaObike how often do you retrieve bikes? These have been here all week. pic.twitter.com/pFVLALB1rq
— Tathra Street (@TathraSt) August 10, 2017
That's no place to leave an @AustraliaObike pic.twitter.com/KLYs4tdkJr
— James (@jmscws) September 1, 2017
I wish @cityofmelbourne would start impounding these nuisance @AustraliaObike|s; here's 12 in a ~40m stretch: pic.twitter.com/4FHpEIVGJk
— Lachlan Shield (@ldshield) August 29, 2017
Hey @Australiaobike found another one. Am guessing @cityofmelbourne might be ok Although @thereaIbanksy may not.. pic.twitter.com/TkmVOW07g1
— klsinclair (@klsinclair) August 27, 2017