Need a bike? Take a bike!

A few days ago I noticed a couple of brightly colored bicycles just parked near Michael and Tami's house - I couldn't see that they were locked, so wondered about it and asked Michael.

He told us that it was part of a bike-share program and that you could use the bike for $1/hour.

You rent it through an app on your phone and when you get where you want to go, you just leave it.

I have seen bikes in docking stations in other large cities, but looking into this a little - it is a "dockless" bike.
https://www.ofo.com/us/en
So you don't have to find a docking station when you're finished, you just leave it where you are when you're done.

The lock goes through behind the seat through the rear wheel - I didn't notice it from a distance but could see that it was locked when we got up close.

 In looking up information, I found that there are concerns about the bikes being abandoned in inappropriate places (e.g. someone's yard). One of the articles indicated that the company also employs drivers to go pick up bikes if someone complains, and they just cruise around looking for bikes that need to be brought back to a more populated place. The bikes are GPS enabled so users can find one near them... so I would think the drivers could use that capability as well.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/news/bike-share-program-begins-in-mesa-amid-some-complaints/article_48350bea-101f-11e8-9dc9-0724aed70027.html
https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/life/2018/01/24/bikes-lying-around-phoenix-scottsdale-tempe/1048684001/

Sunset on Tuesday night - you can see the "ofo" bike across the street on the sidewalk.

p.s. the bikes were gone when I thought to look on Wednesday - I don't know whether the company picked them up or if someone rode them off to another location.