ST. LOUIS _ The image seemed to confirm the worst fears about the new bike-share businesses that launched in St. Louis this week.
Just a few days in, there already seemed to be bikes at the bottom of the Mississippi River.
LimeBike and Ofo, two competing bike-share companies, both officially entered the St. Louis market this week. About 1,500 new, bright green or yellow bicycles, depending on the company, will eventually be added to the city's streets.
The bikes operate without expensive docking stations, but instead are tracked using GPS. Customers use a smartphone app to find one nearby. When they get to the bike, they can use a code to unlock it and pedal to where they need to go. Then they lock it up and leave it for the next user.
But after just a couple days, some St. Louis users who pulled up the LimeBike app noticed bike location markers popping up in the middle of the Mississippi.
"This is why we can't have nice things," a few locals posted on social media.
Had someone become enraged at the bikes and chucked them off a bridge? Had they been stripped for parts and left to sleep with the fishes?
No, according to LimeBike.
Teams from the company said they did not find any bikes in the river. Instead, the company said some objects can throw off the GPS devices inside the bikes, which was likely the reason the app showed markers in the river on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, according to company spokesperson Mary Caroline Pruitt. By Wednesday afternoon, the markers were no longer showing in the river.
The idea of some of the bikes eventually landing in the Mississippi is not far-fetched, however. Media in other cities with LimeBike, including Dallas and South Bend, Ind., have shared reports of the lime green bikes ending up in waterways and lakes.
Other common complaints include worries about the bikes being stolen, stripped of wheels or simply causing clutter and laying in piles throughout the city.
LimeBike responds that some bikes are vandalized, stolen or chucked into local bodies of water, but says that's rare. Less than 1 percent of the bikes in the company's fleet have been subjected to vandalism or theft, according to the company.
All LimeBikes are also equipped with anti-theft locks and audible alarms that sound if a bike is moved without being unlocked, according to the company. The alarm also alerts LimeBike officials, who can track the bike using its GPS device.
The parts used in LimeBikes are also proprietary, so if someone steals a wheel or another part, it won't fit onto other bike models, a company statement said.
And as for clutter problems?
St. Louis has imposed regulations barring parked dockless bikes from blocking driveways and other entrances to private property.
The rules also require parked bikes to be upright and to allow at least a 5-foot-wide unobstructed area on sidewalks. The companies must monitor the bikes' locations and move any in violation within 2 to 10 hours after receiving notice, depending on the time and day.
Nathaniel Knoll, operations specialist for LimeBike, rights a few fallen bikes at the corner of Pine Street and Tucker Boulevard on Monday, April 16, 2018. High winds knocked over many of the bikes on the day of their unveiling. Photo by Cristina M. Fletes, cfletes@post-dispatch.com
Cristina M. Fletes
LimeBike also claims its bikes are equipped with sensors that track when a bike has fallen down and says it will monitor where bikes are parked to avoid violations.
If the situation ever gets out of hand, regulations give the city authority to eventually use GPS "geofencing" to require the companies to limit bike drop-offs to specified areas such as street parking spaces that potentially could be set aside for the bikes.
Ofo will charge $1 per hour and LimeBike $1 for each half-hour. LimeBike's app on Thursday showed bikes around the city. Ofo's app didn't show any bikes, but a company spokesman was not available for an update on the company's deployment of bikes.
