So I’ve been watching the news regarding some of the Bike lane drama in the US, but as an active bike user I have also noticed something weird happening around the city (Hamilton)

A number of the bike racks appear to have been removed from outside some of the larger stores

Now this may seem something small, but there is apparently some part of the planning form overseas to be pushing for vehicles that are able to be tracked via GPS etc

And it has me wondering if it may be part of making something harder to use by making these areas unfriendly for use to push for things that people pair their phones with that are harder to steal because they are digitally lockable, and are also track-able because of the pairing, like e-scooters and e-bikes

What’s the term? **Planned obsolescence **of items that don’t require a digital connection

Has anyone else noticed this happening in their area?

  • Dave@lemmy.nzM
    1·
    11 days ago

    Different company doing the tracking from your phone, they can monetise it at utilise it in other (nefarious) ways.

    I guess that’s my question. Who? And how do they benefit from more GPS tracked vehicles? And how does that party have control over the bike racks?

    Also, a phone is near impossible to get by without. We shouldn’t have to accept our phones are tracking us on someone else’s behalf, but people have to be a little bit more flexible with those, whereas a “smart-rack” which can track bike journeys is more easily determined to be OTT and can be pushed back against.

    I don’t know much about this, like how a smart rack would track your journey, but isn’t the argument that people DON’T want you to bike?

    If such a conspiracy exists, surely this is an oil company conspiracy not a GPS tracking conspiracy?