Google headquarters in Mountain View is so large that the company has to offer alternative transportation to get around efficiently. One of those methods is the bicycle. The official fleet has 1,100 bikes available, more than enough for employees and occasional visitors, but there's a small detail: Google is losing up to 250 bikes per week. Who's to blame? None other than the people of Mountain View and other nearby Silicon Valley municipalities, who see the bikes as a kind of acquired right.
In its current configuration, the Googleplex covers 290,000 square meters. Car wash, gym, dry cleaning, sauna, cafeterias, restaurants, individual pools, pool tables and even a volleyball court are part of the facilities. Any exercise enthusiast can walk around without major problems, but in most cases employees need to be more efficient. That's when the bikes, or "Gbikes", come in. Google offers about 1,100 bikes, a number that beyond its good intentions is costing it a lot of maintenance work. Why? Because all of Silicon Valley is stealing them.
That's right, Google has lost up to 250 Gbikes in a week, courtesy of residents of Mountain View and other nearby areas. It's supposed that the bikes should not leave the premises (they have a small sign indicating this), but in the eyes of the locals they are something like a community resource, available without restrictions. A 68-year-old resident admitted taking a bike to simplify her trip between home and the train station, and keeping it overnight. Another person spoke of "whole families" riding Google's bikes, and the mayor of Mountain View, Ken Rosenberg, said he took one of the bikes to go to the movies after a meeting with company executives.
A special team of 30 employees patrols the area in five vans, picking up any bike left far from the facilities, but they know it's a losing battle. Last year, several of the Gbikes were equipped with GPS to monitor their location, and some of them ended up in remote places like Alaska or Mexico. From a certain point of view, one can understand the temptation: the bikes are simple, sturdy, easy to ride, and even have a front basket. Google's next step will be to install smart locks that will only open with the command of employees through their mobile devices. Local police have repeatedly said they will not intervene (checking every Gbike rider's ID to see if they work at Google would be insane), and when Google tried to do it directly, it made mistakes like mistaking one of its employees for a homeless person.
Digital Trends
