“I was kind of sad, I thought you know if that happens I thought it might ruin the program because this is a good program,” said Rockford resident Carmella Maffei.

Within days of it’s roll out, LimeBike is already experiencing human error. Photos have been circulating throughout social media where a bike was improperly parked and stuffed into a flower pot in Rockford. “We as a city expected there to be some goofballs committing ill mannered, destructive behavior possibly, we think it will be minimal,” said Rockford Alderman Chad Tuneberg

LimeBike representatives say it’s not uncommon for acts such as those to happen when they introduce their bikes to a new city. They plan to have roughly half a dozen crew members on the ground in Rockford in case more problems arise.

“We are also able to track the bikes via 3G and GPS signals so if we see one that’s weirdly out of place we can go out there address it and get it parked correctly,” said LimeBike Operations Manager Will Piper.

Users can also notify them through the LimeBike app by pressing the exclamation point at the bottom left of the screen. “We don’t foresee destructive actions happening often enough that we would need to put ordinances on the books,” Tuneberg said. He says similar incidents won’t dictate the future of LimeBike in Rockford, adding that it is up to citizens to make sure the bikes are properly used and taken advantage of.

“We are expecting citizens to be conscientious where they are parking them,” he said. “Not in the middle of a sidewalk, not in the middle of a street, to make every conscious effort to park them where bikes generally should be parked,” he added.

So far there have been no reports of stolen bikes. Residents can also call 1-888-LIME-345 which is a 24 hour service line to report improperly parked or broken bikes. For those who also want to know where to park the bikes they can watch this video.