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The scene at Tsuen Wan Riviera Park on Feb. 18 was not what morning joggers expected.  13 shared bikes from Locobike, the city’s largest bike-sharing operator, were found soaking in sea water, lodged against the breakwaters. This is not an isolated incident. On Jan. 15, video footage went viral on Threads showing a cyclist deliberately throwing a Locobike into a river. “These are basically rubbish,” said Wong Wai‑tung, a Tai Po district councillor. "The way you leave bikes like this; I no longer see them as something valuable.”  Vandalism of shared bikes has been a recurring problem in Hong Kong since 2017, when the first shared-bike service, Gobee.bike, launched in the New Territories – the city’s largest region with the most extensive network of cycling tracks. Within four days of launch, four bikes were found dumped in the Shing Mun River. The operator shut down a year later, citing lack of profit. Shared bikes offer a greener transport mode for residents, but regulating shared bikes remains an uphill battle. Wong helps handle complaints regarding dumped and illegally parked shared bikes in Tai Po. “We sometimes receive reports from residents, especially at weekends, saying they’ve seen shared bikes in the river or left blocking pavements,” Wong said. “There are about two to three such complaints every month.” The problem is more severe in districts with larger cycling networks in the New Territories, such as Tuen Mun, Tseung Kwan O and Shatin, he added. There are now two active shared bike operators in Hong Kong — LocoBike, which has operated since 2017, and HelloRide, launched in 2025.  According to Echo Lu, a HelloRide spokesperson, more than 300 HelloRide bikes have been damaged in the past year, about 10% of its fleet. “The challenges in Hong Kong are more complex than in other …

Advocates and sexual offence survivors on Saturday urged the government to pursue broader legal reforms beyond current proposals at the Sexual Offense Reform Forum. This call came ahead of a government plan to launch at public consultation on the reform of the city’s sexual offense laws later in 2026. The forum examined whether proposed reforms adequately address the realities faced by sexual violence survivors. Jointly organised by the Hong Kong Women’s Coalition on Equal Opportunities and the Equality Rights Project at the HKU Faculty of Law, the event attracted around 200 participants from online and in person. Jessie, a representative of a sexual offence survivors’ advocacy group, called for stronger reforms to Hong Kong’s consent laws, outlining three key changes not included in the Law Reform Commission’s recommendations. Three changes include: silence or lack of resistance must not be interpreted as consent; if consent was never sought, the accused cannot rely on a claim of “honest but mistaken belief” in consent; and the law should provide a clear statutory definition of both consent and the absence of consent. “I went through sexual assault, reported it to the police, and attended court. In the end, the defendant was acquitted because of how the law is written,” Jessie said. She said the defence repeatedly questioned why she did not physically resist, asking why she did not hit, bite or kick the offender, call for help, or leave the scene. “The defence turned the victim’s trauma responses into a weapon,” she said. “This tactic of using trauma against the victim, questioning clothing, lack of resistance, or why the victim did not leave the scene, is very common in court.” Jessie was also asked to recall precise details of the assault, including the number of times penetration occurred, how long it lasted, and how …