In an email to customers, Chinese bike-sharing company ofo announced this week that they will be pulling out of the Seattle market on August 31st, and will be awarding refunds back to customers within 45 days of the official shut-down.

The company cited the new $250,000 annual bike share permit fee as the reason for their departure, but, as Geekwire notes, they've been shutting down operations in cities across the U.S. In Dallas, ofo reportedly dumped hundreds of their bright yellow bikes at a recycling center. The public response to that move was not super appreciative for some reason, and in Seattle, ofo hopes to circumvent that this time around by finding a local non-profit to donate their bikes to.

I, however, have a better idea: Disable the locking mechanism and leave them.

The yellow bikes will become a sort of anti-capitalist DIY bike-share program with no smartphone or data plan required. Sure, some people will steal them, but they probably need a bike anyway so who cares? The ones that aren't stolen will become community property. ofo did not respond to my email pitching this idea, but the company did respond to my Stranger colleague Nathalie Graham (rude): “We’ve started to collect the bikes in Seattle and are still working through the process and determining where the bikes will be donated in Seattle, but as soon as we’ve confirmed I’ll let you know. This whole thing just takes some time but will keep you posted." Sure! Or, you could skip the middleman and just leave them.

Regardless of what ofo decides, I have a suspicion they are not the only company that will be packing up and heading out at some point in the near future. While Seattle has yet to invite electric scooter shares onto our streets and sidewalks, it's only a matter of time before they start to appear. And when given the choice between a heavy-ass bike (even the Lime e-bikes require some physical exertion) and a little scooter that zips up hills, no sweat required, it's hard to see the lowly bicycle winning this transit war.