Dockless bicycles are turning up across Sydney and Melbourne. A well-publicised few are vandalised and dumped. But the big problem isn't the proliferation of these red and yellow bicycles: it's the knee-jerk "lock-em-up" reaction from councils.

Some Sydney councils have reacted to the mistreatment of share bikes by saying they want to confine them to dedicated parking spots and impose fines on operators, or calling for state government regulation - a "solution" that would defeat the purpose and destroy the usefulness of these bike-share networks. It's part of a culture of resistance to innovation in transport that has kept our cities choked by car dependency for decades.

Dockless bike share offers a radical freedom of mobility. When you're trying to move people away from dependency on owning a car, convenience is key. If you've ever ridden a bike right up to the door of your destination, you will understand the incomparable feeling this convenience brings. "Stuff parking a car," you think. "This is the way to travel!" That's the kind of surprisingly different experience that can change travel habits. It can move people away from polluting, noisy, space-hogging cars in a way that riding from one bike docking station to another never can. Look at Melbourne's spectacularly unsuccessful bike share scheme for an example of what happens when you strip away from a bike one of the true joys of using it: the freedom to travel exactly where and when you want to.

Instead of trying to control and repress this free-floating, revolutionary and joyful way of getting around our city, by corralling the bikes into set parking areas, why don't councils work on creating the best possible conditions for it to work?