Beijing’s sidewalks are packed with bicycles, crowded together and sometimes stacked wildly on top of one another in a multi-coloured jumble.
With every other resident in the city of 22 million using a bike-sharing system, people have gotten used to this colourful sidewalk confusion.
The first step is to free one of the bikes from the tangle of metal. Then, the bike’s QR code has to be found and scanned with a smartphone, at which point the lock snaps open – and you’re ready to go.
Once you’ve arrived at your destination, the bike can be locked and left behind. Unlike older systems in many countries that still rely on fixed stations for picking up and returning bikes, the ones in Beijing can be left just about anywhere the user sees fit.
Most of Beijing’s residents approve of the system, including Ye, a local business manager. Standing in front of a row of yellow bikes, the 25-year-old raves about the convenience they offer.
“We want to head in the direction of Wangfujing,” he says, referring to the capital’s most famous shopping street. “But the metro station there is still a long way from our destination, and it would be too far to walk.”
Up to the 1980s, China was known as the ‘kingdom of bicycles’. But the country’s rapid economic growth soon made it a nation of proud car owners, and the bicycle was displaced as a primary means of transportation.
Then, three years ago, the freely parked bike sharing system surfaced in China – and is now conquering cities around the world.
In Beijing and other major Chinese metropolises that suffer from terrible traffic jams and smog, shared bikes have quickly become an important means of transport.
But cyclists need to stay sharp as they make their way through thick traffic and compete for space with polished limousines, tall SUVs and long buses. On Chinese roads, survival of the fittest is still the rule, and cyclists who hesitate will be mercilessly pushed around.
The city’s countless electric scooters are also a force to be reckoned with, as they dart through narrow streets and gaps almost silently. In addition, since many Chinese city dwellers didn’t learn how to cycle at an early age, some cyclists meander unpredictably through the already chaotic traffic.
Twenty-six-year-old Shi uses the bikes every day for her commute. While she finds the system practical, she doesn’t understand why her fellow citizens park them so carelessly.
“Many people just drop their bikes wherever it’s convenient, without worrying about others,” she says. “And if they fall over, they don’t care.”
To the chagrin of many residents, footpaths and squares have been transformed into a jungle of spokes, handlebars and frames. In places where there is no getting through, some locals resort to force, tossing bikes into heaps and perhaps even stomping on them in a fit of rage.
Other cities abroad have had similar problems. In Munich, for example, the Singaporean company oBike is pulling about 6,000 of its almost 7,000 rental bikes from the streets; ultimately, the extent of vandalism and resulting maintenance costs was deemed too high.
But what is considered an unbearable mess in Munich would hardly be worth mentioning in China – in Beijing, 2.4 million rental bikes reach 11 million users.
As Ye and his friends unlock their bikes and get ready to take off, the 25-year-old says he can understand that some people are bothered by the masses of bicycles. Even so, his complaint is a different one, namely that the bikes are distributed unevenly across the massive city, and many of them are broken due to a lack of maintenance.
“In many places I still cannot find a working bike when I need it. They are all over the place here,” he says, looking around. “But that’s not the case everywhere. It’s not as practical as you might think.”
Despite these problems, shared bikes are indispensable in Beijing, as they are not only useful but also cheap. The cost of an hour’s ride, depending on the provider, is about 1 yuan – or 0.16 dollars. The fee is paid directly from an account that users set up with the respective provider.
The low prices are the result of a start-up war in which several opponents are competing for investment. While many of the early pretenders have quickly disappeared, the companies Ofo and Mobike are currently leading the way. And their investors are sensing big money in customers’ data.
Ofo is supported by the online trading platform Alibaba and the driving service Didi Chuxing. Mobike, on the other hand, has recently been bought by the major Chinese delivery platform Meituan Dianping – the company behind Internet giant Tencent – for a whopping 2.7 billion dollars. – DPA