In the past few months, the bike rental business has descended upon our city in a big way:
Three main companies are competing for the market with their silver, yellow, and blue/yellow bikes:
The theory is really good: use your mobile phone to scan the bike QR code, transfer a deposit from your on-line bank to the company, unlock the bike, ride to your destination, engage the lock, pay 1 about RMB per hour, and walk away:
The bikes are intended primarily for commuter use, with an expectation that they will be used at least 4 times per day. But there can be a few problems – like unused bikes cluttering an already crowded sidewalk:
Bikes with missing parts:
Bikes with the lock broken off or painted and stashed in the bushes:
large bikes used by small children in traffic:
or bikes ridden to out-of-the way locations:
Still, it looked good to me and I was happy to try it. Just scan the QR code, download the APP, and enter your Chinese ID card (or foreign passport):
Once you get authorization, unlock the bike and off you go!
IF you get authorization. I’m still waiting, and hope that I will get it before all of the bikes are trashed or stolen!
That is cool! We used some like this in Chattanooga once… maybe not quite as high tech. So they don’t have to dock anywhere? They can just be left wherever?
There are no docking stations, but the bikes are not supposed to be left outside of the 3rd ring road. One company’s app (Mobike) has a GPS locator that allows you to find the closest bike. Because it can be difficult to get a bus or taxi out of the city in the evening, the bikes tend to migrate to apartments on the perimeter. So the companies occasionally collect them up and return them downtown.
Wow! Very interesting concept…