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June 22, 2017

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Home » Opinion » Foreign Views

Cycling fast-track toward a green economy

EVERY time I return to Shanghai I am reminded of how quickly things change in China. The development of industry and growth of population both account for China’s eagerness to evolve and advance. And this is no more apparent in the nation’s rent-a-bike craze.

Last year, when I set out to find the xiao huang che (little yellow bike) that everyone was buzzing about, the few bicycles usually parked on Huamu Road were all taken. When I returned to Shanghai one year later, I was surprised and welcomed to find hundreds of bikes lining the streets — of all colors!

This time I found an available yellow bicycle in no time, opened the Ofo application, input the corresponding bike number, and unlocked the bike with the four-digit code the screen returned. Later that week I tried Mobike: scanned the bike’s QR code, paid via my smartphone, and was all set to go. And just recently, I even tried xiangqi’s electric bike!

In 2010, China overtook the United States to become the world’s largest car market — a main factor in the current pollution crisis. However, by charging 0.5 to 1.5 yuan per 30 minutes, the bike-sharing business is providing an alternative and an incentive to return to the old cycling tradition that once dominated our Chinese streets.

Potential ‘revolution’

A potential bicycle revolution would slash congestion, encourage exercise and reduce China’s carbon footprint. From worker commuters to foreign tourists, the streets are now bustling with millions of cyclists and the bike-sharing business is booming with 13 million registered users and 1 million shared-bikes in Shanghai.

Complaints, however, have ridden along. As much as these bikes are easy to use, they are just as easy to abuse. Last week, when exiting the Metro station, I found a bicycle left unlocked, another’s QR code hidden under an advertisement sticker, trash left in the baskets and bicycles overflowing the sidewalks.

Here, bike-sharing faces a dilemma. A large number of users do not use the bicycles properly and in order for the bicycles to reach their expected lifespan, the damage rate must remain low.

But the users are not the only ones at fault. The cutthroat competition between bike-sharing businesses is creating much more supply than demand. In struggling to oust the other out of the market race, businesses are overflowing pedestrian streets with hundreds of bikes that are often left unused.

Hunter in action

Last Friday, I had a chance to see Zhuang Ji, the first bike hunter, in action. Everyday, he spends one to two hours reorganizing the bikes in front of the Power Station of Art. As the manager of the museum, he cooperates with maintenance workers to make sure visitors have easy access to transportation. Clad in a grey baseball cap, T-shirt, and cargo pants, he helped two personnel, wearing orange Mobike caps, unload 32 bikes from their truck.

Zhuang Ji said that the way most people currently park is legal, but not logical. The white lines designating where bicycles can park take up just under half of the sidewalk. However, there is still not enough space for pedestrians to walk.

Thus, Zhuang Ji believes that users should learn biking etiquette. He joked, “Citizens walk on the right side of a road, but does the government ever write a big, white ‘right’ character on the road?”

As Zhuang Ji was reorganizing the bicycles lining the museum’s front entrance, an Ofo maintenance worker came by, yelling at him to stop what he was doing. However, as an ex-firefighter, Zhuang Ji was not afraid to complete what he believed was the right thing to do. The Ofo worker failed to understand why Zhuang Ji would sacrifice his working hours to organize bicycles, and accused him of being a Mobike-supporter, who was trying to ruin Ofo’s business.

Next to the event stood a gardener observing the scene and chuckling. He shook his head and said to himself, “Tai duo le, tai duo le (too many).” There were eighty-five blue, orange, and yellow bicycles lining the sidewalk of the front entrance, and more on adjacent streets.

It seemed like the bike-sharing companies were using the flashy bicycles to advertise their businesses, by piling up their bikes: “The more the better. The closer the better.” But the race should not be against each other, it should be against climate change.

Advancements in green technology, like bike-sharing programs, should be supported. They shouldn’t be having a reverse or negative effect.

Bike-sharing, for instance, will only push China towards a greener economy if consumers and suppliers are respectful and take responsibility over misplaced and misused bikes.

Other major cities and colleges could also benefit from a bike-sharing system. For the past few years, students on my campus in the United States have been designing a bike-sharing or scooter-sharing system using student identification cards to unlock vehicles.

Many bike-sharing programs in the United States, however, have failed to garner a large enough pool of users to sustain their business.

Without Zhifubao or Alipay, it would be hard to imagine that bike sharing in the United States could be as efficient and widely received as in China. The efficiency of mobile payment in China is unparalleled in the world. My editor at Shanghai Daily said that he never carries cash on him anymore, because his wallet is online.

Maybe soon, Chinese citizens will not even need keys! Additionally, whereas New York’s Citibike requires users to purchase day passes and park in docking stations, bike-sharing businesses in China like Ofo and Mobike have no time nor docking station constraints. And unlike Citibike’s fee of US$12 per 24 hours, these two businesses often offer rides free of charge!

The next test

Mobike and Ofo have passed the popularity test — both businesses have millions of users. Now they face their next test: safety and regulations.

Bike-sharing companies must cooperate to solve problems bike-hunters like Zhuang Ji are addressing.

Ones currently in development are hong bao (red packets) for bike hunters, free rides for cyclists who park in less-crowded areas (determined with a satellite-tracking system), and instructions on the mobile application that show “what to do.”

Green bike-sharing technologies are profitable. But in the process of making these profits, bike-sharing companies must avoid “polluting” the streets with randomly parked bikes.

Despite these challenges, however, green, sharing-technologies have great potential in China. China has a strong commitment to reducing toxic pollutants in its air. It is not just about a single bike-sharing service or a short-term investment used as a deflection for global renewable energy plans or a cover-up for China’s carbon emissions. It is the beginning of China showing the world that green can be profitable.

 

The author is an intern at Shanghai Daily. Special thanks to Shanghai Daily reporter Zhang Ningning for her help in interviews.




 

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