Beijing regulates bike sharing to improve bike usage

BEIJING -- Beijing recycled 195,000 broken and abandoned shared bikes during a one-month campaign to regulate the industry in the city, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport said Tuesday.

During the campaign starting on May 13, bike sharing companies dispatched over 2,000 maintenance staff and around 1,660 maintenance vehicles each day. Various districts of Beijing sent over 13,000 inspectors to more than 18,000 areas with a large number of bikes, such as subway stations and business areas.

Currently, a total of 85,000 shared bikes are parked around Beijing's subway stations during rush hours, down 45,000 before the campaign was launched. Despite the plummeting number, bike-share trips have increased and bike use has become more efficient.

To further improve parking order, Beijing municipality has shared around 4,000 parking zones with bike sharing companies. Enterprises are being organized to pilot electric fencing.

Beijing will conduct a monthly assessment on the enterprises, based on which the number of bikes they can put into the market will be dynamically adjusted.

China's bike-sharing business has grown rapidly. It has helped ease traffic jams and promote a healthy lifestyle, but also caused new problems such as random and arbitrary parking that created challenges for city management.

Beijing has registered nine bike sharing companies and more than 1.9 million shared bikes as of the end of April. However, active bikes only account for less than 50 percent, according to April statistics.

In September 2018, Beijing municipal authorities set a limit on the number of shared bikes in the capital as the industry continued to grow.