Shared bikes in Beijing subject to new policies

The daily turnover rate of shared bikes in Beijing increased 27.3 percent year-on-year to 1.4 times per unit in the second half of last year, Beijing Daily reported on Wednesday.

By the end of last year, the total number of shared bikes in the metropolis remained stable at around 900,000 units, though the figure once hit 2.35 million units in September 2017, the newspaper said, citing an announcement from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport.

Moreover, the official announcement emphasized Beijing will continue to reject shared electric bicycles, and the authority has started to investigate two electric bicycle-sharing companies, Mango and Peoplego, as their electric bicycles had not been recovered by the end of last year.

Currently, shared bikes from five companies including Mobike, Qingju, Hellobike, Ofo and Bianlifeng, have joined an official supervision and service platform.

Data from the platform showed shared bike daily usage was 1.27 million trips in the second half of 2019, an annual decrease of 20.7 percent. Mobike's daily usage was 839,000 trips, and the daily turnover rate ranked top among the five companies.

This year, company irregularities as well as riders' illegal and disorganized parking will be punished in Beijing.

In addition, Beijing has set 4,325 parking places for shared bikes to carry out a pilot electronic fence program.