Massive Success of Sharebikes Causes Headaches
In just over a year's time, bike-sharing has become a runaway success in China; users have flocked in droves to the convenience of using a bike for which they don't have to be responsible. And yet, at the same time, this key feature of bike-sharing causes public headaches with bike-sharing companies trying to alleviate concerns about the rapidly-growing industry.
At a consumer rights conference last week, China's top bikeshare companies promised their customers that their deposits and remaining funds may be refunded at any time.
Mobike, Ofo, Bluegogo, Unibike, and Youon all jointly made this promise in the wake of mounting media concerns over customer deposits, a mandatory step in bike-sharing. Mobike requires users to pay a RMB 299 deposit, while Ofo requires a deposit of RMB 99 from its users.
The companies' pledge to unconditionally return customer funds comes despite the fact that many interfaces of their respective apps lack a button that allows a customer access to their own money. When addressed at last Thursday's conference, company representatives suggested their customers to contact their customer service.
However, the promise isn't good enough for the Beijing transportation council. In light of numerous complaints over broken bikes with malfunctioning smart components, the council said a law to protect consumer rights is forthcoming that will apply to all bikeshare companies and their products.
In the meantime, the public also has some issues to deal with as a result of the bike-sharing boom. The hassle has been growing throughout China, as well as here in Beijing, where upwards of a thousand shared bicycles have overtaken a downtown bus station, leaving, little room for buses and commuters to maneuvre.
Located east of Beijing's Guomao area, commuters to the Bawangfen East bus station have widely adopted the use of shared bikes. However, the traffic of shared bikes coming into the station greatly outnumbers the flow heading out. After a year of bike-sharing, the steady accumulation of shared bikes at the station has gotten so severe that it is impacting bus service.
Compounding the situation is the traffic barrier extending from the adjoining Dawanglu Station. As parking for shared bikes continues to rise, the available space for buses and even pedestrians withers away, packing them both into increasingly confined quarters.
Mr Yan, a driver for the local #815 bus, said shared bicycles have adversely affected the safe operation of buses. "Originally there were two exits available for buses, but now there is only one due to the invasion of the shared bikes," said Yan.
Mrs Su, an elderly volunteer who works at the busy transportation hub that links commuters with the far-off eastern Beijing suburbs of Tongzhou and Yanjiao, said the situation "has already become a disaster."
The problem is worse at night when volunteers like Su aren't around to move around improperly parked bicycles.
So far, Beijing has dealt with the "scorge" of bike-sharing by cracking down on bike parking in Xicheng, banning shared bikes from 10 high-traffic areas. However, city officials have relented and are allowing local bike parking in four designated areas inconveniently placed far away from any bus or subway station.
The present system of bike-sharing that has caught on with Chinese consumers is "dockless" and allows bikeshare users to park anywhere they want. Enforcing parking bans and the use of bike-sharing docks will definately solve problems for Bawangfen East station, but without this key selling point, sharebike customers may not be inspired to continue to use the service.
For something designed to make life easier, bike-sharing certainly has had an ironic impact.
Who can tell what the future holds as bike-sharing breaks all conventional wisdom.
If the adage "Nothing succeeds like success" can be applied to the massive success of bike-sharing in China, then we'd have to imagine that "Fighting fire with fire" must also hold true, signifying an impossible solution that somehow consists of even more bike-sharing (maybe one where shared bicycles merge together to create one giant bicycle, á la Power Rangers/Voltron/Devastor?).
Images: CB.com.cn, CE.cn
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