Too Many Bikes

[Pretzelogik]

We have untold miles of converted "bike paths" in my city that I might see one or two bikes using per day if any at all. Most if not all of these bike paths were created by reducing 4 lane boulevards to 2 lanes with more resultant congestion for cars. This causes more pollution and fuel consumption, you gotta luv the mind numbed politicians.

[ocpaul20]

Originally Posted by guidoLaMoto

How ironic that the last large Communist country has very little regulation... As I've said before about life in America-- nobody under 60 y/o here understands what freedom is.

People on here will probably think I am some Communist sympathizer or something, but I have not seen that much restrictive regulation here beyond what is necessary for any country with a huge population.

Folks from other countries, and I did before I came here, still see China as draconian, but the reality is - living here, I dont see any more than you guys are probably getting these days. In the world news, I am constantly seeing more and more restrictions being applied in other countries like the USA and the UK.

From a governments point of view, I can kind-of see what a nightmare it must be to manage large populations and so I dont think we all appreciate just how difficult it is for any large country.

I think the people of the world are all similar to frogs in a pot of cold water, slowly being cooked...we just dont realise how hot it is all getting.

[guidoLaMoto]

Originally Posted by ocpaul20

I think the people of the world are all similar to frogs in a pot of cold water, slowly being cooked...we just dont realise how hot it is all getting.

I read 1984 as a 12 y/o in 1961-- pretty creepy. I reread it a couple years ago-- even creepier. We're there.

Two questions for you: Is the air pollution in Beijing as bad as our news shows it?... and... would you like to go in partnership and start an American Laundry in China?

ps/ is Peking Man now called Beijing Man?

[pvande55]

Originally Posted by Pretzelogik

We have untold miles of converted "bike paths" in my city that I might see one or two bikes using per day if any at all. Most if not all of these bike paths were created by reducing 4 lane boulevards to 2 lanes with more resultant congestion for cars. This causes more pollution and fuel consumption, you gotta luv the mind numbed politicians.

I haven't seen that near me but plenty of other mistakes in creating bike lanes: failure to have a bike lane on bridges, hard curbs, stop signs when the parallel road has none, lanes through parking lots.

[A1eutian]

Building a network of barrier protected bike paths is the only way that cities will see a significant percentage of cycle commuting. That is decades away for most places. I used to ride to work, but it just got too spooky for me. Every week I had at least one incident where I avoided getting run over because I didn't take for granted that I was seen. Distracted driving is bad and will not get better any time soon.

Even though the odds are low overall of being killed, it happens enough even in "bike friendly" cities. As a driver, I realize that they are hard to see, and some of them blow through stop signs and lights, or speed downhill at 35 mph in city traffic. They ruin it for the vast majority, who are just trying to get to and from work.

[Cyclist1968]

Per the article, it sounds like they are riding their bikes on the sidewalks instead of a bike lane.

this is problematic. They brought in an invention that takes up more space than just a walker would on a busy sidewalk.

Sounds as if they need to work on their infastructure and have the gov't get involved in funding these bikes just as they do for public busses. Sad there were so many companies that too much competition caused them to go bankrupt. Also education upon how bikes are so friendly to the enviornment, etc... might help. Sad story

[ocpaul20]

Is the air pollution in Beijing as bad as our news shows it?... and... would you like to go in partnership and start an American Laundry in China?

You know, last year the pollution was absolutely insane. Up to 450 ppm of 2.5 sized particulates as measured by the US Embassy.

But... to give the Chinese Government their due credit, this year has been another story altogether and the most we have had so far is about 145 which is much, much better. So, I am really pleasantly surprised that something has been done and the pollution is much better. Not perfect, but really a whole lot better. Last year in the winter I could not see 200 yards from my apartment but now I can clearly see the tower blocks in the distance.

Not sure how an American Laundry would work here. Most people I know (middle income group) have a washing machine and the people who cannot afford one probably wash clothes by hand and hang them outside or on bushes. I see university student rooms with windows full of washing and the sun shines pretty much every day. When I came here, I was totally ignorant of culture differences etc and now I can see how, the kinds of business which works in one country is totally useless in another due to differences in the way people live their lives. It is like trying to sell tropical shirts or shorts in Alaska. There would be no demand. OK well it is not always that extreme but you get the idea. However, I am open to ideas and I have had a few ideas myself for businesses but never really got them off the ground.

We have a wide bike lane down the right of the roads here. It is wide enough for cars to go down, and cars to park too. It is fairly scary with all the bikes and electric scooters on the roads but somehow there are not that many accidents. As I said, I walk about 1.5 miles to work each day and the traffic is pretty congested. If there were lots of accidents I would see them all the time, but there aren't. Occasionally the traffic lights get stuck and that is challenging for drivers, but even then, people manage quite well.

[ocpaul20]

Just to answer a few more points made earlier in the thread and to show some pictures found today.

Zoisite

The pictures of that pile of bikes is interesting but honestly I don't think that pile is very big considering how much bigger it could be with a population like China and millions upon millions of bikes being so common there. I think that pile is probably a drop in the bucket for China. In spite of having so many bikes I bet China doesn't have an epidemic of road killed animals like we have on this continent. I'm guessing those bikes will get melted down and then there won't be a lot of metal there to show for it. They are mostly just made out of thin walled hollow tubes after all.

The needy are not likely to have the skills or money to convert them so that they are usable without having the App to unlock them, and a bankrupt company is not going to pay for the conversions. I find it interesting because after the docking bike failure here in Seattle, there are 3 companies with the same dockless bike rentals here. Even last summer with good weather it was rare to see someone using them.
I have no idea how they can all survive financially with all those bikes just parked around the city on sidewalks in the rain.

Docking bikes at charging stations is pointless. The beauty of this hire-ride idea is that you can pick up a bike anywhere someone has left it, pay the rental, ride where you want to go, and then just leave(dump) it there. You dont have to find a docking station which could be anywhere the organisers have placed it. You might as well take a bus if you want to use docking stations.

The App locks are not secured that well. Probably with 4 hexagonal nuts or similar, so it would not be too difficult to get it off and use the bike as normal. I did see one today with a padlock chain around it , made by one of those companies which had gone bust, so people are doing that. The point is that with the bike-hire idea, you do not have to be concerned about your bike being stolen, you dont have to leave it tied up somewhere, and you know there will probably always be one when you need it when you come out from work.

2017 Article in Chinese with more images. (link is probably OK as I have opened it in my browser and no ill-effects)
The article says about 60 companies have gone bust in China over this bike-sharing idea, so you can see just how people think they can jump on the bandwagon and make some money. Although I dont know this, just like in any other country, some people have probably made a lot of money and ran off with it while leaving the company to go down. I just feel a little sorry for the folks who contributed to the venture capital used to start them up.

[ocpaul20]

So now the pedal bike companies here in Beijing seem to have been reduced by natural market forces (as far as I can tell) to 2 - the yellow ones called 'ofo' and the orange/silver ones called 'mobike'. Maybe there are more in other areas of the city.

Ofo is similar to what IBM used to be like.- functional, basic & clunky. The Mobike ones appear to have many iterations with each generation trying out a new feature, possibly to make manafacture cheaper perhaps? The features I can remember off the top of my head are these,
a) solid rubber tyres with holes around the edge of the tyre.
b) smaller wheels
c) wheels with metal wire spokes
d) wheels with 5 orange metal larger spokes
e) basket in front of handlebars
f) solar panel on base of basket in front of handlebars
g) various different saddles
h) totally enclosed chain guard
i) dynamo on rear wheel
j) various frame modifications

[guidoLaMoto]

-all sorts of innovative bike designs: Bicycle Design | The blog about industrial design in the bike industry

I first got interested in home made energy generation when I saw a dynamo on a bike at the bike shop 60 yrs ago-- a little light bulb (how appropriate) went on in my head--"Hey! You can do that?"