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I post this not to create a controversy, but only because it's an interesting picture and could segue into a discussion of several topics: the problem in economics of planning production based on inaccurate estimates of demand, the problems of over-population, or maybe the problem of why there isn't more of a demand for bikes in urban areas where the convenience and low cost of bike travel is so obvious.
I wonder why they didn't just donate the bikes to the needy instead of junking them?
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.
But it made me think about what we see so much more of right here in North America. Thousands times thousands times thousands of motor vehicles that go to the wreckers, get crushed and flattened and then loaded onto boxcars and barges. Every year.
What happens to all those flattened motor vehicles of ours once the boxcars and barges get to their destinations with them?
I post this not to create a controversy, but only because it's an interesting picture and could segue into a discussion of several topics: the problem in economics of planning production based on inaccurate estimates of demand, the problems of over-population, or maybe the problem of why there isn't more of a demand for bikes in urban areas where the convenience and low cost of bike travel is so obvious.
I wonder why they didn't just donate the bikes to the needy instead of junking them?
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.
China use to use a lot of bicycles, then they could afford cars, then they figured out cars were better than bikes, so they tossed bikes aside for cars.
I walk to work every morning in Beijing and it is true, there are a lot of bikes (mostly) parked on the sidewalk. Some are just dumped and some have fallen over blocking the walking areas. I think the problem is that the whole thing began by needing a deposit of 300RMB and then the usage fee of a small amount. Now, there does not appear to need any deposit so a) people dont care about the bike and b) there is no-one to clear-up the dumped and fallen-over bikes. After the initial companies started up, I suspect there was an investigation by the authorities into the millions of RMB which were deposited by the first customers.
Overnight when people do not need their bikes, there are a lot and our compound now has several areas for them to be parked which does not interfere with perdestrians walking to their apartment building. That is good, and I suspect that it just needs a little while for the hundreds of bikes which are around, to be integrated into society. Mostly people do abide by these parking areas.
However, out on the street near the bus stop for example, there is a terrible mess in the morning before people have taken them to ride to work. Of course, being China, people leave them all over the place and there is no-one to regulate where folks leave them.
Actually, I am pleased that some of the major companies have gone bust since there probably are too many on the streets. Almost every day I see small vans taking bikes from one area of the city to another.
In other countries I feel that there will be tighter regulations put in place. It IS a good idea but the practicalities have to be sorted out to allow the idea to work properly. Maybe China is the guineapig for the idea and other countries will look at the problems we had/have and make a better roll-out of the hire bike facility.
... Of course, being China,..... there is no-one to regulate where folks leave them.
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Thanks for the interesting post and insight into an aspect of life in China.
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.
But I digress.
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