Bike Sharing: double-edged sword for Chinese public traffic

Bike sharing is one of the most significant innovations over the past several years in China.

With just an app and bundled authentication, anyone can use the GPS tracker on bikes to find a nearest one and rent it for a minimum of 0.07USD/hour. The cheap and fast usage has helped to solve the “last mile” problem from subway stations to doorsteps, so that more and more people give up driving vehicles and switch to public transportation.

However, oversupply, indulgent parking and overuses are ruining limited city public spaces and causing a huge waste of resources. Millions of shared bikes are parked along roadsides, making the streets even more congested.

One creative commercial solution is to provide coupons: as long as users can park the bicycle well in the area designated by the municipal administration, they will receive a discount for the next riding. More than that, according to my personal experiences, supported by AI and Big Data Mining, leading bike companies like Mobike are trying to predict the proper supply of each blocks and hire more workers for regulation.

It is more cost-valuable than governmental renting bikes? To be observed…