Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/06/30/look-at-the-public-bike-purgat.html
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There are, you know, 9 million bicycles in Beijing (thats a fact).
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bikes? I see no bikes. I loved the accompanying photo of a Matisse, though
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This is why we — all humanity — can’t have nice things.
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I see a pretty butterfly.
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The lazy approach to returning the bikes is an interesting development. Don’t most contemporary bike-share companies require a deposit - which I assume is a thing in the US, but who knows about other regions?
I remember Gainesville, Florida tried a “yellow bike” program that utilized the lazy approach for a time in the 90s - grab a bike and ride it to wherever you like, leave it for another person to use - but it failed very quickly because of hoarding by the homeless and parts cannibalism by bike thieves (Of course. Gainesville’s a college town).
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Amsterdam brother. Amsterdam.
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Came here to say just this. Thank you.
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In my Chinese city, you check out your bike electronically with a card. One would presume that if one never checked the bike back in, one could be charged with stealing it.
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What about it?
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Is there a way around that with throw away or stolen cards?
Or just messing with the security hardware?
I’ve never used the system, so I don’t know. It’s automatic, no one is checking your ID, but I suppose there could be a pass code.
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I thought just levering out the pin which holds the bike in place.
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Maybe. The bike depots are generally in well-lit populated places, but maybe one could get away with it in certain locales or at night.
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Bike sharing works just fine some places. Down to the local culture if it will work or not, and nothing else. They are only a sixth of, not all of, humanity.
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Yeah its failing here in Melbourne because people who want to ride a bike, already have bikes. In London recently I was surprised to see normal people getting around the city on public bikes. They seem to be in competition with rail, taxis and uber.
Nice to see China has their bike problems to counter our horrific unreturned shopping cart epidemic.
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It’s worse in Beijing. Whole sidewalks are blocked with bikes and parked cars, e-bikes, and motorcycles.
