Bike sharing in China gone wrong

[sig606]

http://imgur.com/gallery/WBx72

Sooooo much waste, makes me cringe.
"You’re looking at a ‘bicycle graveyard’ on the outskirts of Hangzhou, China. Photos taken above the graveyard show thousands of perfectly good bicycles left to rust in an empty field outside of the busy city. The unloved bikes were seized by police after a popular government bike-sharing program was overrun by private tech companies."

[Rosy]

How times have changed for China.
Seems a shame, surely there are plenty of people who would be glad to have a bike? Where are the entrepreneurs to carry off a few bikes and sell them?
Maybe, the government doesn't allow the bikes to be retrieved by anyone?

[scottish]

It sounds like the original bike programs had 'docks' to pick up and drop off the bikes, similar to what I've seen in Spain.

When the tech companies came in there were no docks for their bicycles, so people locked up their bikes anywhere.   This created disorder (or at least the appearance of disorder) so the police seized these bikes and put them in the graveyard.

Strange problem to have, if you ask me.

[Optimiser]

"More than 23,000 bikes were seized by police and taken to graveyards in March due to complaints about the bikes taking over the city."

Where do I complain about cars taking over my city?

[GuitarStv]

"More than 23,000 bikes were seized by police and taken to graveyards in March due to complaints about the bikes taking over the city."

Where do I complain about cars taking over my city?

Yeah . . . that kinda jumped out at me too.  It sounds like the program was a resounding success.  It was popular enough that people were using the bikes everywhere.

[Debonair]

"More than 23,000 bikes were seized by police and taken to graveyards in March due to complaints about the bikes taking over the city."

Where do I complain about cars taking over my city?

fortunately people don't just leave broken cars all over. We have a small version of that problem with bike shares here in Taiwan.

I have heard it is worse in China.
 

[alsoknownasDean]

The dockless bike sharing is a good idea, but holy crap that's a lot of unused bikes. The companies must have spent a fair bit of money on them.

From what I've seen, the apps encourage users to report broken or locked bikes (and give people 'credits' for doing so).

[Optimiser]

"More than 23,000 bikes were seized by police and taken to graveyards in March due to complaints about the bikes taking over the city."

Where do I complain about cars taking over my city?

fortunately people don't just leave broken cars all over. We have a small version of that problem with bike shares here in Taiwan.

I have heard it is worse in China.

I was under the impression that the bikes were not broken, just parked, much like the cars that line the streets of almost every city.

[9-Volt]

The problem is much bigger than you can imagine. Serpentza on youtube had a great vblog about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdsb2wwn-7g

[Debonair]

"More than 23,000 bikes were seized by police and taken to graveyards in March due to complaints about the bikes taking over the city."

Where do I complain about cars taking over my city?

fortunately people don't just leave broken cars all over. We have a small version of that problem with bike shares here in Taiwan.

I have heard it is worse in China.

I was under the impression that the bikes were not broken, just parked, much like the cars that line the streets of almost every city.

At least here it is a mix of broken and good ones left in random spots. Parking and rules of the road are just diffrent, for example I dont park my bike on the road its not were it belongs. A lack or matinance seems to get to them. I can't speak for China as I have only heard second hand, but all ways a business concern their is how good your relationship is to those in power.

[Johnez]

Good, now they can replace those pesky bikes with invisible, smog free, easy to park cars.

That is a shit ton of bikes, I can see how abandoned bikes everywhere can be a nuisance. Looks like an easy target for scrap metal recyclers...