
How China’s ‘Unicorns’ Shook a Bicycle Town - jbegley
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/business/china-bike-sharing-unicorns.html
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Nition
Man, what a waste of world resources. Not just all those abandoned bikes, but
whole brand new apartment buildings as well.

Reminds me of this article from last year on the abandoned bikes, which has
some incredible photos: [https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/03/bike-share-
oversup...](https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/03/bike-share-oversupply-
in-china-huge-piles-of-abandoned-and-broken-bicycles/556268/)

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lindig
Will companies making electric scooters be next to be hit by a slowdown in
"micromobility" demand or do we expect scooter rental (and sales) to be a
sustainable business?

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blakesterz
I can't claim I have a very good track record of looking into the future, but,
I'd be really surprised if scooter rental (and sales) turn out to be a
sustainable business in more than just a few random cities.

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inflatableDodo
Scooter and other electric micro vehicle sales are probably only going to
increase. Rental is always going to be an issue. Bicycles have been around a
very long time and yet rental of them has generally only been sustainable in
small tourist hotspots where people are cycling on established sightseeing
routes. In big cities they are trashed or stolen.

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semi-extrinsic
It seems like most flat cities (and even some hilly ones) in Europe have
successful city bike programs running, no?

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inflatableDodo
Where I am in the UK we have a large city bike program. The majority of people
I see riding them are riding 'liberated' ones, which are now more numerous
than ones that can be paid for. Whether you consider this to be a failure
depends on your viewpoint, but from a commercial standpoint I suspect they
will be running at a loss.

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unicornporn
A birds eye view of the catastrophe (yes, I believe that is the correct word):

[https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2018/may/01/unexp...](https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2018/may/01/unexpected-
beauty-china-bicycle-graveyards-share-bikes-in-pictures)

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PunchTornado
dockless bikes are very handy, especially if you're a tourist.

but God, it is annoying when there are many and left everywhere on the
sidewalk.

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lindig
I think the prices for bike sharing are absolutely unsustainable and so I'm
not surprised about the collapse of the market for rental bikes. A bike that
is kept outdoors needs 0.5h per week of maintenance and I don't see that
possible at current prices and with bikes not being in a central location.

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tim333
I used to keep my bike outside and it went a couple of years with no
maintenance to speak of. Maybe some tyre pumping. As long as the bikes are not
vandalised / stolen / chucked in canals etc I think the economics could work.

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lindig
In what climate? Having lived in UK, Germany and the US East Coast with rain
and snow, it would not have worked for me and bikes that are used a lot by
people who are not careful.

