Bike Share Oversupply: Chinese cities aim to rein in bike-sharing boom

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Welcome back to China 24. Millions of shared bikes have flooded Chinese cities, ever since the craze kicked-off last year. Thousands turn into a nuisance, with many broken and discarded throughout the streets. The government is finally responding, new measures have been announced to curb the industry's expansion. CGTN's ZHENG CHUNYING has the story.

Vast piles of impounded, abandoned, and broken bicycles. It's a familiar sight in many cities across China. As bike sharing took off last year, dozens of bike-sharing companies flooding the market and streets, with millions of brightly colored rental bikes, infrastructure and regulations were not prepared to handle such a sudden influx. And the bikes have not been welcomed by everyone.

"Some riders park their bikes anywhere they want, and they don't even park the bikes in a proper manner, they just throw the bikes away."

The built-up mess eventually proved too much for cities to handle. And to tackle this problem, authorities in many cities are stepping up regulations over the bike-sharing market, ordering companies to take responsibility in removing improperly parked bikes and to stop rolling out new batches.

In some cities such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen, authorities require companies to file a request before they can put new bikes on the streets.

In Hangzhou, all bike-sharing companies are forced to cut down the number of their bikes, and the number of shared bikes in Hangzhou is expected to be reduced to some 460 thousand.

WANG ZHENG TRANSPORTATION STANDARDIZATION AGENCY IN HANGZHOU "Now the total amount of shared bikes in the city is too much, but things will change and regulations will be updated. We will try our best to standardize the market, controlling the scale and ensuring the sustainable development of the shared-bike industry."

However, the governments' efforts may not be enough. Every cyclist should also take on responsibilities, so the next time you ride on those colourful two-wheelers, think twice where you leave it so that more people in the city can better enjoy the convenience that bike-sharing brings. ZHENG CHUNYING, CGTN.