Han Ximin

    ximhan@126.com

    APP-BASED bike operators have signed a letter of promise to promote the healthy development of app-based bikes, maintain orderly transport commuting and solve illegal parking problems.

    In the letter, the operators including Mobike, ofo, bluegogo and Xiaoming Bike signed to actively cooperate with the government to regulate parking of app-based bikes and set up preferred parking locations in business, office and housing estate areas.

    The operators will set up management teams to regulate illegal parking, and tighten inspections to ensure the bikes won’t affect pedestrians, motorists and the city’s landscaping.

    The operators will set up a rating system of bike users and a mechanism shared between the bike operators to control random parking, sabotage and other uncivilized behaviors.

    The latest statistics from Shenzhen’s transport commission show there have been around 300,000 app-based bikes put on Shenzhen roads since they were first put into the Shenzhen market in October last year. The popularity of the bikes caused the problems of illegal and random parking and drew complaints from the public.

    In Wanxia Park, Nanshan District recently, more than 500 app-based bikes, operated by Mobike, ofo, Bluegogo and Xiaoming Bike, were piled up by security guards and cleaners for randomly parking and blocking firefighting passages and causing inconvenience for nearby residents.

    Some operators have adopted a blacklist mechanism for users that have illegally parked bicycles.

    Bikes that are parked outside of public bike-parking areas or on sidewalks and greenbelts, blocking the way of pedestrians and other vehicles, will be deemed as illegally parked.

    Mobike, the largest app-based bike operator that has put 12,000 bikes in Shenzhen, adopted a credit system on the basis of 100 points. Users can get one point added under normal conditions, or 20 points deducted if they park illegally in restricted areas. If a user has less than 80 points, their riding fee will be 100 yuan (US$14.56) for every half hour, instead of 1 yuan. Those who blow the whistle on parking violations by sending photos to the Mobike app will be given credits.

    Xiaoming Bike also introduced a similar mechanism to punish random parking. Every user has 100 points on the app’s credit system, and 50 points will be deducted if a user is found to have parked illegally, causing the user to have to pay a higher fee for renting a bike the next time.

    The transport commission said yesterday it would unveil rules governing the management of app-based bikes, and push forward the construction of bicycle lanes, including greenways and complete facilities for bicycle parking near bus stops and Metro stations.

    This year, the commission will complete construction of 100 kilometers of bicycle lanes, bringing the total length to 2,400 kilometers. The lanes include greenways, independent bicycle lanes and shared lanes with pedestrians.