A set of iconic photos from 2017 show brightly colored fields that, at first glance, look like meadows full of flowers. It will take some time to record that the images are not real fields, but ones full of bicycles: hundreds and thousands of bicycles, stacked end-to-end in the places known as China’s bicycle graveyard.
The remaining fields were of a nationwide shop bike sharing scheme. The scheme had captured the imagination of the world for the innovative use of technology including smart digital locks and GPS. The digital lock innovation was a game changer for China, once known as the “kingdom of bicycles”, before its car industry grew rapidly.
The bike sharing schemes provided another cost-effective solution for car travel, reducing traffic congestion in the process. Ofo, one of the country ‘s leading bicycle segment companies, had wanted to showcase a technology – based transportation solution that could meet the needs of people who wanted to travel short distances. They had aimed to match the number of bicycles in service with the number of people in need. The scheme was very successful with investors seeking green transport solutions for China. Ofo was not the only one to attract interest – its competitors such as Mobike and Bluegogo attracted strong interest from venture capitalists and investors.
But while these companies started with healthy balance sheets, there was no regulatory framework under which these bikes could be gradually introduced and integrated into China’s existing public transportation system. When millions of bicycles suddenly arrived there were Chinese cities. The lack of regulation also allowed copycat bike sharing companies to go unchecked, so at one point, more than 40 dockless bike share companies were operating across the country, leading to too many shared bikes.
You may also like:
With the sudden growth of the industry, China’s largest cities, including Shanghai and Hangzhou, had to create their own guides that were intended to fence its players, because by this point, bicycles were damaged, stolen or scratched. At one time, more than 3,000 of these two-wheelers were reportedly found in rivers in southern China after clean-up operations. Bicycles are still found in rivers and vegetation to this day.
The cemeteries where too many bicycles and those causing concern were spilled became a major problem for recycling. The digital locks were complex for recycling, with some bikes even coming with their own miniature solar panels, which would charge the bike’s batteries when not using the two wheels, said Kurt Kamminer, a U.S.-based collector of shared bikes. There were other challenges for recycling as well, including the durable hard tires that were difficult to separate from the frames.