Authorities in Shanghai and Tianjin are to impose regulations on the rapidly growing bike-sharing sector following mounting complaints over an accumulation of millions of the rentable two-wheelers on city streets, state media reported.
The two metropolises have drafted rules that would require operators “to adhere to standards on production, operation and maintenance” of bicycles, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.
The regulations, to take effect on Oct. 1, will mandate a service life of three years for bikes and require companies to hire at least one maintenance employee for every 200 bicycles, it said.
There are now more than 10 million rental bicycles on the streets of Chinese cities operated by more than 30 companies, with leaders Ofo Inc (共享單車) and Mobike Technology Co Ltd (摩拜科技) attracting hundreds of millions of US dollars in venture capital, it added.
Market entrants have flooded streets with GPS-enabled bikes that users can unlock via smartphone apps, use as long as they want and then leave anywhere.
However, concerns have mounted over haphazardly parked bikes cluttering sidewalks, too many operators piling in with little business planning and customer payment disputes.
There were nearly 19 million users of shared bicycles at the end of last year, Xinhua said, citing China’s E-commerce Research Center.
However, it quoted a Shanghai consumer affairs official as saying there were more than 2,600 complaints about shared bikes in the city in the first four months of this year, nine times more than in the same period last year.
Xinhua quoted officials as saying Shanghai had more than a million shared bicycles in operation, which is twice what the city needs, but far too few maintenance personnel to deal with broken vehicles.
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