Chengdu to pilot free bike-rental program

Announcements were made recently that Chengdu will pilot a free, short-term bicycle-rental program in its southern new area. Concrete details for the program's implementation are to be released as early as next week.

A bike-collection station in Beijing.

Centered around the subway stations in a hexagonal "honeycomb" arrangement, the bicycle-rental stations will be positioned near popular public areas, shopping and commercial centers, and important administrative areas and traffic junctures. The honeycomb layout allows any point to be equidistant from the center.

Residents wishing to borrow a bicycle to ride between a subway station and home, doing shopping, etc. can use their own ID card or other electronic identification cards to borrow bicycles all around the urban district. Bicycles can be returned to any of the rental stations.

Sichuan Provincial standing committee spokesperson Chen Yi stated that "low carbon" is a major theme of future economic development, and that Sichuan should firmly grasp the opportunity to exert its development in such a manner. And that Chengdu, as a major city and the provincial capital, should serve as a role model, and take the opportunity presented by the impending opening of the subway to implement a "low carbon Chengdu."

"The city of Chengdu has already announced that its intention to become a low-carbon city; this is a good start," said Chen Yi.

"In 2010, the opening of Metro Line 1 is one of the city residents' most closely followed issues, and building a 'low-carbon Chengdu' is closely related to this." Chen Yi says that Chengdu should learn from the experience of Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, which implemented a low-cost bicycle-rental program along its major corridors in 2008.

Beijing also launched a small-scale program in 2008, as did Shanghai's Minhang District. In Shanghai the program, which is sponsored by the city's iconic Forever Bicycle Company, became so popular that late last year city officials decided to expand it.

Various cities in Europe, most notably Paris, as well as elsewhere across the globe, have launched successful bike-sharing programs in recent years as part of a push for intermodal transportation systems.

But there was no word of how the bicycles are safeguarded against theft, a rampant problem in China's urban areas.

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This article was posted by Jane and published January 30, 2010

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Comments

- invisible
  February 2, 2010
- For 200 Kuai I can buy a bike, so what's the point?
- kuma
  February 3, 2010
- traffic in chengdu is just as bad as beijing and shanghai. here's an idea: how about free public transport for anyone who shows a driver's license/ we gotta get some cars off the road1
- LF_Aristotle69
  February 11, 2010
- Having just arrived in Chengdu after 3 years in Hangzhou, I can say that, in Hangzhou at least, the free (for the first 1 hour) bike hire scheme was very good.
  It was established about halfway through my time there, and by the time I left there were small depots, each with about 12 - 30 bikes, and some jumbo depots, all over the city.
  It became quite convenient to use, and even at moderate traffic times, by pedaling fairly energetically you could get around the city virtually as fast as a bus. At peak hour you can easily get around faster than buses.
  Despite having a similar number/density of cars on the road, the difference I can already see in Chengdu is that far fewer roads, and none of the smaller streets, have safe separation of cars and bikes. That's a big concern when cycling here.
  But, hopefully, once this scheme gets going people will leave their cars at home and take a bike instead, thus relieving that problem somewhat.
  Chengdu's Metro/Subway development is also ahead of Hangzhou's so that will have an effect too. There do seem to be fewer taxis in Chengdu though...
  But, bring on the free bikes I say!
  Another thing I don't know much about in Chengdu is the rate of bike theft. I had 2 bikes stolen in Hangzhou. Both from inside my apartment complex! I always keep my good mountain bike indoors, but the others were cheaper get around bikes. This kind of scheme can substitute for those.
  When I left Hangzhou I got my 300rmb deposit and remaining credit back. Simple.
  It will need to have depots spreading out into the suburbs away from the subway stations though.
  LFA
- AuryFR
  February 11, 2010
- I lived in Paris for a while, and in 2007 they started the "Rental bikes".
  The difference with having your own bike is that you can just rent one for a one-way ride to the center let's say. You meet with friends, then later at night you move with them to a club. With your own bike, you would have to go back to the first place and do the return journey home.
  It worked well in Paris, because there was a LOT of bike stations (every 300m or so). Very convenient at night as well, to come back from parties after subway has closed (midnight).
  Paris's bikes were free for 30min, which was enough to cross half of the city. Wait another 5 min, and you could pick up another one for 30 min for free.
  Drawbacks were:
  - stations often empty in the center near touristic spots
  - stations full at night and no damn possibilities to return the bike (you'd have to ride around a few blocks to find an empty space in a station)
  - LOTS of volunteerly damaged bikes. But many young French are bastards.
  Bikes are ID identification, so no one would steel them. Also, bikes were pretty heavy and unconfortable, I wouldn't see a thief driving it all day... not fancy at all!
  Chengdu free bikes, let's have a try!
- invisible
  February 17, 2010
- mmh well I prefer if they stopped building these stupid "sky walks" all over the city where you have to push your bike up and down to cross the street. also the "bike lanes" are a joke as you have to share them with Buses and crazy taxi drivers, not to mention how bumby they are most of the time. Not really thought through I'd say, well I think nobody cares actually. But you think twice getting on a bike once you saw a deadly accident bus vs. biker.
- Marky
  August 25, 2011
- So its 300RMB deposit for a bike rental card.
  First hour is free, second hour is 2RMB, every hour after that is 3RMB.
  That's all the information I can find from the internet...
  Is there a map anywhere of all the bike rental places?