OPINION> Commentary
Bike rental service
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-10 07:37

Renting a bicycle free of charge?

Yes, it will be possible at all communities in Beijing in one year's time from now. Such a bike rental service has already been operated on a trial basis at a community in Chaoyang district.

The number of bicycles available for such a service will be 40,000 to 50,000, with one for every 20 residents in one community.

You want to ride a bicycle to a subway station or any public transit hub. All you need to do is just rent a bicycle with your identification card or driving license or passport. That you may return it at any rental service point makes it very convenient for residents to use the service.

It is really a great idea that benefits residents and helps fight environmental pollution.

China used to be well known as a kingdom of bicycles, which once were the most widely used transport means in both urban and rural areas. But with more and more people having their own cars as a result of higher living standards and the rapid growth of the auto industry, cycling went out of vogue. With no shelter from inclement weather and requiring physical efforts, it lost its popularity.

But air pollution from car exhaustion, traffic congestion and rising consumption of oil are the prices we pay for the comfort of driving cars.

However unwilling most residents are to give up the comfort of cars, it has become a consensus that reducing the frequency of driving a car has become an imperative for a more environment-friendly life.

Apart from the convenient public transport system, bicycle is obviously a good option for traveling short distances. And it may also supplement the buses or subways when one needs to walk 10 or 20 minutes from one's home to a bus stop or subway station.

Yet, rampant stealing of bicycles has been a nuisance in the past years. There is almost no family in Beijing or other Chinese cities that has never lost a bicycle. There have been repeated crackdowns on bicycle thefts in cities or even nationwide. But people are still afraid of leaving their bicycles, new ones in particular, on the street.

One won't have to worry about losing the rented bicycles as long as one parks it in the designated places. If the bike is lost there, the renter won't be responsible for it. Even if anything goes wrong with a bike, it will be repaired free of charge unless it is vandalized in one way or another.

Such a bike rental service sounds great. The company involved is supposed to recoup its investment and make profit from advertisements in rental service points.

It is really hard to tell whether such a service will last long. But one thing for sure is important for its survival - it is necessary to take into consideration every possible difficulty in managing the service and have solutions for snags put in place.

This will not only be a test of how well the service can be managed, but a test of how renters will take good care of the bicycles they use free. Its success will represent a leap forward for public service management and for the sense of citizenship.

(China Daily 11/10/2008 page4)