"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

Categories: Asia

Last year, a city bike rental program was launched in China on a grand scale: millions of brand-new bicycles from dozens of rental companies flooded the streets of Chinese megacities. But the explosive growth in supply far outstripped the existing demand — rental bicycles flooded cities whose infrastructure was not ready for such a flow of pedal transport.

The situation is as follows: the Chinese rent bicycles, and then, when the paid time expires (or the free first hour of rental), they throw them anywhere. Employees of public utilities collect abandoned two-wheeled vehicles and take them to special places, from where they should be picked up by rental companies. But most of them do not want to deal with the return of their property, as a result of which huge bicycle cemeteries have appeared all over the country, littered with thousands of iron corpses.

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China Source: The Atlantic

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

Chinese rental companies have produced huge quantities of bicycles with a huge surplus, which have now turned into dust-collecting piles like this bicycle cemetery on a vacant lot in Xiamen, Fujian Province. (TPG / Getty Images)

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

Chinese megacities were not ready for such a rapid seizure by bicycles. Cities drowned under piles of pedal transport: pictured is a bicycle dump in Shanghai on February 1, 2018. (Elizaveta Kirina / Shutterstock)

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

A worker untangles a rope among dumped bicycles in Xiamen, Fujian Province, December 13, 2017. (REUTERS / Stringer)

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

Thousands of improperly parked and temporarily seized bicycles at a sports ground in Hefei County, Anhui Province, August 17, 2017. (TPG / Getty Images)

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

Drone view of the "bicycle field" in the suburbs of Shanghai. (Yibo Wang / Shutterstock)

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

Perhaps you thought it was an aerial photograph of Dutch tulip fields. But this is also a Shanghai bicycle cemetery. (Yibo Wang / Shutterstock)

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

Bicycles of various bicycle rental services accumulated in huge numbers in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, on September 7, 2017. (REUTERS / Stringer)

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

A pile of bicycles near a repair shop in Beijing, April 13, 2017. This happens in almost every city where the authorities have not established the rules of the game with the distributors. (China Daily via REUTERS)

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

A worker repairs a rental bike at a Beijing service center, April 6, 2017. (Nicolas Asfouri / AFP / Getty)

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

Huge piles of seized, abandoned and broken two-wheeled vehicles have become a familiar sight in many major cities of China. (CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP / Getty Images)

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

Abandoned bicycles of various companies in the thicket in Shanghai, November 3, 2017. (REUTERS / Aly Song)

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

Bicycles of the Ofo rental company on the street in Beijing, November 23, 2017. On average, the price for an hour bike rental in China is about 1 yuan, that is, about 10 rubles or 16 cents. (TPG / Getty Images)

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

In this picture taken on February 20, 2017 in Shanghai, a parking service employee loads Mobike and Ofo bicycles into a truck. (Johannes Eisele / AFP / Getty)

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

Rental bicycles blocked the road in Beijing's Chaoyang district, July 14, 2017. (Zhangjin_net / Shutterstock)

"Pot, don't cook!": how rental bicycles flooded China

Frames for new Ofo bicycles at a factory in Handan, Hebei Province, April 13, 2017. (AFP / Getty)

Keywords: Bicycles | China | Cemetery | Rental | Landfill | Transport

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