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As Bike-Sharing Brings Out Bad Manners, China Asks, What’s Wrong with Us?

nytimes.com

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Re: As Bike-Sharing Brings Out Bad Manners, China Asks, What’s Wrong with Us?

#4
Having just travelled to Beijing, these bikes literally are everywhere, frequently stands of 20-50 or more from the many many companies that offer them outside a subway station, so I can see the pushback about cluttering up the place.

Most of the people I talked to are pretty positive on them - it's fairly easy to find one, and they're dirt cheap to ride (most are sub-$0.10/hr if my math is right).

I like to think of this as closer to Uber's driver-free endgame - manage a bunch of rentable objects that provide transportation, except in this case they're taking advantage of public parking areas and that's a public bad.

Re: As Bike-Sharing Brings Out Bad Manners, China Asks, What’s Wrong with Us?

#5
Aren't all of these bike sharing startups a symptom of a bigger cause?

Afaik there's a huge property bubble in China, particularly in Beijing. A lot of people have become billionaires quickly and they're looking to invest that money into something else. But the bike sharing startups are a bubble within themselves.

I wonder when it's all going to pop.

Re: As Bike-Sharing Brings Out Bad Manners, China Asks, What’s Wrong with Us?

#6
post #5

Aren't all of these bike sharing startups a symptom of a bigger cause? Afaik there's a huge property bubble in China, particularly in Beijing. A lot of people have become billionaires quickly and they're looking to invest that money into something else. But the bike sharing startups are a bubble within themselves. I wonder when it's all going to pop.

What's unsustainable about cheap bikes?

Re: As Bike-Sharing Brings Out Bad Manners, China Asks, What’s Wrong with Us?

#8
post #5

Aren't all of these bike sharing startups a symptom of a bigger cause? Afaik there's a huge property bubble in China, particularly in Beijing. A lot of people have become billionaires quickly and they're looking to invest that money into something else. But the bike sharing startups are a bubble within themselves. I wonder when it's all going to pop.

I doubt it's a bubble, considering the deeper population dynamics. Consider the increase in property values in, say, New York during the period of most intense urbanization in the 20c as an analogy.

Re: As Bike-Sharing Brings Out Bad Manners, China Asks, What’s Wrong with Us?

#9
post #5

Aren't all of these bike sharing startups a symptom of a bigger cause? Afaik there's a huge property bubble in China, particularly in Beijing. A lot of people have become billionaires quickly and they're looking to invest that money into something else. But the bike sharing startups are a bubble within themselves. I wonder when it's all going to pop.

What's unsustainable about cheap bikes?

The cost of maintenance is one. The other is getting back bikes that have been misplaced due to bad behaviour.

Re: As Bike-Sharing Brings Out Bad Manners, China Asks, What’s Wrong with Us?

#10
Join the club.... looks like every country is full of fucked up "what's in it for me" hipsters that only look out for number one... Wish we could just have aliens attack so we either get killed off or band together form a global gov't of earth that looks out for all citizens (like star trek) - that's resource based (like the venus project)... and people only take/consume what they absolutely need and give back as much as they can...

It's a nice pipe dream...probably not in my life time... I'll be happy if immortality is achieved...

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