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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?

#11

Post by kurthr »

beguiledfoil wrote: post #6
brad0 wrote: 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?

Its not about cheap bikes. The bikes break, are destroyed, left somewhere useless/dangerous, or are stolen/confiscated. The investment money that paid for them was leveraged (an investment/loan). The income from the surplus of nearly free bikes can't pay back the investors and retain their ridership. Meanwhile, people who live near a point of interest have to deal with a massive pile of dumped (possibly broken) bikes in front of where they work/live... and they pay a public price.

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

#12

Post by johnchristopher »

gremlinsinc wrote: post #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 muc…

We have a global climate crisis and we aren't banding together fast enough.

Star Trek earth started getting its shit together after world war three (and it took almost a century to clean things). Then a wazoo built a fast rocket and the rest is an historical documentary about a possible future.

As a specie we are on our own. Nobody is coming down from the sky to save us.

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

#13

Post by sethherr »

zdw wrote: post #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…

The amount of space taken up by car parking makes me generally unsympathetic to complaints about bike sharing "taking up too much public space" - though perhaps there is less car parking in china.

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

#14

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

sethherr wrote: post #13
zdw wrote: post #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…

The amount of space taken up by car parking makes me generally unsympathetic to complaints about bike sharing "taking up too much public space" - though perhaps there is less car parking in china.

Space taken by car-parking is typically in dedicated parking lots: out of the way and doesn't impede public rights-of-way - compare to having bicycles ridden on sidewalks and interfering with car traffic.

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

#15

Post by sethherr »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #14
sethherr wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of space taken up by car parking makes me generally unsympathetic to complaints about bike sharing "taking up too much public space" - though perhaps there is less car parking in china.

Space taken by car-parking is typically in dedicated parking lots: out of the way and doesn't impede public rights-of-way - compare to having bicycles ridden on sidewalks and interfering with car traffic.

In the US, the majority of streets have at least a lane of space taken up by parking. If half of that was offered to bikes there wouldn't be any bike parking issues.

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

#16

Post by maxscam »

brad0 wrote: 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 think theyre just too expensive right now. So in the us the case for an 8 dollar a day rental or more is slim

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

#17

Post by GuiA »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #14
sethherr wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of space taken up by car parking makes me generally unsympathetic to complaints about bike sharing "taking up too much public space" - though perhaps there is less car parking in china.

Space taken by car-parking is typically in dedicated parking lots: out of the way and doesn't impede public rights-of-way - compare to having bicycles ridden on sidewalks and interfering with car traffic.

In some cases it does not impede public right of way; but it has a much deeper, longer term, insidious cost.

https://youtu.be/Akm7ik-H_7U

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

#18

Post by sethherr »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #14
sethherr wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of space taken up by car parking makes me generally unsympathetic to complaints about bike sharing "taking up too much public space" - though perhaps there is less car parking in china.

Space taken by car-parking is typically in dedicated parking lots: out of the way and doesn't impede public rights-of-way - compare to having bicycles ridden on sidewalks and interfering with car traffic.

Also "interfering with car traffic" is silly. Bikes are traffic too and have just as much right to being in the road as cars.

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

#19

Post by maxscam »

brad0 wrote: 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 think theyre just too expensive right now. So in the us the case for an 8 dollar a day rental or more is not convincing in terms of affordability.

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

#20

Post by 11thEarlOfMar »

It seems to say more about the mentality of the investing community than anything else. I'd say good ideas are scarce and/or investors aren't really able to identify them, so they wind up doing the same thing everyone else is doing.

Would love to hear examples of recent investments in Chinese startups that have businesses based on something truly novel.

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