Hefei Expat - China
Living Here => Other Useful Information => Topic started by: rgeczi on April 06, 2014, 04:48:09 am
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Read article below for more details:
http://english.anhuinews.com/system/2014/04/01/006374673.shtml
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This is going to be a complete disaster
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They supposedly said it's being done in other parts of China with success, so, I don't know. We'll see how it goes here.
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This system was introduced to Brisbane a few years ago. It was a professional version of the "White bike" system in Amsterdam. My first experience with white bikes was when I was visiting Amsterdam, I saw a guy lean his bike which was painted white against a wall and walk away. I thought "trusting guy" it's likely to get "half inched" (pinched) and with in 2 miutes, someone else walked up and rode away with it. Later the same day I saw it happen again, and again. when I got back to the hostel, I noticed 3 white bikes outside and one was nicked while I was standing there. I told the receptionist about it. She explained that it was no problem as they were white bikes. I later found out that the system began years earlier when some locals got hold of old bikes and painted them all white which meant they were for public use.
Amsterdam eventually got rid of the concept because idiots kept tossing them into the canals.
The Brisbane city bikes are unique in shape and colour
Link here to see city cycles webpage (http://www.citycycle.com.au/How-does-it-work/The-Service/Introduction-to-the-service)
White bike and shared bike systems - Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_sharing_system)
HangZhou bike sharing - the largest in the world
(http://expat-english.com/images/pic-bin/Hangzhou_bike_station.jpg) (http://HangZhou is the largest bike sharing program in the world)
Great concept if the idiots can control temptation.
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I first saw this program at work in Geneva, Switzerland. In China, I've seen public bicycles available in Shenzhen, Fuzhou and Hangzhou. The idea seemed to work quite well down south, and I'm sure the local government was canny enough to see how it was going elsewhere before introducing it here. The only downside that I can see is that the local bicycle market will likely take a hit.
I'm quite sure it must have something to do with the recent problems with traffice and polution that are now plaguing the country. A few years back I remember reading that big cities like Beijing were banning bicycles. Now they're bringing them back... Oh, irony.