Last year, bike sharing took off in China, with dozens of bike-share companies quickly flooding city streets with millions of brightly colored rental bicycles. However, the rapid growth vastly outpaced immediate demand and overwhelmed Chinese cities, where infrastructure and regulations were not prepared to handle a sudden flood of millions of shared bicycles. Riders would park bikes anywhere, or just abandon them, resulting in bicycles piling up and blocking already-crowded streets and pathways. As cities impounded derelict bikes by the thousands, they moved quickly to cap growth and regulate the industry. Vast piles of impounded, abandoned, and broken bicycles have become a familiar sight in many big cities. As some of the companies who jumped in too big and too early have begun to fold, their huge surplus of bicycles can be found collecting dust in vast vacant lots. Bike sharing remains very popular in China, and will likely continue to grow, just probably at a more sustainable rate. Meanwhile, we are left with these images of speculation gone wild—the piles of debris left behind after the bubble bursts.
The Bike-Share Oversupply in China: Huge Piles of Abandoned and Broken Bicycles
-
-
-
A parking lot is seen packed with tens of thousands of shared bikes belonging to the Chinese bike-sharing firm Bluegogo in Beijing's Chaoyang District on March 5, 2018. Bluegogo, once China's third-largest bike-rental service, ceased operations last November having run out of money, leaving tens of thousands of its bicycles in limbo. Bluegogo was recently acquired by Didi, another bike-share company, which says it plans to replace some of the older Bluegogo bikes with its own. #
VCG via Getty -
-
-
-
An aerial view of shared bicycles, collected by police after they blocked streets and sidewalks, abandoned in a field in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on June 28, 2017. #
AFP / Getty -
-
-
This picture taken on February 20, 2017, shows an employee of a parking firm putting bicycles from the bike-sharing companies Mobike and Ofo onto a truck in Shanghai. #
Johannes Eisele / AFP / Getty -
-
-
A worker from the bike-share company Ofo puts a damaged bike on a pile beside a makeshift repair depot for the company. Thousands of derelict bikes are being kept in the depot after coming off the road on March 29, 2017, in Beijing. #
Kevin Frayer / Getty -
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.