【Sanxiang City Express | Hunan Today】Changsha Government to Implement Quota Management of Shared E-Bikes
2020-11-19
Reported by Sanxiang City Express·Hunan Today reporters Pan Xianxuan, Jiang Jiegui, Zhou Ke and Guo Can
The streets of Changsha are full of colorful shared e-bikes, which facilitatesshort and medium distance travel ofcitizens. Despite such convenience, it leads to a chaos, posing a challenge to city management (See details in “The War of Rainbow Leads to Chaos, Be Alert to Avoid Falling into the Same Old Trap Again” on Page A03 of the November 16 issue).
On November 17, journalists with Sanxiang City Express learned that relevant departments of Changsha municipal government are drafting measures for quota management of shared e-bikes, a new policy to regularize the development of shared e-bikes in the city. To ease pressure on city management, several shared e-bike companies take the lead in recovering shared e-bikes and reducing the supply of new bikes in the city.
(On November 17, shared e-bikes wereparked on a road near the Central South University of Forestry and Technology. Photo by Pan Xianxuan)
【Phenomenon】 There are “zombie bikes” at several metro stations
“On the morning of weekdays, pedestrians have to make a detour as the sidewalk is almost occupied by shared e-bikes parked in the parking area,” said Ms. Liu, who works for a company based in Keller International Office Building of Kaifu District, Changsha. Recently, a lot of shared e-bikes were parked in the designated parking area on the sidewalk in front of the building. Whenever she rides a bike to her office, she finds it impossible to park the bike in the designated area without obstructing pedestrians.
In visits to several business districts, metro stations, bus stations and office buildings in Changsha, reporters fromSanxiang City Express find that it is normal for people to park their shared e-bikes in blind tracks and motorways other than designated parking areas. In addition, a lot of shared e-bikes are parked in neat rows at Wanjiali Mall metro station and Machang metro station where there is a strong demand for e-bikes. However, a closer observation reveals that the saddles are dirty, which means that they remain unused for a long period of time. In contrast, shared e-bikes which are frequently used are parked out of order, because the designated parking area is full of “zombie bikes”.
【Suggestion】The suggestion ofquota managementput forward by a deputy to Changsha Municipal People’s Congress was accepted
In recent years, Chen Shu, deputy toChangsha Municipal People’s Congress and HUTB teacher, has been closelyfollowing issues related to shared e-bikes. In this year alone, he has conductedmultiple researcheson the development of shared e-bikes in Changsha.
Chen Shu finds that the city lacks explicit laws and regulations with regard to the management of shared e-bikes. There is no plan to determine the total amount of shared e-bikes based on the market capacity and supporting public resources. Nor does the city publish any documents to limit the supply of shared e-bikes or clarify the threshold of entry.
During this year’s two sessions at the municipal level, Chen Shu submitted theProposal for Regularizing the Management of SharedE-Bikes in Changsha, which are summarized as four points: introduce measures to regularize the management of shared e-bikes as soon as possible; support and encourage the establishment of an industry association of shared e-bike providers; control the total amount of shared e-bikes in the city; and strictly regulate deposit collection by shared e-bike companies.
When it comes to the control of total amount, he suggests that the city should control the total amount of shared e-bikes at set intervals according to the city’s population, urban construction, roads and relevant public resources, strictly implement the elimination and exit mechanism, and strictly regulate the supply of new bikes.
On June 10, Chen Shu received a written reply from Changsha Transportation Bureau. The reply states that the Bureauwill adopt his proposal of supporting and encouraging the establishment of an industry association. Under new provisions concerning the control of total amount, the government plans to implement quota management of sharedbikes (including e-bikes) in Changsha; e-bikes enterprises should supply bikes in strict compliance with the approved quota, and carry out coding or number plate management on bikes supplied. For operators who violate the regulations on supply quota, lack parking control, maintenance and management, are criticized for poor offline operation service or fail to take effective actions after receiving alert, the government considers adopting such measures as including perpetrators into a negative list, suspending their operation, depriving them of the qualification and ordering them to exit.
【Regulation】 A new policy on quota management is about to take effect
Reporters learn that relevant departments have introduced a number of initiatives to regularize the development of shared e-bikes. For example, departments of city administration at different levels and in different areas urge e-bike enterprises to manage the electronic fence in the parking areas, regularize the management of bikes parked in violation of regulations, promote regular management, and delineate no-parking areas. Over the past two years, the departments of city administration handled more than 80 illegal cases of e-bike enterprises not fulfilling their obligation for management in strict accordance with laws. It is normal for Changsha municipal traffic policy department to confiscate shared e-bikes parked in violation of regulations.
What is worth expecting is that the Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the Changsha Municipal People's Government on Regularizing the Development of SharedBikeswill officially take effect on December 1, 2020. The Guiding Opinionsadopts a supportive attitude towards the development of shared e-bikes, encourages their entry into residential communities with parking areas according to law, and identifies the responsibilities of manage departments and enterprises. For example, it stipulates that each shared e-bike supplied shall be used by 1 person only; the length of the effective contact surface between the saddle and the rider’s hip shall not exceed 250mm; the handle behind the saddle shall not be designed to encourage illegal carrying of personnel. E-bike enterprises are required to provide offline service personnel according to the supply ratio of over 5‰, implement grid management, and provide at least 1 hauler for 500 bikes.
Reporters ofSanxiang City Express note that the Guiding Opinionsexplicitly stipulates that the proposal for quota management as put forward by Chen Shu shall be implemented. It stipulates that the transportation, public security and city administration and law enforcement departments of Changsha shall hold regular joint meetings to determine the quota of bikes in light of the city’s actual demand and the business of operators. E-bike enterprises shall supply bikes in strict accordance with the approved quota. In particular, e-bikes to be supplied shall be registered, installed with a number plate, coded or subject to number plate management at Changsha municipal public security department. E-bike enterprises who want to replace old bikes with new ones shall following the principle of recovering old bikes before supplying new ones, replacing old name plates with new ones and registering name plates before supplying bikes.
On November 17, reporters ofSanxiang City Express learned that the transport, traffic police and city administration departments are working on the promulgation of specific measures to control the scale of shared e-bikes.
“How to determine the total amount of shared e-bikes in Changsha? How to allocate quota resources among many e-bike enterprises? How to reward and punish the supply amount of bikes based on the evaluation of enterprises?” According to Chen Shu, in order to ensure the robust, sustainable development of the shared e-bike industry, we need to address the challenge posed by shared e-bikes to city administration, allow citizens to share the benefits of using e-bikes, and consider the profitability of e-bike companies. This requires competent departments to study market demand, heed the opinions of e-bike enterprises, and formulate a science-based, feasible plan.
A person with connection to the industry predicts that the Guiding Opinionsis already in the stage of implementation, and specific proposals on quota management will be promulgated soon.
【Shared E-bike Enterprises】
Side A:Some enterprises increase the supply of bikes before the new policy on quota management takes effect
“Since the beginning of this year, in particular over the past two months, we have seen a significant increase of e-bikes in Changsha. Despite an increase of designated parking areas, it is very common that people park their e-bikes on sidewalks and roads other than designated areas,” said Chen Shu. Such complaint is made by many citizens through multiple channels.
Chen Shu explains that amid the rumor that a new policy will be introduced soon to limit the amount of e-bikes in Changsha, several enterprises who intend to increase their market share has increased the supply of bikes before the policy takes effect.
On November 17, after contacting many e-bike enterprises, Sanxiang City Express learned that several leading operators regularly report the supply of bikes to the competent departments of traffic police and city administration. There are over 500,000 shared e-bikes and about 100,000 e-bikes across the city.
Side B:Some enterprises take proactive action to reduce the supply of e-bikes
The regularized and healthy development of the shared e-bike industry in Changsha requires the supervision and guidance of competent departments, as well as the standardized operation and self-discipline of e-bike enterprises.
After contacting Hello Bike, reporters ofSanxiang City Expressed learned that the company has incorporated strengthening bike administration and fostering a civilized environment for travel into the index of performance evaluation, while incorporating responsiveness into the index of daily management evaluation. To ease the pressure on city management and improve the performance of bikes, the company launched a plan to recover the first batch of bikes in Changsha, starting from this year’s fourth quarter. By the end of November 15, 30,000 e-bikes and mopeds have been recovered across the city. “The operation model of irrationally increasing the number of bikes is unsustainable, which has a negative impact on both market and city governance.” Manager Zhang Xiang of Changsha Office of Hello Bike said, “The market will end up returning to rationality, and we hope to proactively accelerate this process by reducing the supply of bikes.”
Manager Yang Jian of Changsha Office of Xiaoliu SharedE-Bike calls on several e-bike companies to cut the supply of shared e-bikes as the number of shared e-bikes in Changsha exceeds the approved capacity by a large margin.
In addition to reducing the supply of bikes, many shared e-bike companies agree to use technology to regularize the parking of e-bikes. In the case of Meituan SharedE-Bike, any user who violates the regulations on parking will receive a SMS alert to deduct his credits, and relevant situation will be reported to city administration and traffic police departments. When a user’s credit score is lower than a certain threshold, he will pay more if he violates regulations on riding, or will be forbidden to use the e-bike. At the same time, the company has used technologies like IoT, big data and AI to successively set up non-parking areas with electronic fence in the city. If a user parks his bike in the non-parking area with electronic fence, he will receive an alert, which will guide him to park the bike in a designated area, so as to regularize parking. Since its launch, the practice has achieved remarkable results, with a significant reduction of bikes within the fence and bikes parked in violation of regulations. Take the Yuelu Mountain National University Science and Technology Town as an example, where the number of bikes parked in violation of regulations is reduced by 40%.
Link: https://m.voc.com.cn/wxhn/article/202011/202011180852109665.html
