How The Development of Bikes Sharing Can Benefit Chinese Society

Nowadays, with the rapid development of technology, the emergence of the Internet virtual platform makes it possible for people to share items. The high degree of transparency on the Internet allows citizens to trust others more. Such a kind of trust has also laid a solid environmental foundation for the shared economy to take root. How would bikes sharing between strangers affect Chinese society is wroth to study. I believe that the development of bikes sharing can benefit Chinese society since it is convenient, cheap, and environmental friendly, and it opens up the way of sharing other objects with strangers in China. In addition, as the shared bikes are developing, some policies are needed to protect both shared bike companies, riders, and citizens, and to create a more efficient and orderly market.

First of all, traffic congestion gets more and more serious in Chinese cities, which leads to inconvenience in people’s lives. Cars are everywhere on the street, people will spend a lot of time stuck on the road. According to a writer, editor, and video producer focusing on China called Charlie Custer, “You may have heard about the China National Highway 10 traffic jam on the news a few years ago; it was 100 kilometers long and lasted ten days, involving thousands of cars”. Indeed, I think the traffic problem has became our main problem, especially in big cities like Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. The explosion of population makes the traffic congestion problem becomes more and more serious. More people are trying to purchase a car, and the roads are overcrowded. When we are going out, we spend a lot of time waiting on the road. That may be a waste of time, and it may affect a city’s development. We must solve this problem by developing new transportation as soon as possible in order to let society make progress.

Also, it is worth noting that the Shenzhen government has been investing in public bicycles before. Those traditional public bikes are too inconvenient, and it needs to be replaced by new transportation. Since traditional bikes have specific stands and complicated renting process, they are often criticized by people. Like what Cui, an expert in city transportation, said in his article: People need to borrow and return the traditional public bikes at a specific stand, which leads to the inconvenience. But the new shared bikes would be easier to use and save a lot of time. As a citizen in the big city Shenzhen, I found that the traditional public bicycle stations are really rare in the city, which means that if a citizen wants to rent a bicycle like this, it is difficult for him to find such a site. Also, many people do not understand the card processing procedures and do not want to go to the designated location to buy the card. The number of bicycles is also very limited, and some self-service machines of the piles cannot even be used since they are old. This kind of urban public bikes will not be chosen because of the inconvenience and its large limitations. It did not integrate with technology well, and it does not greatly increase the convenience of people's lives.

In such an era that has incredible price surge, traveling becomes more and more expensive. The expensive traveling brings troubles for people who need to travel, especially short distance. According to a writer called Custer, not all people can afford a car. After people who just finished working a whole day, they really need a ride to home but taking taxi are too expensive. Now prices are up in China. The gap between rich people and poor is enlarging. Young people who just got a job, and try to work hard do not have that much money for buying vehicles like cars, and they do not have the ability to call a taxi. Imagine you are a young man who just came to Shenzhen. After a busy day, you are dead tired after the hard work. After taking the bus to the station that is nearest to your home, you, with your heavy bag, really want to go back to your home and lay on the sofa. But the distance is not that far, taking a taxi may be too extravagant. But you have no choice but to walk to home. This is the problem that people called: “the last-mile problem”. People who are not rich enough are suffering from this problem.

In addition, more people owning a car means more factories open, which make environmental issue worse. The carbon dioxide and other gases are releasing to the environment, which cause the air pollution problem. According to the website “The Guardian,” “Air pollution is killing about 4,000 people in China a day, accounting for one in six premature deaths in the world’s most populous country, a new study finds”. We can see how serious the air pollution problem is. More and more cars are produced and purchased, which leads to more emission of carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide problem became the main factor of air pollution since it can damage the atmosphere and bring a greenhouse effect. If we keep letting these things happen, our environment will be damaged, and even crash. People cannot breath fresh air but dirty tail gas which is very unhealthy. We must make changes, not only for us but also for our descendants.

In order to solve these problems, one possible way is to develop shared bikes in Chinese cities since they can benefit our life in different aspects. The development of shared bikes can definitely promote the social progress since it benefits us in both life and environment. As the economist Nikita said, the bike sharing program in China brings the more flexible transportation, cheaper experience, and environmental protection. The sharing bikes, for examples, makes our life easier. In recent years, in large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Zhuhai, and Shenzhen, there have been many different brands of shared bicycles available to the public. They have good appearance and extremely modern design. The app of the corresponding bicycle brand can be downloaded on the mobile phone. People only need to scan the QR code on the bicycle to unlocked the electronic lock on the bike, and the app on your phone will automatically start billing. The standard for charging is $1 or 0.5$ per hour. GPS on the bike can help you find an empty bike on the street, and also locate your bike, record the travel time and distance. People can leave their car anywhere they want and lock the bike. The shared bike can be seen everywhere in the city, and that’s why it is pretty convenient. This makes the traditional meaning of renting a move from static to fluid. Unlike the traditional public bicycle, there are no actual sites for sharing bicycles. It provides bicycle sharing in campuses, subway stations, bus stops, residential areas, commercial areas, and public service areas. Its greatest success is to break the limitations of the concept of “pile parking”. Coupled with different company brands, the quantity is also sufficient, it is very easy to get one. Coupled with the fact that people have fixed routes and concentrated places (the needs of such places are also large), the distribution of bicycles is more regular and more flexible than the government's planning. Also, in the popular sharing bikes company “Mobike” bicycles across the country. The data shows that they have already reached an astonishing 100,000 vehicles in Shenzhen alone and have reduced their emissions by about 8,500 tons of carbon dioxide in one year. They not only improved people's lives but also greatly alleviate the aggravation of environmental problems. We can see that how great the shared bikes affect out life and how they contribute to the environmental issue.

Also, shared bikes opened the door of the sharing economy. After the development of bikes sharing, people start to share many other items. According to sharing economy expert Infranca, as shared bikes got popular, people first taste the sweetness of sharing economy. After that, share objects with strangers became a new trend. There are shared cars, shared books, shared rooms, and even shared umbrellas on the street. The sharing of items not only promotes resource utilization but also reduces the demand for goods because everybody is “sharing” a item together. Also, it protects our environment since the resource of the earth is limited. This is a breakthrough point in the future economic model. The sharing bikes is just a start. I believe that more invention would comes out base on the model of sharing economy. The future of sharing is bright.

The development of vehicle sharing can benefit Chinese society since it is convenient, cheap, and environmental friendly, but there are also some obstacles and hidden dangers for the development of shared bikes. First, many people are damaging the bikes, and some people even lock the bikes in their home and make the bikes become private properties. To deal with this problem, the shared bikes companies should propose policy like banning people taking bikes into housing estate, or damaging the bikes. People who want to use a bike must register with their ID, so that they can be found and punished when they violate the rules. Second, the government should set up a higher standard of the quality of shared bikes. They should be strict on things like the minimum distance between bikes pedal and the ground, which may cause safety problems. Third, one thing that hinder the development of shared bikes is that there are not enough bike lanes in the city, especially in first-tier cities. Government should propose policy to build more bikes lanes around the city so that the demand for shared bikes will increase and riders can use the bikes more safely.

As the shared bikes developed rapidly in China, they made a lot of profit, which leads to a large amount of companies coming into the markets and makes the society chaotic. According to a news reporter called Jin, so far, there are already 77 shared bikes companies. In this competitive market, the large amounts of shared bikes have made the roads chaotic. They stuck on the subway stations, schools, and parks, which brought inconvenience for people who walk on the roads. To deal with this problem, the government should set up new policy like setting higher standard for start up the shared bikes company. The policy may require companies to achieve a specific market value, or they will be weeded out the market. The policy can raise the difficulty of entering into the market, alleviate the over-crowded market, and preserve those successful companies.

In conclusion, developing shared bikes can benefit Chinese society since it is convenient, cheap, and environmental friendly. It also promotes more shared objects entering the market. Although there are problems and obstacles, it is possible to fix them under proper control by the government. I believe that bikes sharing under practical policies in China would benefit us more in the future!