Some time ago, there was a popular meme on the Internet - how to quickly know whether a Zhengzhou person lives outside the Third Ring Road or inside the Third Ring Road?It depends on whether he has ever ridden a shared motorcycle. Because Zhengzhou prohibits shared motorcycles from entering the city, local shared motorcycles can only be deployed along the third ring road outside the main urban area.
Source: Calle**. Photo by Ning Ying.
Shared motorcycles, similar to shared bicycles, refer to motorcycles that are placed by enterprises and unlocked by scanning the code to be recycled. There is only one word difference between shared motorcycles and shared bicycles, but the circumstances and development environments of the two are very different. It is understood that many cities in China have introduced shared electric bicycles or shared electric mopeds, but there is no clear guidance on their operation and management. Due to the problems of urban governance that may be brought about by shared motorcycles, the relevant departments also feel a headache about whether shared motorcycles should be controlled or developed. Whether or not to develop shared motorcycles is very different in different cities.
After nearly 10 years of development, bicycle sharing has become an important part of China's urban slow traffic. According to the data, as of the end of September 2022, more than 400 cities at the county level and above have launched and operated shared bicycles, with about 14.9 million vehicles in effective operation and a total of 12 registered users9.5 billion households, with an average daily order volume of more than 44.7 million orders. However, on the other hand, although there are currently more than 200 shared electric bicycle operators in the country, many cities are still cautious about sharing motorcycles on the road. Why?
The controversy over shared motorcycles has been going on for years.
If bike-sharing solves the problem of short-distance commuting in the "last mile", then shared motorcycles focus on providing new options for citizens to travel short and medium-distance distances of 3 to 10 kilometers.
Since 2016, the development of domestic bicycle sharing has gradually reached a climax. But bike-sharing has certain limitations. Shared bicycles ride slowly, and if you are in a hurry, it will inevitably affect the efficiency of travel. In addition, in some cities with mainly mountainous and hilly terrain, due to the large undulation of the terrain, there are often steep slopes, and shared bicycles are not suitable.
Shared motorcycles came into being. At the end of 2016, more than 70,000 shared motorcycles of multiple brands were gathered on the streets of Shanghai. Among them, "enjoy riding" motorcycles were once quite popular. At that time, this kind of shared motorcycle, which was mainly promoted in Minhang District, was widely praised because it was easy to ride and helped improve commuting efficiency. However, deficiencies such as high failure rate, low fault resolution efficiency, and unreachable customer service** have seriously affected the user experience. It didn't take long for "Enjoy Ride" to retire.
In addition, compared with shared bicycles, shared motorcycles are larger in size and weight, and ride faster. According to the relevant regulations, you need to wear a helmet to ride an electric vehicle, but in real life, there are not a few people who ride without a helmet. In the case of fast speed, if you do not obey the traffic rules, there are violations such as wrong-way driving, running red lights, multiple people riding, and occupying the road at will, the safety threat to cyclists will increase exponentially, and it will also bring great challenges to the management of urban traffic order. In addition, the construction of charging, fire protection and other supporting facilities at the access points of shared motorcycles in some places is lagging behind, and many are directly parked in the open air, so that the fire and battery safety hazards of shared motorcycles are also more prominent. Under the combined influence of many factors, many places clearly discourage the development of Internet rental electric bicycles and shared motorcycles, and some cities have taken measures to directly ban them after a short attempt.
In 2017, Shanghai halted the development of shared motorcycles. In May of that year, Shanghai issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Standardized Development of Shared Bicycles in Shanghai", proposing that it decided not to develop shared motorcycles for safety reasons. Three months later, the Ministry of Transport and 10 other departments jointly issued a document to regulate the development of shared bicycles, which clearly mentioned that the development of shared motorcycles was not encouraged. This has become the policy basis for some places to strictly control the development of shared motorcycles. Since then, the development of shared motorcycles in many cities has been hindered, and even a car is difficult to find.
The management of shared motorcycles is difficult, and whether to put it or ban it is not an easy question to answer.
The development of shared motorcycles in some places has fallen into a state of uncontrol, and some shared motorcycle companies have bred chaos such as excessive delivery and random parking in order to "stake land" and rapidly expand their business, which has a negative impact on the city's appearance and traffic order. In 2022, a city in the south investigated and dealt with more than 3,400 shared motorcycle traffic violations throughout the year.
Compared with "one release" and "one ban", there are still some places that continue to explore to better achieve fine management. Hefei, Anhui Province issued the "Notice on Carrying out the Special Improvement of Shared (Electric) Bicycles", proposing to carry out the centralized promotion of shared (electric) bicycles from July to September this year, and improve the travel conditions of citizens by strictly controlling the number of shares, standardizing the parking order, strengthening operation management, and implementing dynamic management. Zhangzhou, Fujian Province realizes the "entry management" of shared motorcycles and the unified supervision of the platform, and persuades and manages the parking order of shared motorcycles in the jurisdiction.
To put it or not to ban it is indeed not an easy question to answer. In some cities, the shared motorcycle operation system seems to be uncomplicated, but in fact, it is supported by perfect systems and measures such as transportation system planning, parking management, enterprise norms, vehicle use norms, capital security, and information security. Moreover, in order to achieve effective supervision of shared motorcycle violations, it is necessary for transportation, public security, urban management, market supervision, fire rescue and other departments to work together to ensure that all links in the whole chain of business enterprises such as delivery, cycling, parking, charging, warehousing and consumer use are in accordance with laws and regulations.
"Sharing" and "governance" urgently need to form a synergy.
Many local authorities said that the management of shared motorcycles is a new format, and if it is not managed well, it will become a new problem in urban governance. Nowadays, no matter how people "love and hate" shared motorcycles, its rapid popularity is an objective fact, and the management of shared motorcycles has become an unavoidable work in the local government.
* The reporter combed and found that shared motorcycles are currently more put in third- and fourth-tier cities, and cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou clearly do not encourage the development of motorcycles, and many second- and third-tier cities have also set strict entry thresholds for shared electric vehicles.
In 2019, the National Development and Reform Commission and other seven departments jointly issued the "Green Industry Guidance Catalogue (2019 Edition)" and its explanation, proposing to include Internet rental electric bicycles in the construction and operation of shared transportation facilities.
According to He Yu, an associate researcher at the Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences and an expert at the Yangtze River Innovative City Research Institute, large cities should be more cautious when it comes to shared motorcycles, fully assess demand and assess safety. In the process of the launch and development of shared motorcycles in the city, all parties should fully communicate and communicate frankly, and form a consensus as soon as possible to solve the worries of enterprises, the masses and urban governance.
Perspective News Comprehensive People**, Shangguan News, China Jiangsu Net Report).
Editors: Li Xu, Liao Mingjuan (Xi).
Proofreader: Li Xuying.
Review: Gong Zimo.