Over investment, lack of consumer responsibility. See the same thing with shared fleet vehicles, it's always the user before the current users fault.

Several start ups like this in Dallas, and has resulted in very similar issues. These bikes clutter/litter sidewalks and pathways, and are vandalized and left for dead. The city is saying they are going to crack down on the companies, but I have yet to see improvement. Too many bikes, not enough interest.

The cities need to limit how many companies they allow. Seems to work in smaller towns where the city allows only one such program and is also involved.

Seattle has SPIN, OFO, and LimeBike. They are everywhere. Yes people ride them. At any given time there are people riding those bikes. But maybe 5% of them are used at any one time. The rest are essentially debris, kicked over on the sidewalk.

Seeing as we actually run a small business in an essentially capitalist society, l can only assume that you're kidding, yes? Because we definitely don't hate either.

Really, it's nothing at all to do with being pro or anti free market, it just seems that the enormous waste represented by these bike dumps is totally unnecessary ...

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i have a feeling those on this board against bike share like this, are the one who drive their bike to some within bikable distance location to do a bike workout.....

In Madison all the bikes are docked and locked and they aren't free but they are maintained by Trek. I think this is the way to go although Madison may be a rare city. Madison had a program by Budget / Yellow Jersey back in the day as a "free bike program". Special red bikes (junkers) but people were always locking them defeating the purpose of the program.

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If that were true, something should have happened when it's quarter the size it is right now. Can't be so efficient when you have that many bikes stacked up, can it? And with so many companies going bust, that is by definition an inefficient market and one that can't sort itself out.

Nor are the externalities being factored in. What is the cost of recycling all those metal? Certain things can't be recycled (e.g. rubber to make tires and wheels).

My view on capitalism is that it's necessary, as it incentivizes and forces people to place value on things, because what comes freely usually isn't appreciated. But this type of capitalism is nothing but literal junk to be cleaned up by others... And in a rather ironic twist, the investors actually lost capital...

yet we have tons more of these type of graveyards, no one is making a fuss about it...

https://www.rt.com/...raveyard-diesel-die/

I'm not sure what you are getting at. The whole VW thing is deplorable on so many levels, but it doesn't detract from the fact that the bicycle graveyard is a total basketcase.

Plenty of people are making a fuss about that. Must it be here to make it real? Why is it so surprising that someone on a tri forum is making a fuss about bike graveyards and not car graveyards?

Here's a car forum making a fuss about that very same VW graveyard:

http://www.team-bhp.com/...hit-cars-parked.html

The VW graveyard is just one version, of the many car grave yards out there of different auto companies.

Yes. The Chinese seem to have a lot of loose capital. All those articles about cities being build where no one lives.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

http://www.bbc.com/...s-where-nobody-lives

"To construct these cities China used more concrete between 2011 and 2013 than the United States used in the entire 20th century"

We try to reduce our carbon footprint but China has its foot on the scale.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

I was in Dallas for work in mid-March and it was brutal. The bikes were everywhere, people left them wherever they felt like it. The wind would blow some over as well, so the end result was a lot of bikes in the middle of the sidewalk.

It was nice having a few companies to choose from since I was only there for a few days and the first ride was free so by downloading 3 apps I got 3 decent rides in. But you really need the docking stations to make it work.

what whole post? you mean your attempt at a drôle repartee, like this below? There's nothing of substance there, at least try to make a cogent argument instead of thinking if your retort could fit on a bumper sticker
how is what I am doing about it in anyways relevant to your assertion that this situation described could be sorted with market forces?


it isn't, and you know you are deflecting.

more to your point (and that point being "it" will sort itself out), appears that the junk piles are created in the first place because the cities themselves have to go after the bikes littered everyone. Something did sort out the bikes littered everywhere alright, but it wasn't a market force where a party was incentivized by monetary gain. Market forces per se seem woefully inefficient to deal with crisis in the instant case.

I think the thing to do would be to go buy a bunch of those impounded bikes at a serious discount, boat them over to the US, and start a new company. Just make sure you buy all the bikes of the same color and technology, then adapt it to a new app.

That would be capitalism.

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"Remember: a bicycle is an elegant and efficient tool designed for seeking out and defeating people who aren't as good as you."

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My understanding is this isn't free market capitalism. The Chinese government is subsidizing the factories that build those bikes as part of the centralized drive to keep the economy going. As a result the bikes are being sold for less than they cost and companies can flood the market with huge losses in bike because they Chinese government is footing the bill for the manufacturing costs. So not to side track the discussion but it is a perfect example of what happens when you introduce capitalism into a close market supply driven system.

On a related note MoBike has recently moved into Newcastle-upon-Tyne where I live which isn't a model city for hire bikes. The bikes are being scattered about but I do see a lot of people riding them and they haven't gone crazy with the total number of bikes. So I see it as a good thing but I think cities should introduce a tax on the hire companies the way they tax taxi companies. This would force companies to think about how many bikes they actually need on the streets.

I think the problem is that the cost of shipping alone pretty much exceeds the value of the bike. And the labor cost to get the bike in ride-able form certainly exceeds the value.

You can get them on eBay, apparently, for about $50. And it doesn't sound like it's worth it. It also doesn't sound like it has any real scrap/recycling value.

Since every $79.99 bicycle sold in big box stores is shipped from China, I do not think it is that much in bulk. Many of the bikes are in fine condition and bike share bikes are usually built to be durable. Your link shows one that should be avoided. (The Ofo bikes seem to be of a higher quality) Labor cost is also part of that business model. Just a thought.

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"Remember: a bicycle is an elegant and efficient tool designed for seeking out and defeating people who aren't as good as you."

--BikeSnobNYC