Podcast #20: Bicycle Share Programs

In this episode of the podcast Charlie sits down with Natooke Bicycle Shop gurus Larry and Jacob (for the first time since their last podcast two years ago) to talk about Chengdu’s shared bikes programs. Over the last six months in particular Chengdu has seen shared bicycles come to fill the streets and sidewalks of the city as companies compete in the traffic space.

In our conversation, we talk about:

  • The 2014 inception of China’s shared bikes
  • Introduction to the technology behind bike sharing
  • Comparison of China versus overseas programs
  • The potential effects of bike sharing on Natooke
  • Bike sharing as an introducing to cycling for Chinese
  • Design & engineering of shared bicycles
  • Maintaining thousands of bikes in a large city
  • Investment & economic viability of bike sharing
  • Bike sharing as an inroad to the bicycle lifestyle

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Links & Info

Mobike

Mobike

4 thoughts on “Podcast #20: Bicycle Share Programs”

  1. Good podcast from 3 well-spoken guys. Just this morning outside Raffles i saw a huge truck pull up, stacked haphazardly with hundreds of those yellow bikes. A group of 6 or 7 guys was placing them out on the sidewalk. I imagine the cost of maintaining such a huge fleet is considerable. Anyway, I dont use any of them but I think its a great initiative and I hope it succeeds..

    Reply
    • Thanks Ray – we have seen the same thing. There are photos being shared online of hundreds of these bikes being dropped in random places. Also photos of dozens of these shared bikes discarded in a pile. It will be interesting to see how this experiment turns out, after recording this podcast we have already started thinking about coming back and recording another on this topic in a year or so to see how it has panned out.

      Reply
  2. Riding Mobike to company and home everyday is such a convenience.It took me at least half an hour by bus before,and now ten min is enough by mobike.Most mobike and ofo are maitained in good conditions at the effort of their workers.I hope it succeed and pepole treat them well.

    Reply

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