With bike share companies shirking responsibility and Nanjingers dumping their rides where they please, so it falls to local authorities to clean up the mess. In a new experimental initiative, volunteers join police to keep Nanjing’s pavements orderly.
It all began when the shared bike craze descended upon Nanjing in 2016. However, it was not long until their popularity gave way to notoriety. Soon the discarded bikes were littering not only the pavements, but also streets, parks, just about anywhere to which it was possible to ride a bike.
Today it is a different story. Alert readers will have noticed that the wider pavements alongside Nanjing’s thoroughfares are now marked out with bike parking zones. More to the point, in many places, bikes are parked with a precision that defies belief.
While this publication would love nothing more than to believe this phenomenon is down to the conscientious citizens of Nanjing, that’s sadly not the case.
The reality is there are fleets of trucks patrolling the streets picking up discarded bikes to deliver them to suitable zones where they are most needed. The trucks are also joined by an every-growing army of people who put those bikes where they should be, just so.
- The Man Chasing ¥10 Billion Worth of E-Bike Helmets
- Demised Bicycles Unearthed in Nanjing Mass Grave
- QR Code Scams Pester Nanjingers
Unfortunately, they are fighting a war with no end. And as in all wars, the generals are always looking for new strategies.
Therefore, on 1 June, the Shazhou Subdistrict of Jianye District in Nanjing launched a new bike clearing initiative. Therein, a 30-strong team comprising law enforcement officers and urban management volunteers is empowered by three police vehicles.
The experimental initiative, that runs for a week, orderly parked 5,000 bikes and took away 700 illegally parked bikes on the first day alone.
Moreover, just who is expected to pay for all this? Cleaning up carelessly parked bikes takes law enforcement away from other tasks, while even the volunteers need sustenance.
Liu Ping, who is in charge of Shazhou Subdistrict Parking, believes the shared bike companies need shoulder at least some of the responsibility.
- Watch “Tidal Lane” on Nanjing Road Say Goodbye to Traffic Jams
- Beauty Bike Dump Images Further Highlight Garbage Problem
- Fighting Congestion with Bureaucracy; Clampdown on Bike APPs
“Whoever puts them in, is responsible for them”, Liu said. “The relevant shared bicycle enterprises should be subject to administrative penalties.”
LiLiu also called on the public to park shared bicycles in an orderly fashion and travel in a civilised manner, reported the Yangtze Evening News.
The clean-up task force also removed from shared bikes more than 200 illegally placed advertisements, investigated those who posted and distributed the ads and reported the telephone numbers printed on the ads.
Liu added, “On the one hand, we have standardised free shared bike parking in appropriate locations and have contacted the shared bike distributors to set up reasonable delivery points and expand the delivery volume. On the other hand, we need equip the corresponding number of management personnel to fulfill social responsibilities”.
While the shared bike concept has without doubt revolutionised daily travel for millions of people in Nanjing, that the new initiative need depend on volunteers is a warning that the streets may not remain so organised for very long.
