Need a bicycle to ride a short distance or for a couple of hours? Just find one of a dozen brands and use your smartphone to sign in and unlock the bicycle. Ride it to your destination and drop it in any public place.
In fact, the city developed such a system a couple of years ago, but it was not very flexible and was not as popular, though their bicycles certainly were used (see below.)
This phenomenon arrived in Chinese cities during the last year. I began noticing them in Nanjing several months ago. There must be a dozen brands, but since they are all competing, maybe not all brands will survive. A friend helped me to set up the "ofo" brand on my smartphone. I think the logo 'ofo' look like a person riding a bicycle. Most of the brands operate in a similar manner: if you find a bicycle of the brand you have signed up for, and I suppose some people have signed up for more than one brand, to ensure they can always find one, you open the app on your smartphone and scan a QR code; if the app recognizes you as a customer, the bicycle unlocks itself (or you may have to punch a button or another code on the lock mechanism) and off you go. When you get to your destination, you just park the bicycle in any public place and sign out; the bicycle locks itself or maybe you have to do it as a part of the signing out. Your deposit is charged some small amount of money, maybe no more than a quarter, and off you go.
This phenomenon has mushroomed in a very short time. Looking down a busy street, you will find almost all bicycle riders are on such a bicycle. China used to be known for its bicycle riders, but in recent years, so many people have their own cars, or at least en electric bicycle or electric motor scooter, and while there are still a lot of people who own a bicycle, the numbers have surely dwindled. So why are these shared bicycles so popular?
I read an article about this a couple of months ago. It seems that many (in China, the word 'many' means really, really many) people have bought flats in the suburbs and take the subway into town, getting off at the stop nearest their work place. But, that might not be so very close, and many people were calling 'Didi,' the Chinese version of Uber (which drove Uber China essentially out of business) and taking a shared taxi for the remaining blocks to work. But, now, they just ride a bicycle; much cheaper.
Now, in fact, the city government had this idea a couple of years ago, but being government, they were not so trusting, I suppose, or maybe they just didn't have the mechanism to develop a smartphone app, I don't know, but they established the idea of shared bikes that were more expensive and less available. They set up stations at what are probably good locations, but not just anywhere. And, if you take a bicycle from one of their stations, you have to drop it at another station. You have to register with a city department and pay a fair-sized deposit; then, you get a card, like a debit card and you use this to get the stanchion to release a bicycle. Then, you ride to a place near your destination, but you must be sure there is a city bicycle station there so you can turn it in. You have to position the bicycle so that it lines up with the locking mechanism and use your card to lock the bicycle; the electronic sensor on the stanchion deletes the amount of the rental, also very cheap. Before the smartphone version of shared bicycles appeared, some friends got me one of those cards and I have used it, but not so often, because I am never sure there is a city station where I want to go. Below is a city shared bicycle station at the subway station nearest to my home, but I usually get one of the yellow bicycles because I don't have to find a city station when I arrive at my destination.
One more wrinkle has emerged recently: electric shared bicycles. I haven't seen very many of these on the road yet, but perhaps they will gain in popularity. I assume they would be more expensive, but they would also be faster and easier.
