The Green Bikes

Last year, in my first months in Suzhou, I heard stories about "public bikes".  It was usually in the course of discussing my options for getting to/from work.  Folks would say that there are places downtown where you could borrow a bike from the city for free as long as you returned it to an official city location.  Then they would normally say to me that it was too bad that such bikes are not available in the Suzhou Industrial Park.

The public bikes have come to SIP now.  There are stations all over the place - normally beside each major apartment complex, shopping center, and subway stop.  The stations consist of a long rack with a bunch of green bicycles.  The bikes have a little flange on the front wheel that locks them into the rack.  Suzhou residents can get an electronic card that allows them to unlock the bike from the rack for use.  If the bike is returned to any other rack within 90 minutes, then there is no charge.  After 90 minutes, if bike is not returned, then a charge is calculated and billed against the card.

The photo above shows a typical public bike station.  This one is just outside of a subway exit.  On the rear fender of each bike is a head/shoulders image of Yao Ming, the former NBA player and the most famous man in China.   I'm not sure why.  His endorsements are worth millions, and I do not know if this is a public service or some other type of advertising on his part.  I'll get back to you when I find out.

The bikes, though not very flashy, seem to be very popular.  I see a lot of folks riding them around.  And most stations do not look like the station above.  Normally, during the days, you see only one or two or three bikes at most available.  Also, there is a communal gravity which sucks the bikes from remote locations to be dropped off at the more heavily visited locations.  In the mornings, the city workers have to round up the bikes and truck them from the have-too-much stations to the have-not-enough stations.  Even with the low costs of labor, I find it hard to believe that these bikes aren't costing the city far more than they take in as revenue.