The Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport ordered bike-sharing companies to stop adding new bikes in the city on Thursday, and confirmed that electric bikes will not be included as part of the bike-sharing business, Xinhua reported.
Though shared-bikes play an important role in promoting “Green Travel” and easing traffic congestion, the commission decided to control the amount of bikes due to increasing parking disorder. Especially in some areas near metro stations or shopping circles, overdue shared-bikes tend to pile up and occupy lanes.
During the past year, 15 bike-sharing companies have invested in more than 2.35 million bikes in the city.
Previously, 11 cities including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have stopped any new input of shared bikes.
Ge Jia, an Internet analyst, thinks the move is not a crackdown on bike-sharing. Rather, it suggests the industry has upgraded to a period of refined management from extensive operations.
According to the Transport Ministry, the total number of shared bikes in the nation has reached 16 million as of July.